Question by Courtney W: Has anyone ever heard of or attended the Creative Minds in Hollywood/Cannes program?
I stumbled across the site some how a few weeks ago, and I am really thinking about joining the program but I haven’t been able to find ANYONE who has even heard of it or attended it. I would really like to know if it’s worth the money before I go out there.
Here’s the website: www.creativemindsinhollywood.com
They also have this program in Cannes and thats for like filmmakers…anyways if anyone can give me any information on this I’d really appreciate it!!!
Best answer:
Answer by Lisa B
I was going to attend it, but after my friend Jeremy went to the Hollywood program I decided against it.
He went, had an alright time…
The hotels were horrible apparently, and the meals were unsatisfactory.
He said the people that were in the program really had the ambition to work in the industry, but were all daft, and had no idea about any aspects of the industry at all.
Mostly dreamer kids that had parents wanting to get rid of their kids for a week.
That being said, there was almost NO screening process.
(that may very well be due to lack of applicants)
Then he went for a tour of the stars homes? It was supposed to be a tour of the area, but it was a tour of the stars homes, worth 18 dollars, and a waste of 3 hours of his life.
But he did a one day internship with a production company, where he basically was the man’s gopher the whole day, he did and learned absolutely nothing!
It was a small unknown company, and all he did was sit in the hallway and get coffee all day for the ungrateful boss.
He didn’t get to answer phone calls, ask questions, nothing.
The boss sat in his office the whole time with the door closed, smoking and drinking his coffee, just typing away on his computer, and Jeremy sat mostly in the waiting room, waiting to see if maybe he would learn something, or atleast be able to ask some questions!
But no!
The end of the day came, the boss thanked Jeremy for his help throughout the day, Jeremy didn’t get a handshake, OR experience, he gained nothing from the trip at all.
After he came home and I asked him how it went, he just told me the story and that there is no way he would go back.
It was nothing like it was on the website, and a waste of time and money.
He said he could have flown there, gotten a better hotel, and made a few appointments to atleast speak to some producers or agents there, instead of wasting his money.
I don’t know of anyone that took the Cannes trip, but I wouldn’t suggest anyone deal with this company.
Anyways, I hope you find something else, or just take a trip down by yourself. That being said, the program isn’t very expensive, so you sort of get what you pay for.
They also have a facebook group.
Jeremy went on to their facebook group and posted all of the reasons why he thought the program was unsatisfactory, but they deleted all of his comments, and some people that werent even in his group were posting about the great time they had in the time that he went, (supposedly they were in his group) but they werent. Completely made up.
He kept in touch with a few people from the program who all said they hated it, but it wasn’t a total waste, because they all got together and decided they would rent a furnished house for a month, all pitching in to test the LA waters.
That’s what I would do if I were you, spend the couple grand, and spend 400$ on a ticket, 500 on rent and the rest of your money on food and transportation for a month and gain more experience and a better time than that program could have ever offered.
(changed his name because after I posted this he asked me to take it out, so we’ll call him Jeremy for now)
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!