Is Masterclass Worth It?

Earlier today, I was asked by my niece, who is an artist in her twenties, if Masterclass is worth the money. I told her, yes it is. I particularly. think it is worth it for a young person, involved in, or interested in, various aspects of the arts, photography, music, visual art. And for older people?

I joined Masterclass, because I was looking for an affordable acting class, as I continue on my voiceover journey (the folks on Twitter like to call it a Journey, even though I hardly leave the house during this pandemic). It was less expensive than joining another online acting class over Zoom, and I thought it would be worth a try. The deciding factor was when Nancy Cartwright Teaches Voiceover was added, in late 2020. I have also enjoyed acting courses by Helen Mirren, Samual Jackson, Natalie Portman, and Jodie Foster (she has one or two acting lessons in her filmmaking course). I found these classes to be very insightful, and I enjoyed the format. Samual Jackson’s classes showcased young actors going over scenes in a workshop. I got to see how various talented actors approach the same scene.

Nancy Cartwright’s course was enjoyable, especially if you are a fan of The Simpsons (or Rugrats, or My Little Pony) to see how she got into voiceover acting. There are animated scenes that you can try out yourself. It doesn’t go into many technical aspects of voiceover recording, but you learn a lot about how she approaches performance and character building. For the technical aspects, I’ve learned a lot on other sites, like Gravy For The Brain, and various Youtube Channels, as well as On The Mic classrooms (a school in Vancouver dedicated to Voiceover, where I took Acting for Voiceover, via Zoom).

Once I was mostly done with the acting classes, I moved on to other Masterclass classes that looked interesting: Ron Findley teaches Gardening—It was excellent, and this morning my seeds sprouted on my windowsill, if you need evidence; David Mamet teaches Dramatic Writing was very educational, and hilarious; Chris Voss Teaches The Art of Negotiating—He’s a former FBI hostage negotiator, he’s a wonderful communicator. Next up is Spike Lee on directing. I’m not much of a filmmaker, but I do write, and lately I thought I’d try my hand at short videos for Youtube. Even if you watch the Masterclass videos solely for interest and entertainment, I’d say it’s worth the 180.00 USD, for a yearly subscription. That works out to be 15.00 USD per month (18.88 CAD).

If you are a writer, there are a LOT of classes by writers teaching various types of writing. Billy Collins teaches poetry, Margaret Atwood teaches Creative Writing to name two of the 18 that popped up when I did a search for “Writing.” Cooking is another category with many classes to choose from.

I would say that if you can find three or four classes on the list that you would value taking, it’s worth the money, and you’ll definitely find lots of other interesting content to feed your curiosity and creativity.