Filmmaker IQ - and The Psychology of Scary Movies

by Kevin Casey on December 23, 2013

How will we educate the next generation of filmmakers?

Long gone is the expectation that any film career worth a prayer must pass through the hallowed halls of a top film school like USC or NYU -- good news for those of us unable (or downright unwilling) to cough up $45,000-$49,000 per year in tuition. For the price tag of four years at these fine institutions, today's aspiring filmmaker could attend a Top 25 film program at Colorado Film School and still have $100,000 left over for his or her first project.

Of course, if you're like many aspiring artists, having money for film school isn't an issue -- it's a nonstarter.

Enter John Hess, the brains behind Filmmaker IQ. If you haven't yet checked out what he's building over there, do yourself a favor and take the 60 seconds to sign up -- it's free, and won't inundate your inbox with a daily payload of spam.

Part workshop, part social network, Filmmaker IQ has perfected the idea that the best way to teach film is through film. Cinema, after all, is about sharing -- sharing works, ideas, techniques -- sharing that humble experience of being alone in the dark. Surely, if there is one belief we should all rally around, it's that everyone deserves the chance to discover the joy of this great art form. If you can't share an idea without dolling it up in big words, then it's words that you enjoy -- not ideas. Filmmaker IQ manages to unburden big ideas with simplicity, all while instilling the kind of feverish curiosity that sends you blazing through Wikipedia hotlinks until 1 A.M. on a work night. Hess' videos are excellently researched and produced.

I'm convinced that deep inside every screenwriter lurks a horror buff screaming to get out. (Why else would we torture ourselves as we do?) In this spirit, the lesson on The Psychology of Scary Movies would be the perfect place to start.

RELATED: @FilmmakerIQ is definitely one of the Top Accounts All Screenwriters Should Follow on Twitter