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Length: ~5hrs, 26 lessons

My rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

My one-liner takeaway: Nothing else comes close to teaching you how to put together film like actually putting together a film.

I’ve taken more notes on this Masterclass than any other I’ve seen so far. Ken Burns uses the entire five hours effectively to share his theory around documentary film as well as the practical advice on the craft. He is a big proponent of getting in there and making something, rather than poring over books to figure out how to make the first step. Your first film will be your best teacher as he says. The course has plenty of case studies where he walk through various drafts of his past films, explaining why certain choices were made. In between these demonstrations, he provides thoughtful guidance like his warning that filmmakers should feel comfortable holding contradictory story lines, as the collective truth is always more telling than the singular truth. A successful documentary filmmaker’s role is not to find some kind of objectivity.

This kind of a nuanced approach to history allows Ken to connect the dry dates and names of history with an emotional narrative that brings the dead to life as he likes to say. He says that he uses the same framework and tools of storytelling that a feature film from Martin Scorsese would use for a blockbuster. I understand what he means by this. Despite the fact that the outcome is known (he is repackaging history), there’s still an arc that has suspense, drama, and leaves room for surprise. Ken goes into detail on a broad range of topics, covering pitching ideas, fundraising, scripting, scoring, interviewing, editing, researching, and more. It’s a great use of five hours especially if you’re a fan of his work and are curious to hear how the magic is made.

If you’d like to hear it directly from Ken, check out his course here. As of now there are over 100 instructors to learn from, with more being added every week!

This review is part of a larger series, where I try learning from every single course within the catalog. Find my full list here.