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Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Cronin (2014)

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Re: Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Cronin (2014)

#21
post #18

Buried in this interview is a great insight about the limits of AI: "Just viewing all of Treadwell’s material would have taken me at least ten days, but I had four assistants who went through everything, melting it down to about twelve hours of footage. I gave them precise instructions about what I was looking for, but sometimes scrutinised what they had put aside and found extraordinary moments they had dismissed. T…

Art is communication. If you can convey the message to an intern on a post-it, what's the point! My favorite art is the kind that describes to people how they already feel.

Absolutely. One of the major purposes of art is as a way to communicate things that can not be put into words. And if that's the case, how could one ever hope to create it with a prompt?

Re: Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Cronin (2014)

#22
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise, someone said Jacksonville FL is the most boring city, yet you have a vibrant artist communtiy there.

They have galleries and they are there for tax fraud.

What about the street art people?

Re: Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Cronin (2014)

#23
post #10

What I always loved about Werner Herzog documentaries that how he just lets people talk. He just listens. Most people will talk and tell their story if you let them do it and that's exectaly what he does without any fanfares. But he never lets them off the hook either. It's an art on its own to do this, walking on a thin line. I can highly recommend Into the Abyss, one of his best work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

"he just listens" is probably a false assumption. He famously promotes his documentary method of finding the "ecstatic truth", which "does not necessarily have to agree with facts". This style leads him him to script and stage scenes, sometimes with multiple takes. I don't think this counts as just listening.

Additionally, he has called cinema verite "a mistake".

Re: Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Cronin (2014)

#25
post #23
post #10

What I always loved about Werner Herzog documentaries that how he just lets people talk. He just listens. Most people will talk and tell their story if you let them do it and that's exectaly what he does without any fanfares. But he never lets them off the hook either. It's an art on its own to do this, walking on a thin line. I can highly recommend Into the Abyss, one of his best work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

"he just listens" is probably a false assumption. He famously promotes his documentary method of finding the "ecstatic truth", which "does not necessarily have to agree with facts". This style leads him him to script and stage scenes, sometimes with multiple takes. I don't think this counts as just listening. Additionally, he has called cinema verite "a mistake".

Yes. Frederick Wiseman and Harvard Sensory Ethnographic Lab are better examples of the approach

Re: Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Cronin (2014)

#26
post #10

What I always loved about Werner Herzog documentaries that how he just lets people talk. He just listens. Most people will talk and tell their story if you let them do it and that's exectaly what he does without any fanfares. But he never lets them off the hook either. It's an art on its own to do this, walking on a thin line. I can highly recommend Into the Abyss, one of his best work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

“ he just lets people talk. He just listens. Most people will talk and tell their story if you let them do it”

That used to be the appeal of Joe Rogan and to some degree still is for some other podcasts. Just let tell people talk and let the audience make up their minds. Instead of pushing the guest into a predetermined corner like a lot of media likes to do.

Re: Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Cronin (2014)

#27
post #23
post #10

What I always loved about Werner Herzog documentaries that how he just lets people talk. He just listens. Most people will talk and tell their story if you let them do it and that's exectaly what he does without any fanfares. But he never lets them off the hook either. It's an art on its own to do this, walking on a thin line. I can highly recommend Into the Abyss, one of his best work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

"he just listens" is probably a false assumption. He famously promotes his documentary method of finding the "ecstatic truth", which "does not necessarily have to agree with facts". This style leads him him to script and stage scenes, sometimes with multiple takes. I don't think this counts as just listening. Additionally, he has called cinema verite "a mistake".

Andrew Callahan of Channel 5 has mentioned several times that he adopted the technique of "active listening" which largely amounts to letting people talk until they stop. And then when you are tempted to prompt them, just wait and let them continue. And when they do that is when they start to really get real.

Re: Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Cronin (2014)

#28

He's also written an autobiography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Man_for_Himself_and_God_... The part about begging for money to continue making Fitzcarraldo fascinated me, I wonder what artistic vision was actually driving him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeUKZtYug3w

There is also Fitzcarraldo: The Original Story which is his diary from the years making the movie. Quite interesting and like a fever dream, at times.

Re: Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Cronin (2014)

#30
post #6

I love his views on Los Angeles, I paraphase: > [...] What I like about Los Angeles is that it allows everyone to live his or her own lifestyle. Drive around the hills and you find a Moorish castle next to a Swiss chalet sitting beside a house shaped like a UFO. There is a lot of creative energy in Los Angeles not channelled into the film business. Florence and Venice have great surface beauty, but as cities they fee…

This interview is full of gems. Just below that: >Of course, California is also where some of humanity’s most astonishing stupidities started, like the hippie movement, New Age babble, stretch limos, pyramid energy, plastic surgery, yoga classes for children, vitamins and marijuana smoking. Whenever someone wants to pass on “good vibes” to me, I look for the nearest empty elevator shaft.

Where are these quotes pulled from? His autobiography? Something else?
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