I had doubts about how this would be conveyed through a series of videos and a PDF course book, but when I did sit down to watch Herzog's MasterClass, suddenly the interface didn't matter — it's a delight to be taught by someone who, despite the surface morbidity, is one of the least cynical filmmakers currently working. Of course, interviewing him was another matter, and I soon realized that when you're talking to Werner Herzog, you have to throw your questions out the window. Maybe that's how we ended up discussing the inherent violence of Pokémon Go .

Herzog has become almost a meme in recent years, his signature dour voiceovers sent up by Samantha Bee and in maudlin teen movies . But the reason he has a loyal following, and why thousands of eager filmmakers from all walks of life have signed up to access his MasterClass lectures, and applied to his more rigorous, in-person Rogue Film School, is his transcendent empathy as a filmmaker. This also makes him a great teacher. Come for the hyperbolic throwaway lines ("I do not use a storyboard, I think it is an instrument of the cowards"), stay for the uncompromising creative pep talk.

These are questions nobody asks, of course, because this is Werner Herzog. As a documentarian who has traveled to the furthest reaches of the indifferent wilderness to ponder humanity's place in it, there are very few filmmakers whose perspective on our digital lives I'd be more interested in. Lo and Behold, which was financed by a network management company, examines the myriad ways our nature as humans has adapted to, and sometimes violently resisted, the constraints and freedoms of online life. Told in short, episodic acts, the film's subjects range from a family that was targeted by unimaginable harassment after the death of their daughter, to an internet addiction rehab facility, to the UCLA basement where the very first message was sent over a network.

You're now the teacher of two different film courses. How would you quantify the difference between what someone gets for $1,500 at the Rogue Film School, and for $90 with your MasterClass?

The Rogue Film School is a very, very intense encounter, direct encounter with aspiring filmmakers. All of them are actually professionals already. I would not choose amateurs. It's much more about the guerrilla style filmmaking including things that go outside of the limits of legality. Sometimes I would teach them how to forge a shooting permit in a military dictatorship, which I've done twice. It's a different approach, and of course much more [focused] since it is in such direct contact with the students. They have their voice and I listen to them and they can talk about their problems and obstacles and doubts.

Whereas the MasterClass is something where I do not have anyone in front of me with the exception of a couple of cameras. I have to try to speak from my experience and get something across that would be helpful for those who are aspiring filmmakers. MasterClass is also meant for young people, people of any age who have not made films yet. You see, with the Rogue Film School, everybody has to send me a written application — which I read, every single one — and everyone has to send me a film. I'm the committee who checks out the film. I watch them all, hundreds and hundreds and I would make a very, very tight selection of a maximum of 50 people.

Have you seen any changes or shifts in the work and in the submissions over the past seven years?

"Don't wait for the system to accept you."

There are always surprises. All of a sudden there is a film that is not really accomplished, but in the film there is a minute of utterly new unseen stuff that just makes you sit down and take a deep breath. Those are the [filmmakers] I would invite [to Rogue Film School], those who are not following on the trodden path. The MasterClass speaks to you in the same way. Find your own voice, do not just stupidly and blindly follow the so-called rules of storytelling in terms of screenplays, the three-act theory, all these things. Find your voice, find your own identity, don't be afraid just to step into it.

Because today it's fairly easy; you can make a film with a very high caliber camera that's not expensive anymore. You can record sound on your cell phone if you add a good microphone and you can edit your film on your laptop. In other words, you can make a feature film for $10,000 or under. And that's what I keep telling the students or those who watch the MasterClass: don't wait for the system to accept you. You create your own system, create your own [budget] and make your own first feature film or your first own documentary.

More and more that DIY spirit is the dominant attitude of young filmmakers, especially those putting their work directly online. Do you think traditional film school will ever go extinct?

No, unfortunately they are not going to go completely extinct; I wish they would. I wish everybody would come out of nowhere and be self-taught by life itself, by the world itself. No, [film school is] going to stay because there is a general demand for content, let's say, on television. And the film industry has some sort of a permanent demand for content. Let it be like that. I do not want to challenge it. But when you look into my MasterClass you better be out for something else.

Have you seen the MasterClass?

Yes, but I haven't seen all of it. I watched about three of the lessons and then it started getting to the assignments and I thought, "I kind of want to actually do these." Rather than just watching the videos straight through.

No, you shouldn't watch it all at once. That would be completely mad. And be careful with the assignments, because sometimes I would say you do not need to follow them. Create your own assignments, be intelligent. Giving assignments, it reeks of high school and getting homework...

Some people respond to that though, some people like that.

Yes, but I always was reluctant to give any assignments. But it's fine. Let it be as it is. It's part of the format and it's part of the charm of it. When it comes to assignment I'm not the one who should be a high school principal.

Right.

I'd rather jump from Golden Gate Bridge if that happens.

I asked about film school because I graduated from a film program less than a decade ago, and already many of the technical skills I learned are outdated. And it seems the things that remain are very personal lessons that usually don't come from the curriculum itself.

Yeah, certain things you can neither learn in film school nor let's say the MasterClass nor in the Rogue Film School. It's just life, raw life as it is has to give you insight and has to allow you to make the right decisions and ask the right questions and gathering enough courage to do something.

Do you think that's harder to have those sorts of life experiences now that so much of our lives are mediated by devices?

If you are too much into the internet, yes, because it's a parallel surrogate life. It has nothing to do with the real world or examination of the real world, if you delegate too much to your cell phone and applications.

"I would advise not to binge-watch my MasterClass."

It's very interesting that you are releasing Lo and Behold at the same time as this completely online, digital class. What convinced you that you'd be able to get your ideas across in an online course given all the doubts you've expressed about the connected world?

I never knew that it was online. I always thought that you would subscribe and you would buy some Blu-rays or DVDs. Maybe it's even better than depending on something physical. You see, I come from a world where you touch things, like a roll of celluloid. But I have to get better accustomed to the virtual world.

It's not only the tactile experience that's different, it's also the act of going to a place to learn. Setting aside specific time over the course of weeks or months where you have this curriculum that you hold yourself to, instead of fitting it in in your spare time on the train or something.

Yeah, it's better that way, I think. Because when you look at TV series there's such a thing as binge watching. You watch a whole series in two days or three days. Here I would advise not to do binge watching of my MasterClass.

Lo and Behold is officially being released in August, but in the meantime you've had the chance to screen it several times. What kinds of reactions have you gotten, especially from people who are perhaps more embedded in the "connected world" than you are?

Well, everybody has been enthusiastic so far and the buzz is enormous. I never expected it, because in the beginning I was to do some YouTube tips on texting and driving. The financiers of the film, NETSCOUT, understood there was something much, much bigger and they supported me with that. The response has been totally unprecedented for me. What is also remarkable I get a lot of emails nowadays [from] 12, 14, 15-year-olds. And that's something really surprising because they speak a different language, the language of their age group. And yet [they are] making some very intelligent remarks.

They've grown up never knowing life without this constant connectivity.

Yes, and they are excited that there's something like conceptual thinking which will create a filter and an understanding how to use the internet and how to deal with it. In other words, taking a step away from it, looking at what it does and what the possibilities are your choices.