NEW TO THE SITE?

"I'm new to your work. Where do I start?"
Browse my videos and articles on film analysis here and other subjects here. I have three Youtube channels Collative Learning, Rob Ager and Rob Ager Games. The topics are wide ranging, but generally explore film, psychology, art and video games.

"Who are you and what is your background?"
My name is Rob Ager. I was born in Liverpool, England (so yes, I am a "scouser") in 1973 and have spent most of my life living here, but also lived in Alberta, Canada for five years. I've been fanatically interested in creative arts, films in particular, and psychology since childhood.

Due to harsh social and economic conditions in the 1980's most teenagers in the poorer parts of Liverpool, including myself, left school with few qualifications or job prospects. I broke away from the thuggish street life trends and resorted to self-education. After a couple of years I broke into the field of computer games as a graphic designer / animator. Finding that line of work disappointing I worked my way, as a volunteer, into the field of social care and spent 17 years working with the mentally ill, homeless, children in care and probation.

In my late 20's I finally took the plunge into film making. Having never been on a film set I dove in at the deep end by writing, directing, editing and co-producing a half hour fiction film. After two more half hour short films (and discovering the politicized and self-defeating nature of state-sponsored film in the UK) I hit a financial crisis and was unable to make films for a period of four years. It was during that crisis that I learned created collativelearning.com. To my surprise the content of the site (despite its amateur technical design) connected with many thousands of people from across the globe - people of different age brackets and professional standing. In approx nine years of running this site the hundreds of videos I've posted on Youtube at various times (and across different channels) have received somewhere in the region of forty to sixty million views.

In 2012 I completed my first independent feature film, Turn In Your Grave .

"Can I speak to you on social media?"
I've set up a public Facebook page here, where I now post regular updates, though I only use my personal Facebook account for personal chat with relatives and friends who know me in the real world so please, no friend requests on my personal page unless you know me offline. You can also follow me on Twitter.

"What are you trying to do with this site?"
Originally this was an experimental website I set up in 2007. As its audience has grown so has the original idea. My basic aim originally was to promote public interest in psychology and independent film making techniques. The articles I offer draw on a variety of sources, including a great deal of personal experience working in mental heatlh, and I try to write them in a way that can easily be understood by the average reader / listener rather than appealing merely to a handful of academics.

At the moment my purpose with the site is to help people develop their knowledge, creative / perceptual abilities and philosophy, and to enhance public appreciation of and interest in the arts, especially film.

"Do you do this full time?"
Yes, thanks to the combination of sales of my offline work, Patreon support and Youtube ad revenue.

"What's your IQ / have you sat the MENSA test?"
Although I'm not a believer in numerical measurement of intelligence, I sat the MENSA test at ages 19 and 27 (I'm now 48) passing for membership both times. The second time MENSA had split the test into two parts - one for visual cognition and the other for logic and reasoning (membership required top percentile pass on one of the tests, regardless of how low the other was, which I thought was odd). I ended up passing on both, but when I attended a couple of MENSA meetings, found the members very ordinary - they just happened to be good at processing data, but lacked any other distinguishing mental abilities so far as I could tell. And they didn't put their intellect to useful purpose other than an ego-boosting "we're smarter than other people" club.
I would never quote my MENSA IQ ratings publicly for several reasons. 1) It would give some people the mistaken impression that they could never learn to write the kind of material I do because they're "not intelligent enough". 2) Intelligence is such a multi-facted and subjective concept that it can't be quantified through numbers. 3) It would provoke a backlash from people who believed I was using my scores on IQ tests to override the opinion of those who disagree with the material I put out (and rightly so). I believe intelligence to be a flexible aspect of human nature - something that can be developed through training and experience.

"Are you going to update the look of your site?"
I like things that are gritty and functional without unnecessary polish / embroidery. I also dislike websites that have a lot of distracting menus and sidebars so if you have any difficulty navigating these pages remember that little button up there in your browser called the BACK button.

"Can I help with your site design and graphics?"
I've had many offers for this, which are much appreciated. As a former graphic artist I have a very specific eye for what I want in terms of artwork so will continue with the visual designs myself.

PAID MATERIAL ?

"Can I get copies of your videos and articles?"
Yes, I sell digital downloads of my offline work on my Film Analysis and Insight pages. I also now run a Patreon account so you can sign up to there to access some (but not ALL) of my paywall material. Alternatively, you can sign up as a monthly paying channel member on my main Youtube channel, Collative Learning. This will get you access to dozens of videos.

"Why don't you allow ads to bring in revenue so we can view all your material for free?"
In late 2025, after many years of avoiding it, I finally switched on ad revenue for my three Youtube channels. Unfortunately, ad revenue is inaccessible for about 80% of my videos because of Youtube's copyright detection system. There's nothing illegal in my use of film clips in my reviews because my work is an educational critique (See "Fair Use" in copyright law), but the Youtube system automatically blocks revenue and sometimes makes the videos not viewable publicly at all. If I published all my material for free I would have to quit and earn my living elsewhere..

WORK PROCESS ?

"What's coming in the near future on this site?"
My high priority for the future is paying customers. Youtube is a platform rapidly declining in functionality and accessibility. So I'm in the process of reducing the amount of free material I post on there. Previously 20-30% of my material was public and freely accessible. I'm now reducing this to about 10%. This is necessary to ensure my time and costs in producing new material are recuperated. If you want more than 10% of my material you'll need to sign up on Patreon or as a Youtube channel member, or puchase downloads from this site.

"How did you learn to analyze films and media the way you do?"
It’s a complex combination of factors - broadly the most influential of which I believe to be the following.

1) A lifelong fascination with psychology and philosophy related disciplines such as Gestalt therapy, NLP, marketing psychology, military psychology, psyops, KHTP, the enneagram and Buddhism. My experiences of these disciplines haven’t just been theoretical. For over 12 years I’ve worked with children, the mentally ill, homeless people and ex-offenders – this helped me find out first hand how the various psychological theories bear up to the test of real life. As a result of all these experiences I wrote a pdf book detailing a model of self-therapy, which I call Collative Learning Systems.

2) A lifelong pursuit of creative activities. This began early in my childhood as a preoccupation with drawing and painting, followed by spells of short story writing and eventually low budget film making. The latter was essential for my film analysis articles because having written, produced, directed, edited and acted as cinematographer I have an understanding of the broad fundamentals of how films are made. This is covered in much more detail in my semi-autobiographical 4 hr documentary HIDDEN CINEMA.

3) The articles I write are not just about perceptual skills. They’re very dependent on articulation. Many of the things I write about are things that people are already aware of on some level, but they just haven’t put words to the experience. Like anyone else who’s done a lot of writing, I’ve managed to develop this skill to a reasonable level. In particular I try to keep the descriptions as basic and accurate as possible … many writers try to spice up their writing with colourful language to show off their supposed intellectual abilities – something I don’t find impressive or useful.

"Why don’t you get a book published about your film analysis?"
I'm currently in the process of writing a Film Analysis book for publication. It's approx 90% completed. I intend to publish independently. I was approached by a major publisher in recent years, but the terms and conditions offered were unacceptable. By self-publishing I will retain full control of the work and keep the majority of revenue.

"What books will teach me about the forms of psychology underpinning your work?"
This information is scattered across hundreds of books that I've read and many of my most important learnings came not from individual books, but from the cross referencing of assorted published writings combined with personal and professional experience. To that effect the books I recommend as core learning platforms for those interested are my 184 page PDF book Collative Learning Systems, my 48 page PDF book How To Make Great Films On Rock Bottom Budgets and my 79 page PDF book on the topic of Stanley Kubrick's professional working habits Lessons From Stanley. Thesee and additional articles on psychology are available on my INSIGHT page.

"I don’t agree with all your insights."
If you did then that would mean you were putting me on an intellectual pedestal. There are many thoughts and insights written in my articles which I only partially believe myself. Everything I say is open to question.

"What qualifications do you have to support your writings?"
Academically, none. I don’t pursue academic education because of the unnecessary costs frequently involved (time, money, resources) and the political and economic factors which often hamper the work of academic institutions. Much of my work is also based upon the cross referencing of disciplines that are treated separately in academia. What I do have an abundance of is practical experience and extensive reading / research in most of the topics I write about. I also receive a lot of correspondence from academics about the site content and am always receptive to their feedback. In addition, I want my work to be judged on its own merit rather than viewers / readers assuming I know what I'm talking about because some funded institution happened to give me a certificate of endorsement for jumping through a series of (often bad habit forming) training hoops.
A key message of my work is that knowledge and creativity are not limited to individuals who have been moulded by institutions. This was especially true of Stanley Kubrick, whose working methods have greatly influenced my own and whose work has frequently been the subject of my most popular film analysis videos.
Having built up my own audience base and secured plenty of media coverage for my work without any formal qualifications, I can honestly say that I believe it is the quality of my work, not the rubber stamped approval of financially controlled institutions, that has connected my audience.

"Have any film makers come out and confirmed the kinds of themes that you attribute to their work."
Sometimes they do (watch this video for 9 examples), but in most of those instances my articles would be unnecessary. Jan Harlan, Stanley Kubrick's brother-in-law and exec procucer of The Shining, has confirmed in a Guardian interview in October of 2012 that the sets of that film were designed with intentional continuity errors to disorientate the viewer. This was over a year after publication of my video THE SHINING spatial awareness and set design which presented a detailed analysis of that very theme, and to which several people had mistakenly responded that I was just seeing meaningless continuity errors in the film.

It's much easier to understand why film makers often don't verbally confirm the themes of their films if you've actually written or directed a film yourself. Films aren't just about making statements. They're frequently designed to affect the audience in non-verbal ways - feelings, intuition etc. The film makers themselves are often driven by feelings and intuition without having a verbal road map of what they are communicating to the audience. In a way, my film analysis articles are merely attempts to construct interesting verbal road maps of these intuitive experiences.

Another factor is that the film maker often doesn't want to speak publicly about these intuitive (or even consciously secretive) themes. The reasons for this are many.

• Maintaining an aura of mystery around the film's meanings can heighten and prolong audience fascination.
• If the themes are deeply personal to the film maker then they may feel emotionally vulnerable discussing it or even acknowledging those themes to themselves.
• If the themes are controversial the film maker may wish to verbally / publicly deny them, preferring that the viewer privately discover the hidden meanings.
• Some film makers believe the audience should earn their appreciation by studying the film content for themselves.

Yet another factor in this is that the creative impetus behind a film is often miscredited. Multiple rewritings of a script by different writers can effectively mean that an authoritive creative source can't be identified. A mediocre director who doesn't understand the finer qualities of a script can be carried along by a producer or cinematographer whose finer input isn't duly credited. In the case of a film like Alien or Pink Floyd The Wall, the end result can be an almost accidental combination of talents from different collaborators who never even openly agreed on what the core themes of the film were going to be.

And ... sometimes a film carries accidental themes that were only partially intended by the film makers, yet drew audience appreciation regardless.

PERSONAL CONTACT ?

"Will you review my film / book / artwork?"
I virtually always write about very well known material. If you're asking me to review an unknown work then there's little benefit for me or this site, unless you've produced something highly exceptional. Possibly I could provide such a review service for a fee or equivalant favour, but again your material has to be good.

"Will you offer me feedback about my script / film / book in progress?"
Viewing material that has been sent to me takes time out of my schedule, especially books, so generally I'm unable to find the time. Unless the material is of specific interest to me personally, I can offer a detailed feedback service (of books, scripts, treatments etc) for a negotiable fee. There are writers who provide such a service for £25 an hour. I wouldn't charge by the hour, but would instead provide a flat fee. The advantage you'd have is in knowing, from the material on this site, my level of "expertise" in the study of art and fiction.

"You haven't responded to my email."
I get hundreds of emails every month, some very long winded, some asking questions / providing information that is already covered elsewhere in the website, and some downright absurd. Unfortunately I don't always get around to responding. The shorter the email the quicker I can respond.