A Quote by Joel Salatin

I need people - theatrics and schmoozing and storytelling are part of my talent. — © Joel Salatin
I need people - theatrics and schmoozing and storytelling are part of my talent.
I am somebody who is fascinated with the theatrics of life, and how to represent those theatrics in a movie. For me, it's an honest way to express the fabrication that is in creating a film, the line that is drawn.
I place a higher value on work ethic than talent, because, in certain areas, you just need to cast, you need to cast actors with talent, you need to hire directors with talent, but I've worked with very talented people who have a poor work ethic, and the outcome is less desirable than people who are less talented and have an incredible work ethic.
Because there is less female storytelling, especially motherhood storytelling, there has been immense pressure on my storytelling to represent more people, and to do so in a sort of unrealistic way.
You can hide so much behind theatrics, and I don't need to do that any more.
Many people don't have the ability to be rich, because they're too lazy or they don't have the desire or the stick-to-itiveness. It's a talent. Some people have a talent for piano. Some people have a talent for raising a family. Some people have a talent for golf. I just happen to have a talent for making money.
People create the illusion of acting natural, which is what I think most documentarians do in part because of the direct cinema orthodoxies that came into play really in the '60s. That moment of performance is a tremendous opportunity to make visible something hitherto invisible, which is how people want to be seen. How do they see themselves? What are the scripts, fantasies, genres by which they imagine themselves? How is storytelling part of what we are as human beings? We wouldn't kill each other en masse if it weren't for storytelling. We wouldn't be able to live with ourselves.
Storytelling is storytelling. Good stories need compelling characters and interesting conflicts. That's the bottom line no matter what medium you're writing for.
I can ask someone to let me into all aspects of their life for several years, but people have got to have that gift: that courage and that talent for opening their lives to the camera. Being candid is a gift, and that's what the audience responds to. Part of it is me asking, and part of it is just their inherent talent, which is what you are looking for when you make documentaries - people that are really going to let you in on what they are going through.
I like storytelling, and for storytelling you need a drama. And for there to be drama, you need twists, and by twists I mean the ability to constantly change the trajectory of the story.
One of my favorite things about Tom Waits is not only his songs, but when he does do live shows, it's the theatrics involved. It's like Kabuki theater, really old-fashioned theatrics. Like, standing on top of a piece of plywood lying on some cinderblocks and clapping his hands, banging on a bucket.
I worry that there are people who are put in positions of authority because they're good talkers, but they don't have good ideas. It's so easy to confuse schmoozing ability with talent. Someone seems like a good presenter, easy to get along with, and those traits are rewarded. Well, why is that? They're valuable traits, but we put too much of a premium on presenting and not enough on substance and critical thinking.
The people know that they need in their representative much more than talent, namely, the power to make his talent trusted.
The first two major label records I did what I wanted to do. It wasn't a problem until after I finished my part. They didn't understand I was an artist, a capable artist. When you're the money dealing with the talent, you need to let that talent develop, your job is to figure out how to sell it.
The talent, including the talent for history - and I do think there are people who just have a talent for it, the way you have a talent for public speaking or music or whatever - it shouldn't be allowed to lie dormant. It should be brought alive.
We need to stay on the leading edge of technology, that technology in our products, in our internal process and manufacturing. But most importantly, we need the talent. It's multidisciplinary talent. It's talent that knows how to operate globally, that has technology savvy and a business savvy.
We need storytelling from all angles. We need men, women, and trans people participating in all aspects of filmmaking; this is the only way we can depolarise the age-old standard of singular perspective.
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