Writers, producers, filmmakers, and musicians typically flock to entertainment hubs like Manhattan and Los Angeles to make their mark in the world. But that’s not necessary anymore thanks to Creative Lab Hawaii, a cornerstone program of Creative Industries founded in 2012 by the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism’s Creative Industries Division. Creative Lab is the designed to accelerate the growth of Hawaii’s creative entrepreneurs through four modules of learning: immersive programs, ideation weekends, panel discussions and public keynotes.
Ideation weekends, which are free and open to the public, take place over two days and focus on a single subject. During the weekend, individuals develop an idea, pitch it to industry professionals, and then create a three-month plan to move their idea forward. The workshops help prepare individuals for the immersive program, a year long coaching program that kicks off with five-days of bootcamp.
Immersive programs are available to 6-12 individuals who have already shown great potential in their field, and are offered in the following categories: Music, web-series, mobile games, fashion, script-writing, and production. Each mentorship in the program is with accredited, successful people who teach participants everything they need to know about the subject from concept to sales.
Concluding the end of each program, up to three finalists receive a trip to LA to network with other professionals in the field and further their education.
Since its inception in 2012, the immersive program have expanded to new categories based on demand from the public. The newest additions to the programs are the production, mobile game, and music immersives, all of which launched this year.
The producers immersive, co-founded by the Honolulu Film Office and in partnership with the Producers Guild of America, began in March and aims to help participants develop new content for motion pictures and television. The mobile game and music immersives both began in mid-June. The mobile-game immersive helps writers, directors, and producers create content in the mobile game app space with the goal of self-publishing while the music immersive focuses on providing participants with the opportunity to co-write and produce music for specific film or TV projects by learning about music licensing, publishing, and intellectual property (IP) protection among other topics. The music immersives mentors include the CEO of music supervision company, Format Entertainment, the founder of music company, Secret Road, and the Head of Business Affairs of Music at Walt Disney.
A featured participant from the 2013 writer’s immersive is Josh Kim, a Korean American filmmaker whose motion picture “How to Win at Checkers (Every Time)” premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was a submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards.
On top of advancing the careers of Hawaii’s creative entrepreneurs, the Creative Lab program also greatly benefits Hawaii’s community by growing the burgeoning creative arts scene in the state. Locals no longer have to leave Hawaii to be succeed; people from other states and even other countries are the ones who are desiring Hawaii as a creative outlet now.
