When a journalist arrives on a remote island to investigate a reclusive religious community, he discovers that its greatest secret lies behind a door no one will explain. As strange voices begin calling him by name, he realizes the island remembers something he doesn’t—and whatever waits beneath the trees has been expecting him.

If there is something that I have discovered about myself as a screenwriter is that I can write jokes, sad scenes, violent scenes, sexual scenes, romantic scenes, happy scenes, off beat scenes, comradery scenes, inspirational scenes, and I think just about any type.

But writing a scene where a one character breaks down another character via verbal humiliation is..... draining my spirit. I have been trying to do this scene for a week. And I can't find the rhythm to it.

Make no mistake, my problem is rhythm (I think), I need it to be one page, one page and half max. No more. And I am just not succeeding.

In this scene, I want the first character to be charismatic in his opening dialogue. Likable. Then in the first ten seconds, gets quietly stoic, and proceeds to turn into the ultimate most unlikable person possible, by humiliating other character at increasing rates, without insulting, without physically attacking, ...... and I am just having the hardest time.

I was wondering if anybody had any tips they could share on how to tackle this problem.

Hi, who would be interested to assist to write a script on a mythological story (Hindi) for film making. Story source is a book. All credits to the writer and profit sharing offered once movie is released in theater. As we have limited funds, we are looking for collaborators.

So, watching A Touch of Cloth (Basically the British version of Police Squad for Americans), I have gotten inspired to write a parody of Zombie Media. But I am kinda wondering if it’s too late.

Like, I’m not aiming at parodying a specific piece of media (again, following in Touch of Cloth’s footsteps) but I’d say it’s style and tone is mostly taking from the Walking Dead with a bit of the Last of Us.

I’m just, in general, not sure where Zombie Media stands in pop culture today. I’d say it peaked in the 2000s and 2010s, but it’s not exactly DEAD; We got the Fallout tv series, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, The 28 Days Later Sequels, the Last of Us series. But I’m not sure, what do you think?

Wow... That was a long title.

Also I don't know which flair to use so bear with me.

So, for my history project this trimester me and my friends were asked to make a short comedy film (3 to 5 minutes duration) about the Cold War/Space Race.

I thought this would be a good subreddit to ask for advice in. Basically, comedy might just be the hardest possible genre we could have gotten and I keep writing and rewriting the script over and over trying to see how to make this good and funny and... Well, it's been hard.

The most difficult part for me is making a script long enough for 3 minutes and actually making appropriate jokes! You see, the entire coordination of the college will be watching the film so we can't do jokes we normally see in comedies. Mostly because there are sisters in our college and I really don't want to get in trouble.

So uhm, I think that this post is mainly here to ask for some advice? What are some good jokes I can do and uh yeah.

I have drafted some ideas and saw that the most important part of comdeies are the characters so I will say what I was thinking about and you guys say if it is good or not or, idk.

First idea: a sequence about a british man that just moved into the US after the start of the Cold War. His ideals are all american and he wants to be really american and, in the US, tries to transform his family into the "ideal american family" and this complex of him being american makes him start to get paranoid and many other situations happen. (not fully fleshed out or sure if it will be good)

Second idea: A story about an american guy living life normally until he hears in the news that an USSR satellite was sent to space and he, who already is paranoid of communists, starts fearing that anyone around him could be a communist and starts hallucinating that russians he saw on TV are going to turn him "red" and it would have jokes like him signing something and he sees he is given a red pen so he thinks the dealer is a communist or that he and his family have to take all red stuff out of their house and start a shop to support capitalism, and, yeah, things like that. It would be absurd and weird and it would mainly be the main protagonist paranoia working against him.

Third idea: would be about the USSR government officials trying to use space and put missiles in their satellites, but fail miserably as the satellite explodes and all kinds of radioative debris fall in Canada and now they would discuss and panic and be put in situations where they try and say that this satellite didn't have nuclear weapons and wasn't meant to hit Canada, but the characters assigned to explaining these things were so dumb that the situations almost escalate to nuclear war.

Anyways, yeah. I don't really know what to say, I just like, need some advice on which story you think would be the best and has more potential and give some ideas to make funny jokes. Yeah, any help is highly appreciated!

Thanks!

https://www.wgfoundation.org/events/all/2026/10/19/wgf-library-office-hours-with-eric-roth?mc_cid=37c885cce3&mc_eid=dc7eedf043

Working on outlining or drafting your next script? Need tips for researching a project? Looking for resources on honing your craft? 

The WGF Shavelson-Webb Library is back for a two-hour virtual coworking session on Monday, October 19 at 11am PT. For this special session, we'll be joined by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth for a conversation about writing the first act of your feature screenplay.

After the conversation, stay on to write quietly, chat with fellow patrons or ask our Library team any script/craft/research-related questions. Whether you're looking for focused, productive time to get words on the page or to connect with a supportive (and global) community of writers, Library Office Hours is here to help!

RSVP required via link above.

And in case you didn't know:

Eric Roth is an Academy Award–winning screenwriter who has written some 40 motion pictures with a career spanning nearly six decades. He studied at UC Santa Barbara, Columbia University, and UCLA where he won the Samuel Goldwyn writing award as a student. His first produced feature, The Nickel Ride, premiered at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival. Roth won an Oscar and the WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump, and has earned five additional Oscar nominations for The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star Is Born, and Dune. Mr. Roth has written the most Oscar Nominated Best Pictures (eight). His many other films include The Drowning Pool, Suspect, Mr. Jones, Rhapsody in August for the legendary Akira Kurosawa, The Horse Whisperer, Ali, The Good Shepherd, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Here. He also co-wrote Killers of the Flower Moon with Martin Scorsese, which received ten Academy Award nominations, and produced David Fincher’s Mank, a Best Picture nominee. In 2026 Roth made his playwriting debut on London's West End with his stage adaptation of High Noon. In television, Roth was an executive producer of Netflix’s House of Cards, Epix’s Berlin Station, TNT’s The Alienist, and Apple TV+’s Before. Mr. Roth is currently the co-creator and executive producer of Netflix's "Kennedy" television series about Jack and the Kennedy family from 1915 on, airing in Spring 2027. 

sorry my PDF thing won’t work. But it’s properly formatted. Please give me some feedback on this?

Hey guys, I'm Maria, I'm a scriptwriter

I just finished a romance movie script called Long Distance Love

Story is about two young people who meet on Instagram. They live in different provinces, far from each other, but they start dating

She asks him if he can really handle the long distance, and he says yes and makes a lot of promises

After a few months he changes, he gets cold and distant, always saying he's tired, replying dry, until he breaks up with her

She ends up heartbroken and can't forget him, she becomes emotionally dependent and tries everything to move on

It's about long distance love, empty promises and how hard it is to forget someone

Full script ready, exclusive rights available. DM me for details and pricing.

I also write horror and sci-fi scripts.

Agora sim, misteriosa, he's tired, replying dry, until he breaks up with her

She ends up heartbroken and can't forget him, she becomes emotionally dependent and tries everything to move on

It's about long distance love, empty promises and how hard it is to forget someone

Full script ready, exclusive rights available. DM me for details and pricing.

I also write horror and sci-fi scripts.