Customer Reviews

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

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"I Liked It, Didn't Love It"
By Rona Edwards and Monika Skerbelis
Review by Pi Ware

"I Liked It, Didn't Love It" is not a book--as the title might suggest--about improving your script so that people will love it. Rather, the book is a guide through the bureaucracy of Hollywood story development. Authors Rona Edwards and Monika Skerbelis have developed and sold screenplays for the last 15 years, and while they clearly understand the social networking and complex hierarchy of the story department, their most impressive credit is a Patrick Swayze trucker movie, "Black Dog". All of which highlights the absurdity of the Hollywood machine: college-educated people compete fiercely to spend millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours working and reworking films that, in the end, serve only to cheapen human experience, dilute artistic movements and defy common sense.

But there is more to the Hollywood machine than absurdity. There has always been--and will continue to be--great cinema born of L.A. And since the time of Thomas Edison, the story department has served as the solid foundation for L.A.'s studio filmmakers. "I Liked It, Didn't Love It" dissects and displays that mysterious foundation. The book takes you on the journey from pitch to production, and all the meetings in between. Although the majority of the text is a dry breakdown of jobs and their responsibilities, Edwards and Skerbelis spice up the read with quotes, cartoons and historical documents such as Jerome Lachenbruch's 1922 article, "What's Wrong With Your Photoplay Story?"

If you're looking to get a job in Hollywood development, this book is a must-read. If you're a writer with a script heading into the Hollywood machine, it's a helpful heads-up of what to expect. But as an independent filmmaker, you may find the endless interworkings of assistants, interns, agents and executives symptomatic of Hollywood's wasteful fascination with business over art.

Yes, screenwriters have a word that comes right after "development": hell. Why does my script bear no resemblance to what I wrote? How did it go down the rabbit hole never to be seen again?

I've read many books on film, but none has gone deeper into the belly of the beast than this.

The fact is, script development is an integral part of a billion-dollar business. It is the difference between a film that rakes in a fortune all over the world and another that goes straight to DVD.

No actor, no director can survive a bad script. The film audience can smell it before it's out of the can.

"I Liked It, Didn't Love It": a six-word death warrant and a warning to writers and producers. Do a lot of development on your own before your work goes into development.

Rona Edwards and Monica Skerbelis are pros, insiders, and they use language as well as any script writer. This is not just a cautionary tale for writers. It is a deep look into an industry that fascinates us all with its power and magic.

This is one of the first conclusive books of its kind. Other books mention the development process, this one goes a few steps further - I was pleasantly surprised, it truly was a book worth owning, one I can refer to again and again as I navigate my way through the Hollywood system. This book gave me a blueprint of not only what to expect but also who is involved and what every one's function is. It not only gave me a roadmap, it instilled in me tools to come up with creative ways to find new stories. Just what I've been looking for.

In Hollywood, tourists buy maps to the homes of the stars.

But if you really want to know the lay of the land -- how things work and where the power lives -- buy this book, instead! The authors know what they're talking about, and even better: they write about it so clearly that *you* know what they're talking about.

Edwards and Skerbelis map the trails and terrors of the Hollywood jungle and cover every step -- from finding an idea, to the red carpet premiere.

If you have any interest in this subject at all -- How Movies Get Made -- this is the one best resource to buy.

As a writer who has yet to sell a script, I've been told snippets of the information in this book by my agent and manager, but I never had the whole picture of what happens when my script leaves my hands. It was both sobering and comforting to get what sounds like a very accurate description. I also see now what I did--both right and wrong--the time a script of mine, a romantic comedy, went out and didn't sell but got me meetings. There is a useful diagram of the Hollywood food chain, descriptions of the different players and what makes each tick, and on a bonus creative note, a seemingly simplistic but ultimately quite useful template for finding and fleshing out new story ideas. I have a lot of books about scrrenwriting, but none explains the business as well as this one. It was also an entertaining read. Thanks Rona!
Lisa Rothstein
www.yourwriterforhire.com

I feel like reading this book was like taking an expensive indepth class. The conversational style as well as the no nonsense approach made digesting this material a breeze. Anyone who works in Hollywood knows, knowing every aspect of the business if you are in any part of the business is helpful. I would recommend this to anyone from actors on through to producers, not just writers. I'm an aspiring script reader and I felt well armed to jump into doing coverage on scripts right away. Thank you ladies, I look forward to your next book!

In a word: invaluable. If you are truly interested in the screenwriting craft, and the (il)logic of how Hollywood thinks, then "I Liked It, Didn't Love It" is a must for your library. Easy to read, easy to understand, often times funny and poignant, "I Liked It, Didn't Love It" strips away the mystery and presents a clear, undistorted reality check on the entire development process. Rona Edwards and Monika Skerbelis really did their homework on this, and present what easily could have been (and often is) a frustrating rant on the screenwriting process into an enjoyable dip into the shark-filled pool that is Hollywood. This is a book I want all my writer friends to check out. Well done.

...it ought to be this one!

The authors are clearly seasoned pros and their insightful observations and advice help to "fill in the blanks" about the oftentimes confounding process of screenplay development. I highly recommend it.

This book was a great surprise for me. I was trying to write a script for years and the 3 act structure helped me
to divide and develop the story in a way that was easier to structure and helped me to develop my main characters in a more interesting way.

This book is great if you are a writer who is trying to write your first script and don't know exactly how to organize your ideas and it tells you what is going to happen to your script once it is submitted to a development department of a production company or studio.

It is great if you want to work in development, I found out things about development that I simply had no idea before I read this book or simply if you want to understand more about the basics of the business in Hollywood.

Great Book! I recommend it!

Books on all aspects on script writing, directing and producing are abundant but this is THE book on development. If you are serious about the film business you need to own this book. Reading it will give you a detailed insight into what happens from the initial idea to a screenplay is greenlit by a studio. That there is so little information out there about development is striking considering a great screenplay is a pre-requisite for a great film.

What is so great about this book is that works on a very practical level. It doesn't just talk around the concepts it shows you what it looks like. And for that reason you will end up using this book in your day to day work. My copy looks like it has been run over by an armoured vehicle...that's a sign of quality!

Outside LA development resources are very limited so reading this book will give you an edge and the tools you need to feel comfortable about running your own development process.

Further it is a very enjoyable and quick read.

The bottom line is the value of this book far outstrips the cost....it is a no brainer!