He is the son of filmmaker and cinematographer Michel Brault,[3] with whom he worked on several films early in his career; the short documentary film L'Emprise won awards at the Yorkton Film Festival in 1988 for both Michel as best director and Sylvain as best cinematographer.[4] He directed and filmed music videos for Julie Masse and Joe Bocan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and married Masse in 1993;[5] Brault and Masse were divorced by 1995,[6] when Masse remarried to Corey Hart.