Victoria Elena Nones Utterly Incompetent Producer/Teacher Chicago Illinois
If you have any interest in making film, TV or comedy, stay way the hell away from Victoria Nones. She is the classic conman who can talk a great game to get you excited and get you committed, then she will let you down and lie to your face so hard you to think that it was your fault all along.
I had been doing improv comedy in Chicago for a while, and had run into Women in Comedy on the scene a few times, though I hadn't met Victoria specifically, when I heard that there was a program for female comedy writers to produce their pilots in Chicago. Honestly, I was psyched, because I didn't really want to/couldn't afford to move to LA or NYC, but I always wanted to write for a TV show. I applied with most of a pilot I had written, it needed work, but I gave it a shot and I GOT AN INTERVIEw
On the call it sounded awesome. So awesome. She told me there would be a supportive grou[ and that we would work together to make all of our pilots and shorts happen. She told me she had people who would help us shoot it on donated time and we could get donations to our stuff written off through the non-profit she had (Women in Comedy),, just it was really what I needed and was so excited about it that when I got in with what now I think was a barely half developed script I didn't even think about it I just joined.
The first class was kind of weird and I wasn't super sure how this was going to go but I figured that there must be some cool people in the program, and I really wanted to know how to produce. I think Victoria also does, but she seems to think she already knows and she really does not
Our homework had nothing to do with anything movie related or script related, it was crazy and then NONE of our homework ended up having anything to do with figuring out making our scripts. It was extra bad because mine wasn't even done and I was getting zero mentorship in doing writing. We did learn about joke structure and how to do standu[ bits which was great, but what about TV script structure??? I felt like a bunch of our class time was a total waste so I started kinda trying to figure some stuff out on my own. Not like I could ask Victoria anything because anytime I did it was so personal like I was attacking her and then she just ignored my worries and said we'd do it later. We haven't.
But the really annoying stuff came up fast, starting with the fact that Victoria just left us for a full month out of a si month program to go be on a REALITY SHOW. She just LEFT this program that we all were really dedicated to and she did it a bunch of times. Even when she eventually came back weeks went by without learning anything about how to plan our shoots. The mentorship came only from people who came to speak, who actually knew what they were talking about. Victoria Nones doesn't know a single thing about how to produce a TV show or even what to ask people for, she gave us absolutely nothing.
The "crew" she had promised turned out to be college kids from a school without a serious film progra, who she expected to work for free. The "equipment" she had lined up? She expected those college kids to provide it, for free. Oh yeah, and we're shooting over the SUMMER. Guess when school is NOT happening. So all that fell through because she didnt even actually have any of it she just had us go to a school event and try to grab these students as they were leaving. I cannot say how much of an idiot I felt like trying to explain what I needed for my shoot when I for real had no idea. This is weeks into a program that's supposed to teach me that!!
She told us people could write off the work they did on their taxes as a donation. SOMEBODY INFORM THE IRS cause she had to come back later and say that was wrong, that people could only write off cash donations. She takes 20% of whatever money gets donated too as a "fee" for her insight into production even though she knows literally nothing about anything.
She forced us to give criticism not anonymous so she could react and basically punish us, and I heard from another girl in the program that Victoria said to her face literally her movie was not going to get done like YEAH we have no creew, thanks for screwing that up. And her script isn't even done because this program has been a bunch of lies and an ego trip for a total conwoman who paints herself as being all about helping women and instead has wasted four months of my life and honestly has gone to new lengths of lying saying that she didn't promise us anything when at very least she promised us crew over the summer. The thing that sticks in my mind is she said that we aren't trying to make Hollywood quality. Like ok, what is Chicago quality? Going based on Victoria's talk, it's not good thats for sure
The best part of this program was the women I got to meet who are funny and awesome and are the only reason I'm even still in this stupid program. Victoria Elena Nones and her weird crazy incompetent behavior as a producer, teacher or enterprenur with no clue about how to make this program a success has to be the most toxic environment I've been in in this entire city
Women in Comedy might as well be run by Harvey Weinstein. he knew how to make a goddamn movie.
Stay far far away from Victoria Elena Nones and Women in Comedy, because she will make tons of promises and utterly screw you. I have been trying to read and learn outside of the program, so what the hell is bieng accelerated???
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Anonymous
Chicago,Illinois,
United States
Sh*t Sandwich
#3Author of original report
Fri, June 08, 2018
Get ready for a Big Mac
Compliment: You are great at making believable promises
Criticism: First off the whole reason I wrote my issues down here is because you can't take any criticism at all. If people could see the way you act behind this rebuttal they would know you as the fraud you are. You want to "discuss" my concerns? Ok cool. Let's start with how you have tried and ARE TRYING to turn us against each other. You forced us to critique a program tht we were like a month into, made us do it openly WHILE WE WERE STILL IN THE PROGRAM, and then straight up just rejected any suggestions or criticisms. Because why, you're perfect? I am like 90 percent sure you punished anybody who actually had anything to say because people dropped out pretty soon after that.
And all the crap you've been talking and doing since I couldn't take it anymore just really made me realize how right I was to put this out there. How badly do you want to boot me out of your group that you're on the warpath and getting all of us against each other? I'm sick of tiptoing around you and your cult leader bullsh*t, Victoria. So if you wanna "discuss" my "concerns then let's do it here where you can't try to fli[ it around and try to convince me that what I heard straight up with my goddamne ears is a lie.
First off, the program isn't "free" if you're getting 20% of the donations that I raise with zero help from you. Yeah, real charities take like 9% if that, and they provide services and stuff. Cool that we get a space, but I don't know or understand any more about production, structure, preparing a shoot or what I need for it. Or cameras, what anyone on the crew does, the actualy business, any of that. I honestly feel more lost about what I'm doing than when I came in the program, so while you're really strong on the fact it's "free" I can't imagine paying to know less than I did before.
How are you accelerating anything? You said you had crew and equipment that we were going to have a chance at using. Not only did that turn out to be students, YOU DIDN'T EVEN HAVE ANY LINES UP!! Like I said earlier, basically crashing an event and trying to grab college students while they're leaving at the end is so embarassing. So desperate and especially because I couldnt even ask good questions, because I had no idea what to ask. Unbeilievable that you don't see how that might be a "concern."
How about I'm really sure that my project is either not going to get done or it's going to be terrible because you have given zero support on finding real crews once your plan to use college kids failed. The one piece of crew you did provide, that you said came with equipment? Well, he didn't. Oh and trying to rent anything needs insurance that you decided not to provide for any of the twelve projects you decided to take on.
Most frustrating of all, you keep just straight out ditching us. This is YOUR PROGRAM, where you're supposed to be working with writers on accelerating our scripts, so how can you get all of us excited and then skip? Are you going to say the same thing you always do, that "You never said you were going to be there every class." Yeah ok, but anyone reading this is gonna know that excuse is bullsh*t, and you should too.
Compliment: You are excellent at maintaining confidence in the face of overwhelming odds.
Criticism: You literally don't know how to produce, you don't know how to develop scripts, you don't even seem to know how to structure a program to do those things. Here's a tip though, reading chapters out of "You're a Bad A*s" isn't part of it. A large part of this is on me, to be fair, cause I should have googled you to see what you had produced. But to be even more fair, you misrepresented yourself as someone who could mentor a group of funny women to successful production, and you aren't. You can't. You don't know what you're doing.
YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING
If you want to make this program better, here's the first place I would start: you shouldn't be involved at any level. Find someone who is competent and either producing or teaching. Honestly, find someone good at fundraising who can put even a little money behind a couple of these projects. Just bring in someone on a permanent basis that has some actually useful knowledge to pass on. And stop saying we should be able to shoot on iPhones and have it be just as good, because even I know that's embarrassing. Unless you wanna blog, which it sounds like you maybe do. I want "Chicago quality" to be every bit as good and creative as "Hollywood quality," but it never will be if you're the one leading the charge.
use your conwoman skills for good and get some people with money to be as excited about developing Chicago talent as we were to come do what seemed like a dream program. Make amazing promises of all the women you can help, and then you can take 15%, because at that point you will earn it.
And quit acting like you're the victim here just because I reached my breaking point with you incompetent bullsh*t and decided to call you out.
Respond here, in public. I'm not giving you my name.
Women In Comedy
Chicago,United States
Victoria Here - Happy to Chat About Your Concerns
#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, June 04, 2018
Hi! This is Victoria and I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience in our free WiCo script accelerator program. We would love the opportunity to chat with you constructively about your concerns and look for solutions together. Since this review is anonymous, I am unable to identify who has these concerns out of our group of 12 women selected to the free script accelerator program, but I welcome the opportunity to chat in person, offline to remedy. Please contact me directly and let's find a way to help you feel better and chat about ways we can strengthen the program to improve it for future iterations.
Best,
Victoria