Film Courage: What is the central question?
Jeffrey Alan Schechter, Author/Screenwriter/Founder of
Writers Room Pro: Ah central question, I love me a good central question. So central question (not to
sound like I'm quoting) but I think I might be, so the central question is the question
that once it's definitively answered, yes or no, your story is over so. Central questions
apply to screenplays for sure and even TV series like a season of a television show might have a
central question for the TV for that season and each episode might have its own central
question for each episode. A central question is really just the way to make sure that you're
hitting sort of the emotional and intellectual and personal thrust of the story so so really a
good central question has is really like three components it's probably I think Syd Field
called like professional, personal and private which was this idea that if you look at like
Star Wars is kind of a classic example that I use. You've ever seen Star Wars? Okay so Star Wars
you say what's the central question of Star Wars? The professional question is will
Luke destroy the Death Star? The personal question is will he save Princess Leia?
The private question is will he be a Jedi like his father? If you look at Star Wars,
the professional, personal and private you go that all three of those get answered right at the
climax of the movie. He destroys the Death Star sure he went in and he saved Princess Leia from
the jail cell but they let him get away because they would lead him to the rebel base right and
the way of saving Princess Leia for real because she's on the planet that the Death Star is about
to destroy right so the way to save Princess Leia ultimately is to destroy the Death Star and the
way to destroy the Death Star is he's got all the technology and stuff that he's using but he shuts
it off and he uses the force so in one fell swoop in one moment. In the climax he uses the force,
saves the princess by destroying the Death Star so the central question
is answered in the affirmative yes, yes and yes yeah will he yeah will he save Princess
Leia yes will he destroy the Death Star yes will he become a Jedi like his father yes
movies over right so it becomes very easy and and they don't all have to be answered yes I mean Dark
Knight is interesting it's if I recall the central question of Dark Knight properly it's it's will
will Bruce Wayne get the girl is the is the personal question right will you fall in love
have a relationship with Rachel professional is will he stop the Joker and the private is can he
can he be the hero that Gotham City needs right can he rise to that challenge so you look at it
goes well yeah he defeats the Joker but he doesn't get the girl right he he loses her and he becomes
it's the great line, he becomes the hero that Gotham doesn't want but Gotham does need so he
does become the hero but not in the way that he was expecting it so and that's part of what why
Dark Knight is such a brilliant movie because it's very clear on the central questions but it doesn't
it doesn't give you the the happy ending kind of walk off into the sunset kind of of conclusion.
Film Courage: What is the central question for Stitchers?
Jeffrey: I have to think about that. I know I wrote it once (well the original).
It depends because central question is often defined by the your central character
like a good central question is about like in The Dark Knight
example it's about Bruce Wayne Batman right, that's and in Star Wars it's about Luke,
so the central question is really a function of whoever your main character is right. For
stitchers without main character being cursed and who had this made up illness is temporal dysplasia
which which made her like a person who she's in a who lives in a constant state of deja vu,
everything seems immediately familiar to her right so the the professional question is will she
become a part of this government lab because she's kind of recruited to solve help solve a murder
even though they've kind of had her eye on her for a while so will she become part of this team
it would be like the professional question, the personal question is will she be able to develop
a relationship with the male lead Cameron and then the private question is will she really discover
what happened to her mother because there's this like whole mystery like the mom is presumed to
be dead but isn't really and I mean there is a way to look at the central question like what's a good
central question? The professional part of the central question is the thing that means a lot
to a lot of people and the personal part means a lot to a few people and the private means a lot
to one person. So going back to Star Wars, did you see Star Wars? So going back to Star Wars,
destroying the Death Star means a lot. That's a professional question. It means a lot to a
lot of people right, it's blowing up planets it's everybody in the entire galaxy far, far
away once the debts got destroyed so destroying the Death Star means a lot to a lot of people
will Luke save the princess means a lot to a few people. It certainly means a lot to the princess,
it means a lot to the rebels, I don't know that saving the princess means a lot to somebody on
some planet far on the other side of the Galaxy right it doesn't mean a lot to everybody so it
means a lot to a few will Luke become a Jedi like his father means a lot to Luke so so that's a good
way to look at your your central question like what means a lot to a lot of people a lot to a
few and a lot to one and then that's a good way to kind of define your central question and it helps
focus your your main character because everybody's kind of obsessed with character-driven stories and
stuff like that which sounds odd because I always approach my stories from a plot heavy stance first
rather than rather than character a character comes later in some weird way I know this is
like controversial and people will think that I'm an idiot or will wildly disagree with me about it,
it's like I'm espousing some like satanic approach to storytelling what plot first character second
I don't know maybe maybe it's because I like like characters pop into my story head kind of fully
formed so I don't worry about them as much as I worry about telling the getting the plot right
so yeah it's it's kind of it's sort of a double-edged sword I I stopped myself I was
going to say something controversial like like if you have a really well told story
with a poorly constructed main character you might very well still sell that because somebody looking
and go oh here's what this character needs to do to better serve this really well constructed story
so so because you're going to get notes and you're going to get rewritten stuff like that so
if you have a fundamentally really strong, really solid story but there's some character flaws in
the development of those characters not character flow like they steal or something like a character
flaw in your construction of that character you might still very likely sell that story
and then work on the character afterwards but if you have a really poorly constructed story
but it has a great character I don't know I don't know if you're ever gonna sell that
it's just it's too much it's too much of a heavy lift it's I know maybe I'm wrong I'd
love to hear from people who've maybe had that experience but to me with everything I know
about the business and about marketing and about selling and about what people want or don't want
it feels to me like it's a much safer bet to have a strong story with a character that could use a
little bit of work if the character is terrible I mean then it's but if you're within spitting
distance of a well-constructed character who's in a really well constructed story that's far better
than you're having a perfectly constructed main character who saddled with this just useless story
is the central question also a story engine
yes and no it's a story engine to the extent that it it helps create certain
parameters by which you should tell the story but it's a it's really a litmus test more than
anything else the first main purpose of the central question is to define where Act One
ends and where act two begins because your your act one is laying all the pipe for the rest of
your story it's the foundation of the house so your central question comes in at the end of act
one and I don't mean it comes in like somebody brings in a box and they go here's your central
question but your your essential question should be clearly defined at the end of act one so like
at the end of act one in Star Wars again did you see so at the end of act one in Star Wars
Luke is had his aunt and uncle killed he's they know that the princess is in trouble
Obi-Wan has said you must come with me if you want to be a Jedi like your father
and because I can't I gotta go milk the space cows or whatever so and then he goes back home
and realizes that news and now he's got nothing to hold him there and he comes back and goes there's
nothing to keep me here I want to go with you I want to save the princess I want to be a Jedi
like my father and that's the end of act one as they're about to go down into Mos Eisley in the
bar and the great Cantina scene but all those we we know very clearly what his professional,
personal and private journey now is going to be through the rest of the story and that's
the landmark that's the flag that the Storyteller waves to say act one is now over it's now time for
act two so you can use as a writer you should use the central question to help define your
switch over from act one to act two and if it's not clear it's like I don't know what
my character's main mission is going to be in the story and by Mission I don't mean that you
got to go over the restaurant the mission could be a love story right Mission could be a medical
drama it's like whatever that professional thing the thing that means a lot to a lot of people
that should be clear as should be that your main character's personal
desire and then the private need of the character and once that's all clear that's the end of act
one I can't tell you the number of scripts I've consulted on where it's like you just
read it and you're on page 75 and it's still not clear what your character needs to accomplish
and you go oh my God it's like this is like a never-ending act one there's so much fat in there
yeah so that central question is a really good litmus test to for you to say Have I told my
Act One properly that's like building a house if I build have I built my foundation properly
yep professional personal private yep done good let's move on now to the first floor of the house
right you don't want to build the first floor on a faulty foundation so it's it's a good test for
that and then to go to your question of story engine it's you just it's a story engine only
in that you go oh I got a really great idea for a scene and you start writing out that scene
you have to ask yourself is this am I re if am I answering the central question definitively yes
or no on the professional storyline the personal storyline or the private am I moving that part of
the story forward in some new way and if you're not then then it's probably the wrong scene or
beat or moment because you're not advancing the story based on the central question so essential
questions not really a story engine it's just it's that mirror that you can hold up to your
to your story so that you have a sense of am I am I satisfying I made my audience a promise with the
central question everything that comes afterwards has to honor that promise I promised I would tell
them the story of Luke becoming a Jedi like his father I promised that I would tell the story
of Luke saving the princess I promised I will tell the story about trying to stop the Death
Star and if you look at the story Every Beat is something about one of those three components
and if it's like cut to Luke goes to a pet shop and decides that he wants to buy a dog you go
it might be the sweetest cutest most fun scene in the history of fun scenes but it's not moving the
story forward and it's actually just going back to Star Wars again there's plenty of
of outtakes and and scenes that were shot that that exists that you can find and just watch
those scenes and go oh that's why I didn't make it into the finished story okay that because
it's not it's not advancing it's it's not adding another pearl to the necklace it's really just
and emphasizing a pearl that's already there and you go you don't need it right
so yeah it's you've got to be judicious on it that's kind of like another reason
why yeah because I've worn many hats in my career when I started off in editing
back in the editing rooms in New York in film and sound editing and I just watched the
the anxiety as they they would get all this footage in and say oh my God they're so overshot
and stuff they don't need and like stuff that gets cut out and cut out and cut out
like everybody knows the stories of like people's performances end up on the cutting room floor and
the first cut of a movie was four and a half hours long and they finally get it down to 90
minutes who's how much time and money that wastes like it's just crazy so I'm a fan of Leo construct
a really well told story don't don't fill it with fluff don't have Luke going to get dogs
because it's not going to it's not never going to make it into the finished product anyway.