How the character changes

'1408' is about a man who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror.

In films like these (another example is Phonebooth) the main male character is introduced as selfish and arrogant. Freytag's pyramid diagrammed every story's plot. However, In my opinion, I think one can similarly do this for a character and how what they've been through has changed them from start to finish. Perhaps the character deserves the incident they are placed in, and this is the purpose of the stories; to change morals. For example, the protagonist's mother told him not to go in the woods, yet he lied and he did enter the woods. Thus, he perhaps caused the 'problem' himself, like walking into a fire or the boy who cried wolf.

Freytag's pyramid consists of:

1. Exposition: introduces the characters and setting, providing description and background. (setting the scene).

2. Inciting Incident: something happens to begin the action. A single event usually signals the beginning of the main conflict. The inciting incident is often referred to as the complication.

3. Rising Action: the story builds and gets more exciting.

4. Climax: the moment of greatest tension in a story. This is often the most exciting event and the rising action builds up to this, and that of which the falling action follows.

5. Falling Action: events happen as a result of the climax and we know that the story will soon end.

6. Resolution: the character solves the main problem/conflict or someone solves it for him or her.

7. Denouement: the ending. At this point, any remaining secrets, questions or mysteries which remain after the resolution are solved by the characters or explained by the author. Sometimes the author leaves us to think about the theme or future possibilities for the characters which could result in another film.

The highlighted points are ones I will use in my trailer. As it is only a teaser trailer, these points will be brief and I will not reveal the ending or how to solve the problem.


Source: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/freytag.html