Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
3. Bus-Stop Structure
Stan Howard, describes this structure as one where an essential secondary character arrives
and leaves during various parts in a story. “It is a bit like people getting on and off a bus.”
The example he gives is Cinderella's godmother, who arrives, solves a problem, and then
leaves. [2]
In
Das Floss
, the seagull plays this role. Two men have been adrift on a raft at sea for many days.
They watch as a seagull catches a fi sh and lands on their mast to eat it. The seagull drops the fi sh
onto the raft, causing confl ict for food between two hungry men, and then fl ies away.
Das Floss,
directed by Jan Thuring, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Often these characters arrive to solve a problem, create a problem, or deliver a message.
They are small roles, but without them, the story cannot progress.
4. Ping-Pong or Zig-Zag Structure
In this structure, the character moves back and forth between similar but escalating obstacles
and similar attempts at resolution. Often the obstacles are new characters that arrive as the
old ones leave.
In
Gopher Broke,
a gopher digs holes in a road causing a Produce Truck to bounce, making
vegetables fall from the truck. Each time the gopher successfully gets vegetables on the
ground, some other creature steals them before he can get to them: fi rst a squirrel, and then
a mean chicken, and fi nally a fl ock of crows. Each event sends him back to try again.
He ping-pongs between the same attempt to get vegetables and similar but escalating
defeats. (See image on opposite page.)
The
ChubbChubbs
: A Case Study in Structure
The
ChubbChubbs
is a complex short that uses several of these structures in the
production of the piece. It is interesting to look at how the different structures drive the plot
forward.
In the
ChubbChubbs
, Meeper, a lowly janitor/busboy, is cleaning up at the Ale-E-Inn Pub
in outer space. Meeper dreams of being a karaoke singer like the diva in the bar. As she
