Film Courage: What is the central dramatic question?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: The central dramatic question is just
another way to phrase that idea that your story is about one person trying to achieve one thing.
It's again another tool to help you wrap your brain around your own story.
Whatever your protagonist is pursuing their story goal over the course of that story if you phrase
that as a question, that is the central dramatic question. Then that's the question that you're
trying to answer over the course of the story. For Silence Of The Lambs my go-to example will
Clarice catch the serial killer? That's the question that we're waiting for the answer to
that the story is hopefully going to answer by the end of it otherwise we'll be unsatisfied
what happens when the central dramatic question is answered then your movie's basically over so that
that gives us that framework for your story so it's the thing that we're tracking
and then once that question is answered it feels to us like your story is resolved right so there
might be a little bit of wrap up after that there might be some an emotional button to
put on the story or like a subplot or something that needs to be tied up or you might need a
scene to show us what's the character going to do next where is their life going from here but
pretty much when that question is answered that's when the audience feels like ah okay this
this thing that i've been watching is now coming to an end right like this is the end of it
well if we look at a lot of let's say tent pole movies there's probably going to be a resolution
unless there's a sequel planned and then they want to keep you hanging but some movies don't seem
like they always answer they there's a there's a vagueness to them yeah I don't I don't think an
a movie has to answer every question that it brings up but that central dramatic question
we want some feeling of resolution right so I do think that there are movies that leave it
ambiguous and that's the point but I think that it has to be clear that that is the point right
so then we feel like okay so this experience of exploring or trying to get the answer to
this question maybe we couldn't answer it and that's the point of it and so that gives you that
feeling of even if the question isn't resolved that story is resolved because
we've gotten to a point where we're like ah okay so here's how this ends we don't know how that
story is how that question is answered so always know your audience is probably
much smarter than you give them credit for but then if you end it in too much of a vague way
it may just be that the writer didn't have a clear view of themselves yeah I think in most cases
even if you leave it open if it's you don't fully answer the question or you leave it an ambiguous
ending and that's the point of your story it has to feel deliberate to your audience otherwise
they will feel like you didn't do your job right like they'll they'll feel like you left them
hanging unintentionally and I think you want you always want your audience to feel like they're
in good hands you want them to feel like you are what you're doing and you're telling them
a very specific story in a very specific way and the things that they're feeling were
orchestrated by you what I mean and so even if you don't give them that like
nice tidy neat wrapped up thing in the end they need to know that that was your choice and not
accidental what if the writer can't figure out what the central dramatic question is
well I don't think that there's necessarily like one right answer that you're you have to
figure out exactly what that question is otherwise your story doesn't work
again it's more of a tool to help you and give you a framework for your story and understand
what your audience is tracking in the story right so it's a way to get everybody on the same page
but I think just thinking about what is my protagonist trying to achieve by the end of this
answering that question of who wants what in this story and then turning that into a question is the
way you get your central dramatic question so it's knowing what your audience sorry it's knowing what
you want your audience to track that's the question that you're that you're trying to
pose by the end of act one if that makes sense well can we have examples of central dramatic
questions in different films sure so I think the central dramatic question in crazy stupid love
right would be actually I think in that movie it's it's something along the lines of like what guy
will cal decide to be right it's because he's at a crossroads in his life where he's been asked for a
divorce he doesn't know I think that he even says like he doesn't know who he is as a father and as
a husband and that's part of being misguided by the ryan gosling character is cal's at a loss
he's adrift and he doesn't know which direction to go now that his life as he knows it is ending and
so I think that if i'm remembering it right the central dramatic question in that movie is like
what what guy will cat or what man will cal choose to be and so we see him navigate that question
over the course of the movie right like he gets taken one direction by ryan gosling and then
around the middle of the movie he realizes oh this isn't this isn't who I want to be or this
isn't doing any favors it's not getting me the thing that I ultimately want which is my wife so
again i'm not 100 sure that i'm remembering that movie correctly but I think that you could look at
it that way that that's the question where we're waiting for him to answer by the end of it sure
and and can he still be a good guy despite bad things happening to him yeah show that at the core
he's actually a great person yeah and it's part of his character arc too right of choosing like
ultimately the lesson I think that he learns in that movie is the thing that he says when
he stands up in front of his son's middle school graduation where he's like when you find the one
you don't give up you keep fighting for them right so that's the guy that he's decided he's
going to be by the end of the movie is he's he's not going to be this womanizer who goes out and
sleeps with every woman he can he knows who he's in love with he knows what he wants is to to have
that relationship and so he's just going to keep trying so even if you don't know the outcome you
keep trying for the one that you that you really love right so that's the lesson that he learns at
the end of it and then for silence of the lambs yeah so that one's a lot more straightforward you
have a nice clear external goal in that one so the central dramatic question there is will Clarice
catch the serial killer right because that's everything that's set up and give the context that
we're given in act one is like you have Clarice you have a serial killer on the loose she's
the only one or she's she's one person who has a special in to get help to catch that serial killer
so that's the goal that's formed by the end of act one is like i'm going to try to catch that serial
killer so if we just turn that into a question it's will she catch that serial killer and that is
what the audience is watching and waiting for the answer to and then to go back to the forrest gump
example I know we're using it a lot but that one it seems like there that's a little unclear to me
yeah and and again I haven't seen that movie in so long that i'm not 100 sure on how everything plays
out in it but it does feel to me like that is a much more episodic story I wonder if I rewatched
it if and again there are moments that I remember out of it but I don't remember the whole story I
wonder if the jenny relationship is actually the spine of that story and so it could be
again i'd be guessing but it could be that the the central dramatic question has something to do with
whether he'll have a relationship with her but again i'm not 100 sure on that one why do you put
the central dramatic question in between act one and act two oh well if we look at the the basic
structure of a movie we typically talk about it in three act structure and that's really just how
the pursuit of the goal breaks down so in act one because really the the story of your movie is the
story of this the goal and the pursuit of this goal right like that's what creates the through
line in your story so act one that goal is created act two the goal is pursued and then act three
it's resolved or not right so they get the goal or they don't so that the central dramatic question
is basically by the end of act one we have all of the context that we need in order to understand
what the protagonist is trying to do and what they're trying to do is answering that question
so that's why the central dramatic question is solidified or asked for the audience at the end of
act one and then the meat of the movie is watching them try to answer it across act 2 and act 3.