It was on the morning of February 12, 2010 that ear X-tacy owner John Timmons first confirmed his musical institution was in danger of closing its doors. Scott Shuffitt was not there. And yet just days later came Shuffitt’s bursting-from-slumber affirmation that would come to dominate the next three years of the Louisville-based filmmaker’s life.
Now readying for a DVD release on Saturday, April 20 – Record Store Day – “Brick and Mortar and Love” returns home after a series of 2012 premieres in Atlanta, Lexington, Bloomington, and elsewhere, amid film festival selections in Nashville and Cincinnati.
The documentarian shared a retrospective on “Brick and Mortar and Love,” as well as discussed his future plans and his thoughts on the Kentucky film scene at large.
It had to be a huge decision to pull the trigger on what was sure to be an all-encompassing endeavor, especially one so personal to this city.
I had worked on one other feature-length documentary that never got finished. And we worked on that for about nine months. So, although that project didn’t get finished, it was a great learning experience for me. And that’s kind of where I knew that, OK, this is a long-term thing. It’s going to take years to get through production. It’s going to take years to edit. And it’s going to be years before there is a project that may or may not recoup any money.
And what it really came down to, when I first started the project, was to give people a reminder of how important I thought ear X-tacy was to the Louisville community. And I wanted to make sure that people know all of the things they do.
Obviously, everyone knew that ear X-tacy was a rad record store. But I wanted to make sure that people knew that when you go into ear X-tacy, that just the act of walking in there was always inspiring to me as an artist. And I’m not a musician, but I wanted to make sure that people knew that there were people that were going in there that were getting inspiration just from being in the shop.
John Timmons was a central figure in your production by necessity. What did you learn about him?
I guess what I learned about John was that he was someone that truly loved music. And, like a lot of record store owners and people that work in record stores, they kind of live to educate people on music and introduce other people to music, which is, I mean, it’s pretty amazing I think, just that gift.
Like he said in the film, he didn’t necessarily go to business school. A lot of what he learned was kind of the school of hard knocks learning with the business.
As a documentarian, how did you approach the issue of emotional involvement with the subject matter?
That’s always such a tough thing. As a documentary filmmaker, I said to myself that I had to stay true to the story because that’s what I was doing. There are some parts of that film that – they’re not necessarily controversial, but when through the course of John’s actions he received some criticism on the way that he did some things – it was important for me to show what those people were saying and why those people were upset, just kind of give an idea of what their angle was and what they were feeling.
It was hard for me to do that, however. I mean, there is no doubt that I consider John Timmons one of my friends now. And I really had to think a lot about: Do I do what I’m supposed to do, which is to stay true to the story and put these elements in, or do I not put them in? The parts went in, but I had to think about it a lot. It’s still something that I think about. And I hope that it is something that John understands – and I feel like he does – that those elements, they had to be in there.
Do you think there’s still a need and a place for institutions like ear X-tacy in our communities?
I think so. Record stores definitely aren’t what they used to be. There’s no two ways about it. And I don’t know if somebody came up to me and said, “Hey, Scott, do you think that I should open a record shop?” – I don’t know that I could say that that is the best business decision.
But what ear X-tacy did and what ear X-tacy was to this community – it was important to this community. It was as important to this community to me as the landscape of our community. Parks are important to our community. Libraries are important to our community. Museums and public art are important to our community. Great restaurants. These are things that, when I go to another city, these are the things that I want to see in that city. And that’s how I’m going to judge that city.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming DVD release of the film?
I am so excited. We did some screenings [last year]. And it’s very challenging to get people to come to a documentary screening. I thought of it as being an up-and-coming band. And with an up-and-coming band you can kind of play around your city and you kind of develop a following. And then, hopefully, through that following, you can then propel yourself to other cities.
The unfortunate thing with having a documentary is you’re not going to get people to come back to watch your documentary again. All the people that saw it the first time, they may enjoy it and they may give you some word-of-mouth. It’s just challenging unless you have a large marketing network.
So I am very excited about the opportunity for people to see it. And I’m very much looking forward to hopefully getting some more feedback.
Any new projects on the horizon?
I’m kind of keeping my eye out for my next documentary project. And that’s kind of an ongoing thing. From time to time something will bubble up to the surface, just like the ear X-tacy story, and I’ll kind of run it through those same criteria: Is this something I feel like I can work on for the next three to five years?
So you would like to tackle another feature-length documentary then?
Most definitely. I’ve worked on some narrative scripts. And I continue to do that, but it’s very challenging. It seems to me that working on documentary films, at least for me, I kind of have a little bit more control over my destiny. And it’s not a situation where you write a script and then you can get financing.
With “Brick and Mortar and Love,” I didn’t have the camera that I wanted when I started shooting. I didn’t have the computer that I needed to edit it. But I got those as the production went along. And I like that about documentary films, that you can kind of pay in installments, if you will.
It seems like the Kentucky film scene is at least as bustling now as it’s ever been. What’s your perspective as an independent filmmaker?
Without a doubt, I’d love to see a couple more major budget projects come to Kentucky. I was having a conversation with somebody the other day about this. And when your major budget films come through, it’s such an opportunity for us independent filmmakers, people that work on film projects, to kind of get an idea of what the big guys are doing – to use their equipment, to further our skills. And obviously it doesn’t hurt that most of those gigs pay. And a lot of times we’re having to do things for the love of it. So all of that is really important to filmmaking in this region.
“Brick and Mortar and Love” will be available locally at Better Days Records via Music Video Distributors starting April 20. Shuffitt’s featurette for “Pleased to Meet Me” is intended to be included with the eventual DVD release of “Pleased to Meet Me,” which is currently in preparations for a film festival run and early summer Louisville premiere.
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