VARIATIONS OF PLOT

THREE VARIATIONS OF PLOT
(From Story by Robert McKee)




CLASSICAL DESIGN means a story built around an active protagonists who struggles against primarily external forces of antagonism to pursue his or her desire, through continuous time, within a consistent and causally connected fictional reality, to a closed ending of absolute, irreversible change.


CLASSICAL DESIGN
(Archplot)

Causality
Closed Ending
Linear Time
External Conflict
Single Protagonist
Consistent Reality
Active Protagonist

EXAMPLES:

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY
CITIZEN KANE
THE SEVEN SAMURAI
THE HUSTLER
CHINATOWN
THE GODFATHER
BIG
A FISH CALLED WANDA
THELMA AND LOUISE
THE FUGITIVE
MEN IN BLACK



MINIMALISM or miniplot does not mean no plot, for its story can be as beautifully executed as Archplot. Rather, minimalism strives for simplicity and economy while retaining enough of the classical that the film will still satisfy the audience, sending them out of the cinema thinking, “What a good story.”




MINIMALISM
(Miniplot)

Open Ending
Internal Conflict
Multi-Protagonists
Passive Protagonists



EXAMPLES:

WILD STRAWBERRIES
FIVE EASY PIECES
TENDER MERCIES
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT
PARENTHOOD
SHORT CUTS
PULP FICTION
DO THE RIGHT THING
EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN
MAGNOLIA









ANTI-STRUCTURE (anti-plot) variations doesn’t reduce the Classical but reverses it, contradicting traditional forms to exploit, perhaps ridicule the very idea of formal principles. The Antiplot-maker is rarely interested in understatement or quiet austerity; rather to make clear his “revolutionary” ambitions, his films tend toward extravagance and self-conscious overstatement.


ANTI-STRUCTURE (Antiplot)

Coincidence
Nonlinear
Inconsistent Realities

81/2
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
STRANGER THAN PARADISE
WAYNE’S WORLD
LOST HIGHWAY