CREATING A PRODUCTION COMPANY
Presented by Rona Edwards & Monika Skerbelis
Is it time to hang your production company shingle? Are you ready to get your projects out there and get them produced? Or is it so overwhelming you just don’t know where to begin? This two-day intensive yet rewarding workshop and seminar presented by industry pros, Rona Edwards & Monika Skerbelis will help kickstart your production company and set you on the path to success.
Some of the topics include:
What does it take to form a production company?
The studio/streamer/network producer vs the independent producer
The business plan for a project – or how do I make money? Ka-ching!
The business of development
The art of pitching
Creating your own story department of ideas
Targeting the right partners and talent
and more!
At the end of the two-day event, participants will have a chance to put their ideas to the test – and pitch them to Edwards & Skerbelis, receiving valuable feedback and advice.
So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get serious and move your career forward.
Member price: 150
Non-Member price: 250 Join the CFVA today.
Rona Edwards
A graduate of California Institute of the Arts, Rona Edwards was VP of Creative Affairs for Emmy-winner John Larroquette, Academy Award-winner Michael Phillips, & Emmy-winning Producer Fern Field before becoming an indie producer. Producing Credits & Experience include Killer Hair, Hostile Makeover, Blind Trust (Lifetime), One Special Victory (NBC), The Companion (USA/SCI FI CHANNEL), I Know What You Did (ABC), Out Of Sync (VH1) Der Morder Meiner Mutter (Sat.1), Selling Sex in Heaven (CBC), which won the Beyond Borders Award for Best Documentary. She produced another award-winning documentary, Unforgettable, the story of a man who can remember every day of his life. Edwards has served as a film consultant for numerous film commissions and production companies worldwide including Film Victoria, Screen Queensland, Stewart-Hall Productions, Enjoy Entertainment in Australia and Pilgrim Pictures in Singapore.
Edwards has had feature and TV projects made and/or in development with many of the major networks and studios including a script deal at ABC, USA, movies at CBS, ABC, NBC, Hearst Entertainment, VH1, HBO, Phoenix Pictures, Edward R. Pressman, Lifetime, Warner Bros. Dreamworks, Incendo Media, All Girl Productions and Wilshire Court, to name a few.
With Monika Skerbelis, a former VP at Universal Pictures, she wrote the critically acclaimed, bestselling books, I Liked It, Didn’t Love It (Screenplay Development From The Inside Out!), the quintessential book on the development process now in its 3rd edition, and The Complete Filmmakers Guide to Film Festivals (Your All Access Pass to Launching Your Film on the Festival Circuit), both are used as textbooks at various universities around the world. Together, they co-founded ESE Film Workshops Online and ES Entertainment.
In addition, Edwards was Assistant Professor at Chapman University Singapore’s Dodge College of Film & Media Arts for four years where she helped build the producing program there. Currently, she teaches at Chapman in California, Hussian College Studio School, Riverside City College and Columbia College Chicago’s Semester in LA, teaching classes that include Creative Producing & Development, Screenwriting, Producing for Television, Transmedia Producing, Finance in Media, Senior Thesis, Maneuvering Film Festivals, The Business of Media and more. She has also served as a journalist for numerous publications including Produced By magazine, Los Feliz Ledger and NeoWorld Review.
Edwards is currently developing several books, true-life stories, animation and fictional tales for feature film and television. She is a proud active member of the Producers Guild of America, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, International Documentary Association, SAG-AFTRA, and Film Independent.
Monika Skerbelis
Monika Skerbelis is the programming director for the American Pavilion's Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival since 2008, and was the artistic & programming director for the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival for fourteen years. She is a co-author of the book, I Liked It, Didn’t Love It: Screenplay Development from the Inside Out and The Complete Filmmaker's Guide to Film Festivals (Your All Access Pass to Launching Your Film on the Festival Circuit), from Michael Wiese Publishing (MWP).
Ms. Skerbelis was Vice President of Creative and Executive Story Editor for Universal Pictures story department where she spent ten years overseeing the story department and developing a number of screenplays including Black Dog starring Patrick Swayze. Prior to Universal, she was story editor for 20th Century Fox and began her career as an assistant in the Story Department for Paramount Pictures.
With Rona Edwards, she teaches “Story Development Process in the Entertainment Industry” online for Riverside City College and also teaches "Introduction to Feature Film Development" at UCLA Extension. In addition, Ms. Skerbelis taught “Basic Screenwriting Fundamentals” at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film & Media Arts. She serves on the juries for numerous film and screenwriting competitions and has guest lectured at film schools, film commissions, film festivals and film organizations across the country.
Ms. Skerbelis was associate producer on two movies Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover based on the “Crimes of Fashion” novels by Ellen Byerrum for the Lifetime Movie Network. She co-produced the feature-length mockumentary, Quest for the Yeti, directed by Victoria Arch. She directed the short film, Reel Footage: The Secret Lives of Shoes that was in the Short Film Corner during the Cannes Film Festival. More recently, she is working on a number of projects targeting the family and kids’ market.
She is a member of the Producers Guild of America.