Building Story - Ideas for the Animated Short - page 129

• Resolution : The character succeeds or fails.
Gleefully she shivers with joy when—pop!—open arms of acceptance burst from
her body...and the smiles on her friends' faces fade as they get a clear picture of
what is ahead for them too.
Early Bloomer, Director Sande Scoredos, Sony Pictures Imageworks
At each point in the structure using just a few sentences, unencumbered with details, you
can see if your story is working at its fundamental level early on. Is the character's goal
clear? Is there an inciting incident? Does the confl ict rise? How many confl icts do you have?
What does the character learn? How does it end? Does your ending answer the questions
raised in the story?
Variations on Linear Structure
There are variations on the basic linear structure outlined above. The main variations that
work for the short include:
1. Parallel Structure
With parallel structure, more than one event is going on at the same time during the story.
Usually these events eventually converge. For example, in Ritterschlag , an adult dragon trains
his young offspring to slay knights to keep a princess captive. Believing training is over for
the day when the adult dragon falls asleep, the young dragon keeps on practicing. When
the young dragon loses the princess, the adult dragon wakes up and rejoins the story.
Ritterschlag , directed by Sven Martin, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany