Sign Up For Film School With Professor Werner Herzog

Plenty of aspiring filmmakers hope to learn from their idols; few ever get the chance. But come January 2010, Werner Herzog fans will not only be able to study the ins and outs of film composition with the man behind such films as Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and the upcoming two Toronto Film Festival entries Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?, they'll get to pick up even more useful skills -- like lock-picking, avoiding gunfire, and "the neutralization of bureaucracy." And all for the low, low price of $1,450!*

Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School will last just one weekend in January, but what a weekend (and chunk of change) well spent: the idea seems to be not only to prepare the would-be auteur for on-the-fly filmmaking in difficult and perhaps dangerous parts of the world, but for Herzog to school his students in literature, film, and philosophy.

"The Rogue Film School is about a way of life," states Herzog on the Rogue Film School website. "It is about a climate, the excitement that makes film possible. It will be about poetry, films, music, images, literature."




He's even got a suggested reading list, so come prepared: "If possible, read Virgil's 'Georgics,' read Hemingway's 'The short happy life of Francis Macomber,' 'The Poetic Edda,' translated by Lee M. Hollander (in particular 'The Prophecy of the Seeress'), Bernal Diaz del Castillo's 'True History of the Conquest of New Spain.'"

We're more interested in the practical strategies to be gleaned from the man who pulled Joaquin Phoenix from a Hollywood car crash and once prioritized finishing an interview over tending to a gunshot wound. (Ok, it was a pellet gun, but still. Who does that?) The real-world skills on the lesson plan include the "art of lock picking," "traveling on foot," "the exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully," "the athletic side of filmmaking," "the creation of your own shooting permits," "the neutralization of bureaucracy," "guerilla tactics," and "self reliance."

If you've got the cash and the desire, check out more info on Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School (which is accepting applications in the form of short films until November 13). And if you're not one of the 50 students selected for the inaugural Rogue Film School seminar, fear not; Herzog promises to bring his teachings to other cities, but in the meantime, "Follow your vision. Form secretive Rogue Cells everywhere."

Chime in below and tell us what you'd want to learn from Professor Herzog!

*Fee does not include hotel, parking, food, or professional legal advice.