"Presto" is a Pixar short bundled with their feature film "WALL-E" and is available as a DVD bonus on the same title. It's also available as a separate download from iTunes.
It's a story about a magician, two hats and a rabbit.
It's a brilliant example for beginning screenwriters. Doug Sweetland and the rest of the folks at Pixar compress quite a bit of story structure into the span of five short minutes.
Here's the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet;
Opening Image: A theatrical poster featuring a magician.
Set Up: A magician has two hats. Whatever goes into one, comes out the other and vice versa. This is how the magician is about to give a performance of the "pulling a rabbit out of a hat" trick.
Theme stated: You can have the carrot but you have to go through the hat first.
Catalyst: Show time! The magician puts the rabbit and one hat off stage then walks on stage with the other hat to bow before the crowd.
Debate: The rabbit wants the carrot before he's going to do anything.
Break into Two: Magician thinks he'll just stick his hand in further and pull the rabbit out, but the rabbit decides to fight back.
B Story: The rabbit loves his carrot!
Fun and Games: The magician continues to try to pull the rabbit out of the hat, but is confounded by the rabbit with; a mouse trap, an egg, a ventilation shaft, the magician getting his hand slammed in a drawer, the magician poking himself in the eyes, pulling off his own pants and being shot across the stage by a ladder.
Mid-point: The stakes are raised when he magician tantalizingly holds up the carrot to the rabbit but then appears to destroy the carrot. To quote Bugs Bunny, "Of course you know, this means war."
The Bad Guys Close In: The magician is now violent.
All is Lost: The rabbit resorts to the possibility of death by electrocuting the magician. Since it's a comedy and a cartoon, the band joins in and the magician ends up dancing. A chase ensues the magician ends up hanging over the stage, then falling to what may be his death.
Dark Night of the Soul: The rabbit stops for a moment. The rabbit realizes he has caused all this and now his master, the person that feeds him, may die.
Break into Three: The rabbit decides to save the magician.
Finale: The rabbit places one of the hats in such a way the magician falls through it and into safety. The audience goes nuts for the performance of a lifetime. The magician realizes the rabbit saved him and gives the rabbit his carrot. "This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Final Image: A theatrical poster featuring the magician and the rabbit.
What's even more instructive is this is all done without so much as a single word of dialog. Everything is carried in the action. Want to learn to write action in a screenplay? Watch this short shot-by-shot and describe each shot in one short sentence. Note how each shot is a specific and discrete action with a purpose or as a reaction to the previous shot.
A seriously brilliant short.
