Perseverance has kept me going over the years. Things rarely happen overnight. Filmmakers should be prepared for many years of hard work. The sheer toil can be healthy and exhilarating.
Werner HerzogRead
I'm not an interviewer. I have conversations.
Interpretation
True conversation goes beyond formal interviews, emphasizing connection and understanding.
Werner Herzog's quote highlights the distinction between traditional interviewing and engaging in meaningful conversations. It suggests that genuine dialogue fosters a deeper connection and facilitates a better understanding between individuals, as it prioritizes authenticity and the exchange of ideas over mere question-and-answer formats.
In practice
In a workshop on communication skills, this quote can illustrate the importance of connecting with others authentically.
Perseverance has kept me going over the years. Things rarely happen overnight. Filmmakers should be prepared for many years of hard work. The sheer toil can be healthy and exhilarating.
Hold firm to your vision but don't be a tyrant on set.
For a moment the feeling crept over me that my work, my vision, is going to destroy me, and for a fleeting moment I let myself take a long, hard look at myself, something I would not otherwise do--out of instinct, on principle, out of self-preservation--look at myself with objective curiosity to see whether my vision has not destroyed me already. I found it comforting to note that I was still breathing.
Very often, footage that you have shot develops its own dynamic, it's own life, that is totally unexpected, and moves away from you're original intentions. And you have to acknowledge, yes, there is a child growing and developing and moving in a direction that isn't expected-accept it as it is and let it develop its own life.
Without dreams we would be cows in a field, and I don't want to live like that. I live my life or I end my life with this project.
Coincidences always happen if you keep your mind open, while storyboards remain the instruments of cowards who do not trust in their own imagination and who are slaves of a matrix If you get used to planning your shots based solely on aesthetics, you are never that far from kitsch.
Merely stating a truth isn't enough. The truth has to be made vivid, interesting, dramatic. You have to use showmanship.
So much of what passes for conversation today is degraded. It's either about one-upmanship, or dreary trivia. Even the cut and thrust of wit and bons mots is a form of bedazzlement designed to stop conversations dead rather than broaden them.
People don't listen to understand. They listen to reply. The collective monologue is everyone talking and no one listening.
What's the point of being alive," she said, "if you're not going to communicate?
Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt.
It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
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