I Liked It, Didn't Love It: Screenplay Development from the Inside Out

by Rona Edwards, Monika Skerbelis

"I liked it, didn't love it." It's the most often heard line in Hollywood. And you'll hear it when studio honchos pass on your screenplays or projects.Join Edwards & Skerbelis as they pull the covers back for an up close look inside the Hollywood system. What happens to a screenplay when it's submitted to a studio? Who are the studio players? What's the difference between an agent and a manager? What exactly does a creative development exec do? How does the writer and producer work within the studio development process? Are you ready for Hollywood? Get the answers from industry Pros, Rona Edwards & Monika Skerbelis. Through personal experiences and examples they'll teach you what it takes to make it in Hollywood as a development executive, producer, writer or director. Chapters also include exercises that will help readers find new ideas and develop them into cinematic stories as well as offer tips in pitching your projects.Edwards worked as a production company development executive and has been a producer for fifteen years while Skerbelis has worked as a studio development executive. Between them, they've developed and sold countless screenplays. They teach feature film development classes at UCLA and Screenwriting Fundamentals at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film & Media Arts. Co-founders of ESE Film Workshops Online, they offer film classes worldwide. Both live in Los Angeles.

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

Graduating from California Institute of the Arts, Rona Edwards became Vice President of Creative Affairs for multiple Emmy-winner John Larroquette (Night Court), Academy-Award Winner Michael Phillips Productions (The Sting, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Taxi Driver) and Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated Producer Fern Field (Monk, Heartsounds) before she was dragged kicking and screaming into the world of independent producing. As a Producer, she Co-Produced and/or Executive Produced One Special Victory (NBC) starring John Larroquette, The Companion (USA/SCI FI CHANNEL) directed by Gary Fleder, I Know What You Did (ABC) starring Rosanna Arquette, Out Of Sync (VH1) starring Gail O’Grady, and Der Morder Meiner Mutter (Sat.1/Studio Hamburg) for German television. She set up Matchmakers, a feature at Warner Bros. based upon an article she found and the movie, Blind Trust, which aired on Lifetime television. Recently, she produced a series of movies for Lifetime based upon a book series she optioned, subtitled “Crimes of Fashion” by Ellen Byerrum. The first two books, "Killer Hair" and "Hostile Makeover," were aired on the Lifetime Movie Network. She is also working on a number of documentaries including one with award-winning documentarian, Barbara Multer-Wellin about Military Nurses, which will examine war through the POV of nurses who were there healing the wounded, and "Unforgettable" written and directed by Eric Williams ("Mad City," "Out Of Sync"), which tells the story of his brother who has what is called hyperthymesia – the autobiographical ability to recall every day of his life. She executive produced the awarding-winning documentary, "Selling Sex In Heaven," which won the Beyond Borders award for documentary film, the juror’s award at the Big Bear Lake Film Festival, and aired on the CBC.

With Monika Skerbelis, a former VP at Universal Pictures, she teaches “Introduction to Feature Film Development” at UCLA Extension (both on campus and online) for the past ten years, as well as “Story Development Process” at Riverside City College, and “Basic Fundamentals of Screenwriting” at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Together, they wrote the critically acclaimed book, “I Liked It, Didn’t Love It (Screenplay Development From The Inside Out),” that is in its 2nd edition. Their most recent book, "The Complete Filmmaker's Guide to Film Festivals (Your All Access Pass to Launching Your Film on the Festival Circuit)" is now out on bookshelves from Michael Wiese Publishing (MWP). Edwards and Skerbelis are also the co-founders of ESE Film Workshops Online, global online classes that teach the ins and outs of the film industry. Classes include: "Creating a Production Company," "Maneuvering Film Festivals," "Screenplay Development from the Inside Out," "Write Your Idea," "Producing the Short Documentary," and "Basic Screenwriting from the Inside Out."

As a contributing writer to the Beachwood Voice, Edwards was also the newspaper’s restaurant reviewer and feature writer. Currently, she’s a lifestyle columnist for the Los Feliz Ledger and is also a contributing writer to "Produced By" magazine, the official magazine of the Producers Guild of America. In addition, her column, “Rona’s Reel Take,” appears in the New York quarterly newspaper, "The Neworld Review," where she rants and raves about the film business. More recently she divided her time between Singapore and Los Angeles where she taught a number of courses including Screenwriting, Creative Producing & Development, Producing for TV, Feature Analysis and Transmedia (new media) Producing at Chapman University's Singapore campus.