He does not breathe, he enjoys the moment. He does not travel, he dreams, he does not listen, he smells sound: he is the engineer, in other words, the sound genius. He has a surrounding ear, panoramic, stereophonic, hearing what we do not hear..

He also can "hear" several foreign languages: he was twenty, Erik lived in Venice Beach, spending his time surfing, playing his guitar and engaging in many other improbable activities which brought him around the world, without any precise goal, from one beach to another.

Photo by Jean-Gabriel Leynaud

Malicious predatory smile: he is about to attack his prey. The eagle's eye. Arriving on a location for a filming, I just had to read Jean-Gabriel's face to know where we were: when he is sold on it, I will get used to it, I will see this same crafty smile, a total and furtive immobility between contemplation and the lookout preceding the jump. The point of view is quickly decided, the focus too. Point of view, focus, placement, frame, close up, etc., this is what will also prepare the path for the editing.

Whether he walks to the North Pole with a camera on his shoulder, climbs up the toughest rock faces in the world, this photographic genius who is fluent in five languages, this friend of Salgado, also filmed soldiers in Afghanistan: he saw the war trauma come...

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He had read. Everything! Gobbled everything in just a few days with a tremendous capacity, in superhuman speed, hundreds of pages of transcripts made out of the more than eighty hours of filming. Hard worker, total engagement, in just a few days, he inhabits the film: fascinating immersion.

His artistic sensibility is precious: I wanted to make a very musical film. Everything that linked us holds on to this necessity of the film, like there is a necessity in Matthieu's life: he is a musician.

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