Hollywood Film And Acting Academy reviews and complaints

Is this true because i was thinking about attending the school but i guess not now

This so called school is strictly designed to steal your money. Josh Sands will lie and say anything to take your money. Neither they nor their students have produced anything except a juvenile quality horror flick, and it was so bad, it has never NEVER been shown in public.
Ask for a list of his films or his students films. Check out the credits.
If you want to learn nothing and throw your money away, go to his so called acting academy.
What a joke.
Ask for a list of what they produced. What a joke.

Josh Sands created The Hollywood Film & Acting Academy and Actors House L.A. out of genuine concern for people who want to become actors.

The messages above are designed to destroy what was created to help people who want to be actors and were written out of hatred for Josh Sands, because Josh was trying to enforce the rules that were put in place by The Hollywood Film and Acting Academy to protect the students at The Hollywood Film and Acting Academy.

These slanderous messages exist, because of a group of students who were expelled came up with a brilliant plan to punish Josh Sands and The Hollywood Film & Acting Academy for the rules that us the students broke.

Our shame of being expelled and then sent to collections due to non-payment, they have decided to take the low road and slander Josh Sands and The Hollywood FIlm & Acting Academy, instead of taking responsibility for our actions was easier then facing out parents, family and friends.

The feature film wasn't made because the house BULLY Brett Edwards turned me and the other students who have been post negative comments about Josh Sands and The Hollywood Film and Acting Academy against Josh.

Brett Edwards hated Josh, because Josh found out he was living in Chelsie Foster's room and was molesting her.

I am sorry for what I have done.

Each and every student agreed to follow the rules in a contract before we were accepted into the program.

Each and every student was told it was a 6-Month Program, before we were accepted into the program and that we would be responsible for the entire 6-Month Program even if we decided to quit the program early.

The rules were very simple and stated clearly in the contract.

Josh's door was always open for each and every student who wanted to talk.

Josh was very easy to communicate with until a student raised their voice and started to yell, this is when Josh walked away from the conversation.

Josh gave to many chances to people who didn't deserve them.

Josh Sands is a good man that tried his best to help and accommodate everyone.

To this day this so called "school" is trying to scam people by charging 2, 500 dollars for a "6 month training" which is twice a month for four afters four six months . That's like me going to school for one week and paying hundreds of dollars An hour. This lady in Bakersfield California named Sheila told me she was a very famous model in the 80s and I looked her up and could not find ONE PICTURE of her. I looked up every single other person in the room that were supposedly very famous at one point. And guess what ? None of them were who they said they were. The main guy was black and said he was the so of a producer who I looked up and he was 39 years old and white. So tell me, if this guys says he's 29 and black how does he have a white 39 year old dad ? Exactly . They try to make you pay right there so you dot look into them but don't fall for it. Sheila and the rest wasted 3 hours of my life just saying lies. She said I only had one day to put a down payment of 500 to "show my determination" and when I told her no she text me the next day saying shed pay for the down payment if I pay in payments of 200 for 10 months but when I told her no Again she text me 5 hours ago saying not to tell anyone but she'll pay for half of my scholarship but I HAD to Agree today in order to "secure" my spot. None of their famous "students" went to this Academy I did vigorous research and so should you. Unfortunately evil people like her and all of their scammers Rome This world. Be careful. Pray for these sick people and DON'T fall for their scam.

This so called school is strictly designed to steal your money. Josh Sands will lie and say anything to take your money. Neither they nor their students have produced anything except a juvenile quality horror flick, and it was so bad, it has never NEVER been shown in public.
Ask for a list of his films or his students films. Check out the credits.
If you want to learn nothing and throw your money away, go to his so called acting academy.
What a joke.
Ask for a list of what they produced. What a joke.

Wow thanks guys, just called for more information, but due to all of these complants I've had a change of heart!

Don't go to Hollywood film and acting academy. It's absolutely one of Los Angeles worst fulltime actingschools.
Newcomers to Hollywood: please read further!
The school 's owner Josh Sands is really nice before you sign a fake contract but then coincidentally turns into a nasty guy who is not concerned at all about you or your future actingcareer.You will not find many actor's online who say they have been to this school. Even the school itself will not post names and bio's of "graduates" and will not even mention all graduates.WEll, they beter not since former students include an Arizona fugitive (most wanted former drugaddict) who had severe mental problems, an Arizona sex offender who is currently in jail for sleeping with one of his former underage students, a formerly homeless and currently alcoholic that can be obviously seen in a student testimony on the website, and a man who was previously institutionalized, had a violent temper, stalked one of the students, and was taken to a mental evaluation facility because of his threats to commit suicide by jumping off the Kodak Theatre building.

All these people were living in the actor's house next to the school, even though Josh was aware of their backgrounds..

He couldn't care less, they made him money.

The school / Josh Sands willingly put students living in his "free" house in danger.

The background checks are not carried out properly, and none of the above should ever happen on a campus.

The money hungry school/Josh though will accept too many unfit and potentialy dangerous students as long as they put $$ in his pocket.

Purposely the bar for admissions is set low.

Not only dangerous people are accepted therefore but also many untalented people, so it is nearly impossible to meet people who have been acting already before they came to this school.Everybody is a starter.

The suggestive name "Holywood Film And Acting Academy" will maybe confuse some people but not you, who reads this and wants to go here.Do not go to this school.

Find a shared room or place for yourself on Craiglist.org (for about 250$ to 500$ a month) and then spend the rest on actingclasses at good places.

Always audit before you sign and research online before.Usually great schools and teachers will be mentioned by accomplished actors on their websites or on their resumes. Actingcoaches will be mentioned and cross-referenced all over the internet(John Kirby's actingstudio, Larry Moss, David Kagen, Joanne Baron, Dee Wallace, Tasha Smith, Scott Sedita, Judy Kerr.

Also see what you can find on youtube when you type an actingschool's/actingcoach name.

By all means save yourself the energy to even go audit at Hollywood film and acting academy.You will not be building a strong foundation there to start your career, not in acting and surely not in filming.

Josh is a total liar and a fake. Want proof? Ask him what films he made. He is a thief and will say or do anything to take your money.
Ask him what films he or his students made. Total loser.

For the "former employees" replying to this stating that the complaints are from the same kids pretending to be different students...kuddos for revealing your stategy. In fact, I would not be surprised if it is Josh himself writing in stating it is a "former" employee to try and give more creditablity to the statements. Look, the fact of the matter is, regardless whether the students were bad or problematic, that is still no excuse for a business not to follow through on commitments and services as promised (especially if they are advertized). The burdon of completion lies on the business, not the customer. If you advertise/promise that a film will be completed, even if the actors are bad or have bad attitudes, etc, you film it. If you promise that they will get credit, you get it done and make it happen...period. (You would figure that if the school staff and owner were as experienced as they claim, they would know that actors can be divas at times and you find a way to make it work. Remember that the staff and owner are supposed to be the professionals, not the students...that is why they are there...to learn. No wonder the students complain as much as they do...the staff is complaining on this site as much as they are (i guess they did learn something after all).

I was an employee at the time of the 6 Month Acting Program that these "people" are trashing so much about. To be more exact it was the Sept 09 program. These students in this particular program, the ones that have issues and are all over the net trashing the school are the reason they didn't have a good experience. They actually expected things to be handed to them. Stardom, auditions, etc... They all sit in their rooms getting drunk at night, talking about how they all liked each other but just as they have shown here in the posts here and around the internet they turned on each other just like they are tuning on the academy. Every time they walked into the academy you could feel the baggage that this class was holding onto. The main one was a guy named Brett, don't know if he's been posting but why would he, he has his other "friends" do it, Akram, Bibo and his girlfriend at the time Chelsea? I think that was her name. I wouldn't know really she never came to the classes or office. The class never wanted to shoot any feature film and the way they participated in the short, they didn't even finish it... It was a blessing really. It was never the academy's choice to not do the movie. They all agreed... Really it was Brett that decided to not do it, so the others followed. I'm sure if there was a film that was shot and they were not in it they would still be complaining that they weren't included. Really you can't win. The unfortunate thing, when the new class came in the attitude spilled over. A few of those come to mind. Two guys from somewhere and another from Kentucky. Funny how they talk how bad Suge Knight is in this blog, but the day they were casted to be in the short with him... Well... They where in the short. They weren't forced... So... I guess that day they didn't think about the safety of the other students until they sat down and thought real hard on what they could complain about in this blog. And for the guy, or student who is posing as an instructor... You are not a good actor, so stop, please. As for international students, they knew coming in what they had to ESL classes. But again, laziness got the best of 'em and who better to blame?
Oh and by the way, I don't really know any business that opens up to not make a profit. But I guess when you have a bunch of geniuses that figured they could give the academy a bad name by claiming that the school is for profit, well... That just shows the mentality of all these posters. People do yourself a favor, find out for yourself, call the academy ask a bunch of questions about what is being posted. At least you will get a real person and not two or three people who are terrorizing others by posing as other students that have attended the academy.

The people placing negative information about The Hollywood Film & Acting Academy are a small group of former students pretending to be multiple students that are placing bad reviews about the Academy so that they don't have to be mature and take responsibility for their actions which got them expelled. There are always 2 sides to every story, if you would like to know the truth contact The Hollywood Film & Acting Academy at
[protected].

Hollywood Film & Acting Academy is one of the worst actingschools in Los Angeles. It is a scam.Do stay away from it please.
Read further if you need to know why:

I was a former student and though I completed the program at a cost of over 12.000$ I did not learn a lot.

Money is wasted and your time as well.

Classes are not structured and led by actor's who are not the best teachers. Some come because they need to not because they want to teach, some are great people really but you don't learn a lot from them as actingteachers. In general overpriced un-structured education.

Filmmaking program is a mess, as it is led by the school's owner who has not enough talent and experience as a filmmaker and has no talent at all for teaching. He is also not capable of managing and owning a school.
His name is Josh Sands, and he is really nice before you sign, because it is his living, he makes his money with this "school".

To get new students to sign Josh employs a team of underpaid telemarketeers who work on commision only basis.

Desperate people from the Hollywood streets, even homeless people,
come to him and try to get by in Hollywood by tricking aspiring students to sign, so they get a kickback.
These desperado's work on commission basis and they get money from Josh when they get you to sign.Sadly Josh even betrays a lot of these staff as well as he betrays students and I saw a lot of them leave while I was there.They had to sign a non-disclosure agreement..

Actor's House and background
I lived in the actor's house with convicted criminals, and homeless bum's who were just to eager to get a place to live.Even a woman who was most wanted was allowed in the house, after a fake backgroundcheck.
Josh Sands knew about her past as he did with the other criminals and some mentally unstable people whom he yet, knowingly, allowed in the house.Unsafe!
This is no place to send your son or daughter to!
.Please people, do look into craiglist for housing or go for a cheap hotel even, just to get you started in Hollywood.But don't buy the "free housing"!
HOUSING IS NOT FOR FREE, because at 1500$ a month housing is factored into the costs of the "ultimate acting program".

The teachers are not all good, especially when the school's owner's brother, Larry Sands is your teacher.He does this so he can at least make a buck while staying at his brother;s because he does not get a lot of actingwork.He is not a teacher out of passion or belief or because he like to teach, he does it because he has to but he sucks at it.

Some teachers are allright, but in general you might better contact them directly yourself, because at the school you pay too much as a student and those "teachers", really :actor's who make an extra buck, do not get a lot.The money is for Josh, the owner who wants a profit.

Josh Sands loves money but couldn't care less about your acting career after you sign.

He does not return deposits made.

Josh in general is a killer of actor's dreams which is his biggest crime.

A lot of false promises were made before I signed a fake contract and none of the promises were kept. No movies were shot with students.Some short video's were done but the quality of those vid' is on the level of amateurs.Have a look at YOUTUBE, type the school's name and judge for yourself.omg.
My class was also promised imdb credit's but those home made vid's don't ever qualify, so that also was a false promise.

Good actingclasses in Hollywood vary in price but are always cheaper than what you get here, it is way too expensive for what you get.
Yes Stella Adler, or UCLA or USC cost you more but they have a reputation for quality education.

Hollywood film and acting academy is not even a real academy.
Even the name is there to fool you. You don't even get a diploma when you "graduate". How can you? The place is not even registered as a school!

IT IS A SCAM operating as a BUSINESS FOR PROFIT.

Look if you can find any SUCCESFULL graduates of hollywood film and academy online who are satisfied. You will not find any.
When you do, you can be sure they are undertalented wannabees who lost about 10.000$ on average and don't yet realise they are tricked out of their money.Don't become one of them.

When you do sign it is almost impossible to get money back...

Josh Sands has been disrespectful too to many people at the school and has always tried to escape out of the web of lies he spun himself.

I strongly recommend anyone to stay away from this place.

RESEARCH BEFORE YOU ARRIVE IN HOLLYWOOD!

Extensive lists of teachers are in the "Working Actor's Guide", "THe Selective Hollywood Acting Coaches and Teachers Directory", and in special issues of BACKSTAGE WEST.Info on good teachers? judy@judykerr.com

Together with all of my former classmates i hope one day Josh will have to close his school and pay for his crimes.God will take care of it.

I wish you all the luck with your future acting career.Bless you