Column: Masterclass offers a chance to learn from the best minds

You’ve undoubtedly seen the ads while web surfing. Masterclass promotes itself as an online education platform where you can watch prerecorded lectures from experts in various fields ranging from music and fashion to sports. I am always a bit skeptical about online offers, but my interest in this outfit was piqued when I noted the quality of the teachers.

When you’ve got Serena Williams available to teach the finer points of serving a tennis ball or Martin Scor­sese opining on filmmaking, I had to give Masterclass the benefit of the doubt. In all they have over 85 experts — many of them other legends such as Dr. Jane Goodall, Steve Martin, Jodie Foster, and the list goes on.

So I gave Masterclass a shot.

I was not disappointed.

As a writer, I’m always interested in expanding my horizons. So, I decided who better to learn the craft of screenplay writing from than David Mamet, one of the greatest living American playwrights. Mamet’s Masterclass lived up to his well-earned, Pulitzer Prize- winning hype.

His tutorials were funny, irreverent and, most important, helpful. Mamet drilled down into basics such as the nuances of dialogue, what it takes to develop your own voice and how to set up a scene. He was both entertaining and thoughtful while being graspable to writers of different levels.

What was delightful is that his class (as well as the others I checked out) did not come off as “canned.” You felt like you got the real David Mamet, with no censorship or pretense. The odds of me getting an audience with a guy like him are not great, but for $15 per month ($180 per year) you can learn from Mamet or any of the other luminaries that Masterclass has on tap.

My friend Allison Paynter, Ph.D., chairwoman of the English Department at Chaminade University, was equally impressed with the quality of his instruction. “Mamet,” she said, “is like a bull in a china shop gliding on ballet shoes. His Masterclass was able to deliver a prodigious amount of key instruction on plot, character and story development in an accessible manner.”

The membership offers access to all manner of digital platforms, i.e., mobile and TV apps and high- definition videos. In the case of the Mamet lectures, you get a class worksheet. This encapsulates points made in the lectures, links to downloadable texts (such as Aristotle’s “Poetics”), suggested assignments, pithy anecdotes and movie-viewing recommendations (such as “The Hitchhiker”). There is also a Masterclass forum called “The Hub” where you can knock ideas around with other students. You can even contact your teacher.

The high quality of production was smooth rather than slick or overproduced. Instead of watching a talking head, a minimum of two cameras is used to vary the backdrop. It was as if your favorite college professor moved from the classroom podium and segued into his or her comfy office, where you could visit informally.

Content was well edited, and divided into bite-size, digestible sections.

The lectures were never monotonous, and much better than you’d expect to see with the average YouTube video. There is a bit of showbiz added in the production (i.e., quality sets and lighting), but it is not distracting.

Other than Mamet on writing, I checked out lectures from Aaron Sorkin, Spike Lee, Margaret Atwood and Malcolm Gladwell. On a lark I also visited with Ron Finley, who teaches gardening.

What did they all have in common? In a word, authenticity, including expletives undeleted.

What’s great about this series is that there’s a ton of stuff to explore, i.e., Alice Waters on culinary arts, Frank Gehry on architecture, Stephen Curry on hoops, Itzhak Perlman on music, David Axelrod on politics, and the list goes on farther than you can see.

Suffice it to say, this caliber of experts are serious people who cultivate their image prudently. You’re not likely to see Jane Goodall or Steve Martin pitching Ginsu knives on late-night TV. These are the folks who are on the lecture circuit — when there was a lecture circuit!

I can’t recommend this series enough. We’ve all got a bit more time on our hands. Gaining education and even wisdom, if we’re lucky, should be on the agenda.

Rob Kay, a Honolulu-based writer, covers technology and sustainability for Tech View and is the creator of fijiguide.com. He can be reached at Robertfredkay@gmail.com.