Gathering at the Preserve LA celebrates the craft of screenwriting, offers opportunities to learn from great writers, and fosters camaraderie.
On Saturday, November 15th, around 150 WGAW members gathered at the Preserve LA in Hollywood for the Guild’s 2025 Craft Conference, produced by the Craft Conference Working Group.
The location and tenure of the Craft Conference was a deliberate choice. “We wanted to get the most membership participation while also acknowledging the difficult contraction that many of us are facing,” said WGAW Board member and Working Group Co-Chair Danny Tolli. So they created a one-day conference in the coolest space they could find, offering ample opportunities for connection and conversation.
When WGAW member Numa Perrier saw the email invitation, she RSVP’d immediately. “I’m about to embark on a big rewrite for a feature, and a first draft of another feature, so I felt like this would be a good kick-off for that,” Perrier said before the sessions began. “I love everyone that’s participating in it. I want to soak up whatever they can pass my way.”
Session One - Ryan Coogler
First up was Ryan Coogler (Sinners), with moderator Hilliard Guess. Fresh off of a flight and fighting jet lag, his openness helped set the tone for the day.
Coogler compared a story to an iceberg: most of it won’t be seen by the viewer, but it must all be known to the creator. “I do all the iceberg work, the foundation, before I get to page 1,” he said.
And no matter the genre—he loves them all—it’s the emotional core that matters. Coogler cited Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot (adapted by Paul Monash) as an influence on Sinners. In reply to question from the audience about pitching, he said, “Make it so only you can do it.”
Asked about his motivation, Coogler said, “More than anything, I want my movies to be memorable.”
Session Two - Chloé Zhao
Hamnet director Chloé Zhao (who co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O'Farrell from O'Farrell's book) spoke with moderator Kristina Woo, and surprised many when noting that she wrote fan fiction for 10 years, starting as a teenager. “It’s writing from your deepest shadows,” she said. “They’re twisted and not presentable. That’s the freest I’ve ever been. And the writing was terrible.”
She said that when Coogler, a good friend, saw Hamnet, he told her, “This is the first time you allowed yourself to be seen.” Zhao saw Sinners, and said the same back to Coogler.
“I don’t think I choose projects, they choose me,” she said. “Half of the time I have containers, and the other half, I wait, and I listen, and I look for synchronicities. Am I ready to answer this call?”
Asked if she considers commerciality, Zhao replied, “All the time. Is this image going to be undeniable? Has this story been told before?”
Her approach, and her suggestion to all: “The answer is in your body, not in your mind.” A discussion of the Pythagoreans, neo-pagans, mystics, and Carl Jung followed. “Jung is a modern prophet giving scientific language to mysticism,” she noted.
Zhao had no ending for Hamnet until a day or so before it was shot. It came to her in her hotel room. “Once we surrender truly, there is a bigger force out there that’s going to help you write your story.”
Once we surrender truly, there is a bigger force out there that’s going to help you write your story.
- Chloé Zhao
Session Three - Noah Wyle and R. Scott Gemmill
After lunch, Aaron Fullerton moderated a talk with The Pitt EPs Noah Wyle (who also stars as Dr. Robbie) and R. Scott Gemmill (who’s also the creator and showrunner). The two first worked together on ER. Asked about how they came up with a new show in a familiar setting, Wyle gave props to Gemmill for the concept that each episode would take place in real time. Both men also wrote multiple episodes of the HBO series.
“In 15 hours, you can’t move the characters too far,” Wyle said. Added Gemmill, “It’s freeing and it’s challenging.”
One challenge? Breaking all 15 episodes at once. They talked about mapping out the entire space so that they could figure out what was going on at all times, and bringing in experts to tell them what they haven’t already seen on a medical show. “That’s how the measles story got in there,” Wyle said.
In the pitch, Gemmill spoke of the characters like he was talking about his friends, Wyle recalled.
“I use broad strokes a lot,” Gemmill said. “We didn’t pitch the first episode, we pitched Robbie and the setting. And as long as I had Noah, I knew I was going to be fine.”
When melding the personal and medical stories, they noted that the characters are central; “the medicine is the wallpaper,” Gemmill said.
Asked about the show’s political and societal issues, Gemmill said, “The show became more important as the world changed.” The two received a big round of applause for shooting in Los Angeles.
Session Four - Rian Johnson
In conversation with moderator Josephine Green Zhang, Rian Johnson started out discussing his childhood, making movies with friends, some of whom he still works with.
His first film, Brick, started as a novella he wrote after college, inspired by Dashiell Hammett stories. His film Looper was initially a two-page short, which he called his north star for the feature. (Both the Brick novella and Looper short are available on his website.)
A structural writer, Johnson estimated that about 80 percent of his writing process is in notebooks, “keeping it liquid, waiting as long as I can to put it in script form.”
Johnson has always loved whodunnits, but agrees with Hitchcock that the genre has a weakness: it’s based on surprise, not on suspense. So he started Knives Out as a murder mystery, then reversed course, turning it into a “wrong man accused” thriller.
The latest entry, Wake Up Dead Man, is, like Hamnet and Sinners, more personal, centering on faith. Johnson was raised evangelical. Not a believer anymore, he wanted to dig there. “Murder mysteries are a potent way of building a microcosm of society,” he noted.
As busy as he is with films, he enjoys working on his series Poker Face. “It’s a lot less lonely,” he said. “It’s so nice to have lunch with everyone.”
Asked about the pressures of success, Johnson echoed the other writers. “The external pressures will encroach; the only good work comes from following that spark that we feel.”
It’s a Wrap
Jonathan Rivéra-Ashford, a new WGAW member this year, had two goals for the day: “To hear some cool people talking about cool shit—which I did—and to connect with other writers. Literally at the valet, I bumped into somebody physically, and we became friends, she took me in and sat with me.” He befriended more people over lunch and at the reception; “I’m having dinner with some of them tonight,” he said a few days later. “I got so much more out of the event than I expected.”
WGAW member Jeanie Bergen found inspiration from all of the speakers. “You think because they’re successful and famous they’re going to be a certain way, and at the end of the day we’re all just writers who really love telling stories,” she said.
Select the arrow icon in the top right corner to view the full gallery. Photos by Moises Marquez.
