MasterClass.com is a San Francisco-based company that sells online classes taught by "masters" in that field. Classes range from "Annie Leibovitz Teaches Photography" to "Gordon Ramsey Teaches Cooking" to "Judy Blume Teaches Writing". The basic premise of each class is that well-known and highly skilled individuals in their respected field design an online program. They are usually subtitled with, "In his/her first ever online class". Right off the bat, this could be considered a whole program built off of celebrity endorsements -- with a twist.
When I first heard about MasterClass, it was from the "Werner Herzog Teaches Filmmaking" trailer. The two-minute YouTube ad (which was skippable, but caught my attention after the first line of dialogue) started like this:
Werner: "It's like death, staring at you when you look at a camera." And then a single line of text that read, "Meet your new Instructor".
Werner then goes on to say, "I'm speaking to filmmakers. Or -- future filmmakers. You have to know, I have gone through all of this. I have learned it all on my own."
That was in the first twenty seconds. Wait -- this is an online class? An online class that can teach me about filmmaking? (With great production value to boot.) While I knew that other online classes must exist out there with this same topic, no other online classes had been packaged and presented to me like this. After watching the whole ad, I was almost ready to (at the very least) start saving money. Alas, $90 for an online class didn't interest me that much.
From seeing that ad in 2016 until now, many more MasterClass online programs have become available. Unsurprisingly, not all the classes have received the best reviews. For example, this article details a MasterClass user that was less-than-satisfied with Gordon Ramsey's class. He mentions that despite the "insiders only" packaging MasterClass has presented, most of the tips Ramsey gives in the program are already readily available on YouTube (and free).
How likely is it that every instructor featured on MasterClass is so extremely passionate about their craft they would want to join MasterClass? How likely is it that every instructor featured on MasterClass is just at skilled in teaching their craft that they are in practicing their craft? Annie Leibovitz, for example, is a self-admittedly not a "technical photographer" and thus would not be able to provide beginners with basic technical terms every photographer needs to know. In an article from someone who took Leibovitz's MasterClass, the program should have boasted a "'How Annie Leibovitz Thinks and Feels' discussion" rather than a "How Annie Leibovitz Shoots' class" (as MasterClass implied from Leibovitz's trailer).
Although I've never taken a MasterClass, the thought of wasting $90 on information that is probably already readily available elsewhere (perhaps from someone lesser-known but with an equal skill level) or not as useful as MasterClass advertises is discouraging. However, it would still be interesting to see where MasterClass decides to go if they ever run out of individuals considered "the best". Already, I see multiple MasterClass programs with different filmmakers, editors, and directors. Clearly there are many skilled filmmakers out there, but at what point does the MasterClass program become no more than celebrity endorsements for more MasterClass programs?
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