MZed is an e-learning platform dedicated to filmmaking and photography only.
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Although several platforms offered filmmaking courses, it was not up to mark, but MZed stepped ahead and made sure to deliver the best quality content in all their courses like provision of certificates, value for money, ease of use, and more.
In this article, I share my experience of taking the courses in MZed, an overview of MZed, how it works, pricing plans, and what I liked about MZed Pro.
The verdict of “Is MZed worth taking?” will be answered in the end.
Keep reading to find out!
MZed Review: An Overview
MZed is an e-learning platform that focuses on the niche of filmmaking and photography. Out of all the learning platforms that I have reviewed, MZed stands out in every way, which was impressive.
The 1960 established platform claimed to be a great treat to all the film enthusiasts out there, and that got me suspicious about enrolling in a course, so I decided to give it a shot for once.
The instructors are some of the world’s best award-winning filmmakers, editors, technicians, and people working off-screen for a feature film like Ray Roman, Philip Bloom, Adam Epstein, and more.
The best part about MZed is that you get to pick the quality, budget, educator, category, difficulty level, and even the certification for a specific course. Using this, you get to choose the right course.
Anything from directing to color grading to screenwriting, MZed has a course for everything you’d like to learn about filmmaking, which means the platform is for filmmakers and anybody interested in the art of filmmaking or someone who is already working in the filmmaking field of cinema.
However, you also get a certificate of completion on most of the courses in MZed, which are industry-recognized. There’s more, using MZed Pro, the entire course library is accessible to you.
Additionally, you can also watch MZed courses offline using their IOS dedicated application.
How Does MZed Work?
The way MZed works is something intriguing and also exciting to witness. I am glad I took MZed.
If you are going to choose a course, you get the option of categorizing courses according to your budget, which can be anywhere from $99/- or even below to $350/-
Next, you’d look for the level of understanding in a specific subject, which can be from the very basic (beginner) to somewhere in between (intermediate) to the extreme end (advanced).
After picking the difficulty level, you are left with all the incredible instructors for each course chosen in any categorized subject from producing to editing to lighting, etc.
You also get the option of choosing the appropriate video resolution for the courses that you take in MZed from standard definition to high definition to even 4K, which is something big for a learning platform to include.
In some cases, students taking courses outside college would be expecting certificates for the courses they take. Well, let me tell you that it is possible with MZed. Trust me, they do.
Although not all the courses offer certificates for completion, most of the courses in MZed do, and those certificates are industry-recognized, which can boost up your resume. Courses like The Indie Film Project, Philip Bloom’s Cinematic Masterclass, and The Art & Technique of Film Editing by Tom Cross offer certificates.
The courses are handled by experts in all fields of filmmaking, either one-on-one or an instructor teaching to a set of students. Both ways help in learning the concepts in a subject.
As mentioned earlier, you can access the courses offline in the IOS application using the subscription of MZed Pro. There is also a downside that comes with it: the courses can neither be downloaded on your laptop nor can be accessed for a while, which means only till the subscription.
However, MZed also offers an individual pricing plan with which you can download the courses from the platform directly to your laptop and can access it for the rest of your life with no expiry.
What Will You Get With MZed Pro?
MZed is a great learning platform for aspiring filmmakers, and with just single membership of MZed Pro, you can get access to these things:
- 46+ Courses: With MZed Pro membership, you get access to its entire course library, which includes 46 courses and any upcoming courses.
- 650+ Lessons: In the MZed Pro course library, you can get access to over 650 lessons that experts of MZed teach. These lessons accumulate to more than 325 hours which is a lot for you to learn all the aspects of filmmaking.
- $7500+ Combined Course Value: All the courses of MZed will cost you more than $7500 if you purchase them individually. But you get access to all of them at just $349 of yearly membership of MZed Pro.
- Industry Certification: MZed also offers a few industry-certified courses, and if you take those courses, then you will get a course completion certificate after finishing the course.
- iOS App: MZed also comes with an iOS app that allows you to watch the courses whenever you want. You can also download the courses and watch them offline in the app.
Renewal Discount: You also get a renewal discount where you can renew your yearly plan at just $199 every year after completing the first year.
Review of Top 3 MZed classes (My Experience)
I know it must be confusing for you to know what the courses are like in MZed. To ease it out for you, I have taken a few courses in MZed and will be sharing a brief review of each course below.
Starting with:
1. The Art of Visual Storytelling with Alex Buono
Duration: 4 hours
The number of lessons: 13 modules
Suitable for: Amateurs who would like to improve the art of filmmaking and want to learn the general understanding of lighting, pitching, and even direction.
Quick verdict: The course was recorded with a live audience; hence you can see real examples using volunteers—the course enlightened about the subject of shooting, post-production, and lighting. The structuring of lessons was too good to learn from.
What I Learned From This Course: I was able to learn the history of filmmaking and how to shoot a commercial. The lessons were direct and did not slip away from the subject. Buono also recommends some effective tools to use for lighting. Adjusting and fixating elements can be hard but it was beautifully explained in this course.
Finally, I was taught about taking the master shot, which was in-depth and clear.
2. Short Films 101 with Seth Worley
Duration: 1 hour and 15 minutes
The number of lessons: 15 modules
Suitable for: Any beginner who’d like to explore things with a camera and shoot a short film.
Quick verdict: The course explains how to structure a short film. It also briefs about production, storyboards, and visual effects specifically in small projects.
What I Learned From This Course: Since short filming is different from feature films, Worley takes through the basics of getting started with it and gives important tips on writing short scripts.
Later, he recommends ways on which you can incorporate the cinematic experience into your impactful mini projects by referring to famous films.
Apart from that, he also advises on working with the cast and co-ordinating with producers which can result in great output. Few editing tips were also shared.
At a fair price point, it was worth it as I was exposed to new perspectives in short filming.
3. Philip Bloom’s Cinematic Masterclass
Duration: 9 hours and 30 minutes
The number of lessons: 9 modules
Suitable for: Beginners who would like to learn the fundamentals of filmmaking and experienced filmmakers who would like to learn the core subject in making a feature film.
Quick verdict: The course manages to cover lessons from shooting a scene to featuring a film. Philip handled the course impressively well with relevant examples on various key factors on aerial cinematography and visual storytelling.
What I Learned From This Course: From this MasterClass, I learned how to shoot slow motion videos and after that how to add whatever sound I want in them. He also discussed framing, lighting, and also post-production values. Some techniques taught in the course were completely new and impressive to follow.
As mentioned earlier, he talks about filmmaking from the basics which were easier for me to understand as well as learn the flow of work on the road to a feature film.
Overall, the course highlighted all the necessary conditions in learning filmmaking.
I would say it was a great experience to learn from Philip Bloom.
What I Liked About MZed:
By the writing, you can see the excitement in me on taking the courses in MZed. Let me share everything I liked about MZed below. You should probably read this before taking MZed:
Beginner-friendly 🔰
Most of the online courses have the assumption that the students enrolling in those courses already know a thing or two about the subject or the niche, but in reality, it might be the first time you hear about the subject. At least, it was the case for me.
In such cases, MZed has excelled my expectations by offering beginner-friendly courses with an easily understandable concept of teaching. Hence it doesn’t matter if you are a noob or someone with experience, MZed is helpful either way.
Professional level teaching 🎯
Although the instructors are not some great celebrity names that you’d often hear in the news, they are the faces behind all the most influential films to exist. The opportunity to be taught by them was a great experience, especially since few instructors were great teachers.
The teaching of a subject, explanation of a concept, and the delivery, everything was on-point. You get bonus rewards like insightful tips on certain parts of the courses, so staying attentive throughout the course is what I would suggest.
Categorization ✂️
With the idea of making it a more accessible and smooth experience for their users, MZed stepped ahead and simplified the whole process of enrolling in a course online, right from choosing the budget to picking the appropriate educator to select the video resolution for a particular course.
I specifically loved this feature in MZed.
What I Feel Could Be Improved in MZed?
As I took the courses, I realized that there was no place for me to share the progress or even the learnings that I could grasp, which was disappointing.
In today’s world, even underrated gaming applications have forums to interact with fellow gamers. Still, MZed does not even have a community for their students, which is a thumbs-down for me.
Inclusion of a forum or a student-dedicated community would be helpful because sometimes you’d want to clarify doubts with your peers in a class, but what if there are no peers in your class?
That is something I feel MZed has to consider and include in the next update.
What is the Cost of MZed? (Pricing plans)
You know what MZed is, how it works, the best parts about MZed. Now, let me break down the pricing plans of MZed and recommend the appropriate plan with the most benefit for you.
MZed Pro (What’s Inside)
An annual subscription plan at $349/- ($30 per month) offers complete access to the MZed course library and the option to download courses for offline use in the IOS app. Taking courses is made easy with MZed Pro.
Exclusive content and upcoming courses will automatically be added to MZed Pro.
The biggest advantage of buying MZed Pro is that the entire platform is cut down at a price tag of $349/- only but if you had to buy the courses individually, it is going to cost more than $9000/- which is an unbelievable cost.
Also, you can claim the certificates of completion only by buying MZed Pro. Lastly, your MZed Pro membership renews to $199/- from the following year, which is great.
In MZed, there are also other pricing plans too, each offering various perks, namely,
- Purchasing an individual course means you can buy one course handled by one instructor and download it fully to access it whenever you want for the rest of your life.
- The best part about this is that the courses can be anywhere cheap, from $25 to an extreme price point of $999 as well, so you can choose the one that fits your budget accordingly.
- Purchasing an individual class is an absurd way to fix a pricing plan because if a course is for $250 and you want to buy a single class worth $75 from that particular course, then you’d have to pay $375 for the entire set of classes, which is quite expensive.
MZed Refund Policy
Like every other learning platform, MZed also has the most standard refund policy, but there is a slight twist with the terms and conditions applied to the pricing plans.
Since there is only an annual subscription plan, the refund policy does not comply with any other way of buying courses or classes in MZed, which means you cannot request a refund if you purchase any individual course, or class, or exceed seven days from the date of purchase. Note this!
I’d suggest you pick the right set of courses that you are most interested in MZed to make the best use of MZed with the MZed Pro subscription plan.
Who is MZed Best Suited to?
The learning platform is known for its top-notch classes on filmmaking and photography. Anyone who’d fall in the category of creativity niche can take up MZed.
To simplify it for you, I’d suggest MZed to anyone interested in filmmaking, photographers trying to learn creativity, screenwriters learning the essential criteria of scripts, aspiring directors, and producers who’d like to learn in-depth about the process of cinema. The list goes on.
MZed is also highly recommended to all young technicians, like beginner editors who usually cannot find a suitable platform to learn about the craft of molding a film in post-production.
In conclusion, if you are passionate about photography and film with no experience, you can still take up a course in MZed because there are several beginner-friendly courses within the platform.
MZed Testimonials
“MZed is the best filmmaking educational resource out there.“
Ryan Connolly, Director
“MZed is for me the only place where you can really learn about the craft and technology of filmmaking, the quality of its courses and its instructors far surpass any other offerings on the web.”
Fabio Paul Bedoya Huerta, Colorist & DIT
“It doesn’t only provide you with tricks of the industry but it also gives you confidence. It makes you want to pick up a camera and start shooting.”
Tinu Teleptean, Filmmaker
Alternatives to MZed
Although MZed offers multiple benefits, there can be quite some reasons for not taking the courses in MZed, which is understandable. In such a case, I have curated a list of exciting alternatives which produce A-quality content with relatively cheap pricing compared to MZed.
That is MasterClass, an e-learning platform with 100+ courses on 10+ niches instructed by 80+ celebrities worldwide excelling in various fields of work.
The highlighted difference that makes MasterClass stand out from MZed is that it also offers other niches like cooking, magic, science, etc. You have better options to choose from as well.
If you are still reluctant to take the filmmaking and photography niche, don’t worry. MasterClass has still got you covered because there are several filmmaking courses.
James Cameron MasterClass teaches filmmaking, Martin Scorcese MasterClass teaches filmmaking, Annie Leibovitz MasterClass teaches photography, Samuel L. Jackson MasterClass teaches acting, and many more exciting courses.
Even if you talk about pricing plans, MasterClass has the best plan of $180/- per year; that’s it. With an All-Access Pass, you can take whatever courses you want in whatever niche you want.
Final Verdict of MZed Review (2024)
I’d say that MZed is worth it because you get to learn from professionals working in the field, build multiple skills in a specific niche, have access to insightful techniques, and more.
To make the best use of MZed, I’d recommend subscribing to MZed Pro, which gives full access to the entire course library with downloadable classes on the IOS application. I took this, and it was great.
Even if you are not satisfied with the plan, you can request a refund within seven days of purchase. Again, this is not possible with individual plans, but you can download the classes in the course.
Or even buy an individual course separately. There are a lot of ways to benefit from MZed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does MZed offer any free trial?
Unfortunately, there is no free trial option in MZed.
How much does MZed cost?
The subscription plan – MZed Pro in Mzed costs $349/- per year and other individual plans can cost anywhere from $25/- to $999/-
How many lessons are in MZed?
In MZed, there are 450+ lessons on various courses from screenwriting to producing to directing.
Is there a refund policy in MZed?
Yes, there is a 7-day refund policy in MZed which can be claimed after the first seven days of purchase.
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