We’ve had an incredible response to the MUSE Pilot Program. It’s been featured on NoFilmSchool, Planet5D, Shane Hurlbut’s blog, and Mentorless.

Across all of the media channels, through email, and in our live support on Learnstory.org we’ve heard 3 big concerns come up over and over again. So we’ll address all three, right here;

1. Why the price? $497US seems like it’s way too much.

2. Who is MUSE for? What type of filmmakers does it best help?

3. Why a Pilot Program? Is it just some slick marketing trick?

 

First, the price. We’ve been taking some heat over at NoFilmSchool for the price being ‘LMAO’ and other lovely descriptors. So, why $497 and is it really worth that much?

 

Well of course we think so. It’s more than just hours of tutorials that have been obsessed over, refined, and brought to life like you would your most special film. It’s that they are surrounded in smart quizzes, dozens of case studies across genres, story coaches for support, PLUS a physical toolkit. But hey, we are biased.

 

To get a perspective on the value MUSE offers, we turned to Kurt Lancaster, a Professor with a PhD at Northern Arizona University. He’s in the MUSE Pilot Program and he’s also authored several books on filmmaking and storytelling. In his words;

“Film students will spend tens of thousands of dollars on an education and very few of them learn the heart of storytelling. With Stillmotion’s MUSE course you get it for $497—an investment that’s worth far more than a year’s worth of tuition at NYU or USC. With MUSE you get the tools that unlock the process to powerful storytelling.

Those who complete this course and practice it are given the tools most film schools miss—how to find and develop a story that expresses heart. “

And from Axel Gimenez, somebody who’s been spending some time inside the MUSE course.

“A lot of people know a good story when they hear one but writing one is another, uh, story. There are plenty of books on story but what makes MUSE so compelling is that you do as you teach. I’m looking for a system to quickly write great stories over and over again and this ability is perfectly illustrated in your Dave Jacka case study. You happen to have an extra day to shoot and with a week of research you have a great story. That’s what I’m talking about. Regarding price. The internet has turned a lot of things upside down and one of them is people’s expectations of what things should cost. I would say MUSE is as valuable as a college course if not more and compare those prices – MUSE is a bargain.“

And perhaps my personal favorite from Robert Fish.

“I appreciate the way you’ve distilled a decade’s worth of knowledge and experience into a clear, concrete, and straightforward framework. MUSE reminds me of the difference between fifteen and twenty-one year old scotch: clarity takes time. Worth more than $497.“

Get Muse

First off, the big disclaimer. Story is a universal structure and we wrap it in a medium, and even more-so in a genre within that medium. But story, and it’s mechanics, work regardless of whether it’s a wedding couple, somebody building a new product, or a script your writing.

Story is about connection Real human connection. And MUSE will show you how to build stories that connect your audience.

Now that’s not to say that in it’s current form, MUSE is built for everybody. Wedding, documentary, and corporate filmmakers will find it easiest to apply MUSE to what they do. They will find more case studies that directly apply to them. So a narrative filmmaker will need to work a bit harder to see how the process fits them, but it surely does fit if it’s a story their telling.

We do have more support and the videos are written more from the perspective of finding and building your story –and that applies most to even filmmakers of the wedding, doc, and corporate variety.  We break down a feature film, Still Alice, in several modules, but their is certainly less narrative support.

In the coming months, we will be adding more sections for each type of filmmaking genre, including narrative. And those will be free to those in Pilot Program. That’s one of the HUGE benefits of getting in early, as you really do get to shape this and you’ll get a whole lot extra since you came along for that ride.

Get Muse

But let me take a moment and explain the thinking behind the Pilot Program.

There are so many places we want to take MUSE. Here are just a few;

• We can develop specific tracks for filmmakers, so you could see a course specifically for wedding filmmakers, or corporate filmmakers, as an example.
• The workbooks and other tools would be KILLER if they were digital and you could interact with them online
• We’d love to get MUSE into schools (and we already have a couple that want to try it out this Fall)
• MUSE can be adapted to help others who are Story Stuck. Think about bloggers, businesses, and marketing folks who may not be in filmmaking but certainly can use MUSE to help connect people to things that matter.

So we have so much we want to do. But where should we go next? What options should the course MUSE course include and what should be a paid extra?

As Robert Hardy said in his NoFilmSchool review of MUSE “I can tell you that it may very well revolutionize the way we think about storytelling.” And if MUSE will be that big shift we believe it can be, then we need to slow down and learn what works best from the first group of users.

So we’ll have the Pilot Program open for a week and that will give us a core group of people that we can really help with MUSE, and learn from their experience. They will be a big part of shaping how MUSE is brought to the world. And as a thank you for being one of the first in, they’ll then get everything we have at one low cost. It’s entirely plausible that the wedding version of MUSE could be $697 in one year with several of the tools as extras you can purchase and time with a Story Coach being more limited. Then if you wanted other modules, the physical toolkit, and other add-ons those could all be more.

Our thank you to those who are the first in, is that you do get so much for that one price and we won’t ask you to buy extra pieces. And as we do add more case studies, those will automatically (and at no cost) be added to your course overnight.

As an example, right now I am in the final stages of developing a set of PDFs you can use to present the key milestones of MUSE to your clients. They are slickly designed and they have a spot of you to drop your logo in and customize them. They are super easy to use over and over again. This set of documents is HUGE for us as we use MUSE and it will be a $97 download sometime in the coming months. But before it’s available to the public you can bet well roll it out to all those in the Pilot Program, totally free, and see how we can make them better for the work that you do.

That’s the real kick-ass benefit for getting in early. You get tons of value and you really do get to help shaping something really special.

3 days left to join the MUSE Pilot Program. Just hop on over to Learnstory.org before Monday morning at 10am, PST.

One last thing we’d like to share. It’s the real-life story of Mark Teskey, somebody who learned MUSE last year at one of our workshops. Check out Mark’s powerful transformation once MUSE unlocked the magic of story.

 

 

And remember that we do have live support, real folks, right on the landing page of Learnstory.org, so you can reach out and ask any questions you might have quickly and easily.

Get Muse