Since the ads for MasterClasses are always on the forums portal page, I was curious how many of you watch or have watched any of them.

It started out a few years ago where you could choose a "teacher" to take the lessons from. I don't remember the cost at that time, but now they have expanded it to a once per year fee where you have access to unlimited classes. They have all kinds of classes. Not just screenwriting or filmmaking related stuff, but acting, music, sports, you name it. There are almost too many now, so this made me wonder what classes do you guys recommend or recommend avoiding?

My first one was James Patterson. I know he sells millions of books, but for me, there was nothing in his classes I didn't really know already that could be useful in screenwriting. Things like plotting and such. Not saying I'm good at it. Just that I knew it already. I'm sure a lot of people loved his classes, but they were not for me.

Now oddly, one the authors that I learned more from was R. L. Stine. IMO, he was more interesting with more useful information and a more entertaining teacher.

I also tried to do the Aaron Sorkin classes and I'm sure I could've learned tons from him, but he turned out to be such a sucky teacher that I just couldn't sit through his classes. Too bad.

I tried Kevin Spacey on acting, but it was too serious for me. This was for actors that are really serious. I was just curious as a wannabe director. So, not for me.

Now I'm currently doing the Jodi Foster classes and so far, it's my favorite. She obviously know a LOT about both acting and filmmaking, but she's also energetic and articulate. I highly recommend this one for anyone interested in filmmaking.

I'll update my list as I go along. If I can remember.  

Currently thinking on taking a college course on creative writing. Not screenwriting necessarily, but I think it’d tie in to what I want to accomplish as a screenwriter.

Curious if anyone has taken any classes like this, online, and what the result was.

OMG, you have to watch the new David Lynch class on film making. Genius takes MANY forms.

This is my second year with full access and we (my wife, daughter and I) absolutely love it. My wife is a chef and she's watched all the cooking classes, and my daughter is an aspiring writer.

It's not so much what we learn. It's just very entertaining.

I've often wondered about these Masterclasses.

James Patterson stuff I give a wide berth to.
I don't agree with what how he farms his ideas out for others to write in his 'proven style'.

You could argue he's creating work for collaborators but 'literary capitalism'' is my take-away.

I may well be tempted with the Jodie Foster class based on your recommendation, Pia. Hmm...

I've seen a few of them. To me they are all garbage except the Ron Howard one. That one was okay and you could learn something from it.

Stay away from the Werner Herzog one, The Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese and Sam Jackson ones. The Kevin Spacey and Dustin Hoffman one aren't good either.

I also agree with Pia on the Sorkin class. But at least he tried to offer a structured class and explain concepts, approaches.

My criteria for this assessment is that I'm looking for something that I can't find and learn from on youtube. Since I'm paying money for it, I want more exclusive and educational content.

Most of these classes are people talking about their philosophies on things and their past experiences, telling stories. I'm sorry, while that might provide some entertainment, to me that's not educational in terms of learning a craft. You need a program with explanations of key concepts, why those concepts exist, some history on them, what are alternative approaches and so on. So, I can take in all these things, process them and strat making judgement calls on what makes sense to me, what I accept and what I reject and why. So that I can move on from there, absorb more things, fine tune and grow. At least Ron Howard made an effort to show you want it's like to be a on a movie set for a few hours, watching actual hands-on directing.

I plan on watching to other two on directing, so I can't comment on those two.

PS: I didn't even know Lynch had one of these. Cool.

Quoted from Demento I've seen a few of them. To me they are all garbage except the Ron Howard one. That one was okay and you could learn something from it. Stay away from the Werner Herzog one, The Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese and Sam Jackson ones. The Kevin Spacey and Dustin Hoffman one aren't good either. I also agree with Pia on the Sorkin class. But at least he tried to offer a structured class and explain concepts, approaches. My criteria for this assessment is that I'm looking for something that I can't find and learn from on youtube. Since I'm paying money for it, I want more exclusive and educational content. Most of these classes are people talking about their philosophies on things and their past experiences, telling stories. I'm sorry, while that might provide some entertainment, to me that's not educational in terms of learning a craft. You need a program with explanations of key concepts, why those concepts exist, some history on them, what are alternative approaches and so on. So, I can take in all these things, process them and strat making judgement calls on what makes sense to me, what I accept and what I reject and why. So that I can move on from there, absorb more things, fine tune and grow. At least Ron Howard made an effort to show you want it's like to be a on a movie set for a few hours, watching actual hands-on directing. I plan on watching to other two on directing, so I can't comment on those two. PS: I didn't even know Lynch had one of these. Cool.

I've seen the ads for these but I've never watched them. However, on the basis of your criticisms of the other classes mentioned, I really doubt David Lynch will be your type of teacher or you will get what you want from him. I'm a huge fan of Lynch's films/music and I love his personality but he likes to meander when talking about his craft/process and is notoriously tight lipped about his inspiration, intentions, etc.

Now, maybe because of this masterclass concept he might had have a word in his ear to stay more on point but let's just say I'd request a sample clip or a breakdown of his class's content (if that's even possible) before purchasing.

Quoted from Colkurtz8 I've seen the ads for these but I've never watched them. However, on the basis of your criticisms of the other classes mentioned, I really doubt David Lynch will be your type of teacher or you will get what you want from him. I'm a huge fan of Lynch's films/music and I love his personality but he likes to meander when talking about his craft/process and is notoriously tight lipped about his inspiration, intentions, etc.

I 100% agree. I doubt his class will have much value other than entertainment.

I've been putting off watching the Mira Nair and Jodie Foster ones. I plan on seeing those soon.

These classes on directing, should show you what actual directing looks like. How different blocking effects the scene. How to give actors direction. Why you should pick a camera angle, how the camera adds to the scene and so on. They shouldn't be a person in a chair talking about what happened when he was making his movie 10 years ago.

Got this recently cuz they had a 2-for-1 gift promotion thing. So far, I've listened to good portion of David Mamet, Neil Gaiman, and Dan Brown lectures. Some useful tidbits here and there. A lot of it is general stuff we've probably all heard before. Doesn't hurt to hear it again though.

Mamet breaking down his plays later on was interesting to see how he thinks through it all. If nothing else you get a breakdown of two stories without having to do it yourself.

I'll eventually try out any writing related one so I'll report back if I find a gem. For anyone curious, here's all the available writers:

N.K. Jemisin
Issa Rae
Salman      Rushdie
Walter Mosley
David Mamet
Aaron Sorkin
James Patterson
David Sedaris
Joyce Carol Oates
David Baldacci
Neil Gaiman
Dan Brown
Margaret Atwood
Malcolm Gladwell
R.L. Stine
Judy Blume
Shonda Rhimes
Judd Apatow
Steve Martin

Almost forgot, I have 3 free one week passes that are gonna expire soon if anyone wants.

Hit me up on PM with your email.

I have three guest passes to give away. I believe they are good for two weeks. Let me know if you'd like one.

I just started Dan Brown's classes on thriller writing. The stuff he talks about goes for screenwriting as well as novels. Excellent class! He speak well and doesn't wander, like some of them do. He keeps it interesting and the classes move along. Definitely a recommend from me.

Pia very kindly gave me one of these a few months ago.

The Dan Brown class sounds great!
I can vouch for the Ron Howard Directing Masterclass too.

I know some of you are interested in writing for comics. So I thought I would mention that I just came across a class on that on Master classes. It's in Neil Gaiman's classes. He has one specifically about that subject. It was very informative. Completely different than I would've thought. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll send along guest passes.  

Classes that I enjoyed so far and learned from:

R.L Stine
Dan Brown
David Baldacci
Neil Gaiman
James Patterson
David Mamet

I did not care for:
Aaron Sorkin
Joyce Carol Oates