Welcome to my super bare-bones web page about myself! My name is Joe Salvato and I was born on October 12 in Arlington Heights, Illinois just outside of Chicago. I lived there me entire life before moving out to Los Angeles two years ago. I had a pretty normal childhood as a kid, but I knew that when my parents took me to Monsters Inc.
when I was six, movies would be a primary interest in my life. Aside from the usual kid stuff like playing tag, hide-and-seek, and red rover on the playground, I spent time watching a lot of adventure movies with my dad like Raiders of the Lost Ark
and The Goonies
(even had an Indiana Jones themed birthday party which will probably never be topped).
When I got to high school, I discovered the school newspaper, and as a freshman I would constantly read the movie reviews whether it was in their monthly print issue or their online website. So after coming to the conclusion that writing for the paper could focus my interest in the entertainment world even further, I signed right up. Throughout high school I rose to be the Editor-in-Chief and grew to love journalism beyond simply writing film reviews. By my senior year I tried to write a story for every section in our paper, and localizing national stories became a weekly goal of our publication. Additionally, my senior year I worked for the Chicago Daily Herald publication, where I was able to get multiple stories, entertainment and news, published throughout the year.
Now, at USC, I have continued to develop my interests in both journalism and film through my double majors. Working in Annenberg and the School of Cinematic Arts has been an incredible learning experience, and has so far only broadened my views of the university and the people I meet here. On the Annenberg side, I have been doing what I love most, writing film reviews for current releases. On the Cinematic Arts side, I have been interning with production companies like EuropaCorp and Crackle to further pursue my current career goal of working as an Acquisitions manager for a major studio.
Besides school and career goals though I have got lot of hobbies, most of which involve trying to get out of Los Angeles on the weekends as much as possible. The city is great, but if I can get to Big Bear and spend some days on the lake with my friends I would take that over anything. Not to mention skiing when the season calls for it. My parents got me skiing back in elementary school and I have loved it ever since.
At the end of the day, while my career goal might not be that of a journalist anymore, I am still fascinated with the evolution of the industry, and most importantly the power of storytelling. Journalism is one of the most essential functions of modern civilization and that is why I always like to learn so much about it. I am looking forward to this class, and how it teaches new ways to tell stories in an age where print only gets closer to dying completely. Hopefully by the end of the semester, I can have a better understanding of what journalists need to do to get their stories read, and how they need to go about distributing them.