MasterClass – Martin Scorsese Teaches Filmmaking
MasterClass – Martin Scorsese Teaches Filmmaking
Salepage : MasterClass – Martin Scorsese Teaches Filmmaking
Arichive : MasterClass – Martin Scorsese Teaches Filmmaking
Martin Scorsese Masterclass
If you’ve recently searched for or liked anything online that’s filmmaking related, you’ve probably seen ads pop up for a Martin Scorsese Masterclass.
But what is it exactly, and crucially is it worth the price of admission?
MasterClass is a fairly new company offering online courses in a wide variety of disciplines. In the few years they have been around they’ve made waves for attracting some big names to the platform. You can learn cooking from Gordon Ramsay, singing from Christina Aguilera, screenwriting from Aaron Sorkin, and of course filmmaking from the Martin Scorsese Masterclass.
Even maverick, much-memed German director Werner Herzog (GRIZZLY MAN) teaches a class.
It would seem to put lie to the old adage that “those who can’t do, teach.” Martin Scorsese is still at the top of his filmmaking game.
But teaching, especially online, without the personal interaction of real space, is a different skill altogether.
Can those who do, teach?
Martin Scorsese Masterclass – The Lessons
The Martin Scorsese Masterclass takes the form of 30 video lessons, each accompanied by its own workbook.
The video lessons are mainly interviews, interspersed with clips from Scorsese’s films and others to illustrate his points. While he is a strong, eloquent speaker, we don’t see his approach to directing on set in person.
The result is that the videos can feel a little repetitive in terms of visuals and sound, even when the content of what Scorsese is saying differs from lesson to lesson.
The temptation is to speed through all of the video lessons in as few settings as possible, but doing this makes the videos and his words blur together.
Instead, it’s best to space them out (there’s no time limit to complete the class) and to take notes as if he were lecturing in person.
Making of and behind the scenes documentaries used to be standard on DVD releases, but given that they’ve declined in the age of streaming, it would have been interesting to see Scorsese directing firsthand, to see his advice put into practice. (Presumably the class was filmed before he began shooting THE IRISHMAN.)
Still, in terms of the topics they cover, the classes are quite comprehensive:
- working with the script
- casting and directing actors
- locations
- production design and costume design
- cinematography
- editing
- colour
- sound design, music
More ineffable but just as – if not more important – are the people skills and ingenuity it takes to be a director. Lessons also cover:
- developing your style
- shooting low-budget films
- working with crew
- promoting your film
There are also several more theory-based lessons, where Scorsese breaks down scenes from classic films. These lessons might strike some participants as too theoretical or too academic, but one of the pitfalls many beginning filmmakers make is not watching enough, not understanding what else is out there and what has come before.
It’s possible to go through a three or four year filmmaking degree and still not fully appreciate this. However, if you don’t understand what images mean and how they mean things, what hope do you have of constructing meaningful images of your own?
This is perhaps the most valuable aspect of the Martin Scorsese Masterclass. It’ll help you think about how to see and ‘read’ images and how to apply that to your own work.
MasterClass – Martin Scorsese Teaches Filmmaking
Readmore About : MasterClass – Martin Scorsese Teaches Filmmaking
