Nahno McLein

Part 2 of the Hero’s Journey
At some point, our hero needs an incentive to set the story in motion. The Call to Adventure initiates the journey, by introducing some kind of problem or challenge. This also poses a question that holds the suspense for the rest of the film: will the hero be able succeed?

Often at this stage the characters meet (lovestories) or something bad has happened and action needs to be taken to find justice (revenge-detective story). In Star Wars again, it is Leia’s message that makes Luke join the rebellion. In E.T. it is the encounter of Elliot and the little alien, which starts a story of friendship, sharing experiences and helping each other.

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As a writer, this most often is the main idea of the story. It is the reason for our characters to set off. Without it, I would question the readability. Not all stages of the Hero’s Journey are always necessary, but this surely is essential.

Part 1 of the Hero’s Journey:
The beginning most likely takes place in the here and now, the Ordinary World.

It often introduces us to the problems, the boring reality, and the characters merely hover in it. After all, if you want to show how amazing or plainly different the Special World will be, the reader/viewer needs to know the comparable side, too.

In Star Wars, we find out that the empire rules the galaxy and the Jedi’s disappeared, while Luke is wasting his life. In E.T. we find out that Elliot’s father has left and the family struggles to cope with it. At the same time, E.T. was left behind by his family and is searched for by the government. Here you see that the “hero” can be anything, in this case even two characters at the same time.

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Even if you use a flashback or flash forward, I think it’s necessary to set up the ordinary world quite soon.

12 days to uncover the hero in all stories - coming from the Hero's Journey (also known as Writer's Journey):
“The Hero with a Thousand Faces” (1949) by Joseph Campbell brings us the monomyth concept of the Hero’s Journey. George Lucas even admits that Star Wars was heavily influenced by his theory and many Hollywood films thereafter incorporate the resulting Hero's Journey (Steven Spielberg, Francis Coppola …).

But what is it?

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Campbell discovered that all hero myths are basically the same story. He describes a universal pattern that lies in literally all literature, from jokes to novels. There are differences in the details, but fundamentally it’s the same. Basically there is always a journey: the hero leaves the ordinary world, comes into unfamiliar terrain, undergoes some sort of change or growth and journeys back home with something new.
Christopher Vogler has slightly adapted the Hero with a Thousand Faces into the Hero’s Journey in his screenwriter guide.

In the next 12 days, I will explore his concept, because I think that writer’s can learn from it just as much as the filmmaker’s already have. Although I advise to not follow the Hero’s Journey step by step like successful Hollywood films, because we should strive to write excellent work and not just for the masses.

One week and a bit to go until the A-Z challenge. (You can find a nice little picture and a link on my notepad sticky note on the left)

I have thought about so many ideas, but I'm unsure yet about which letters to sort them to. Just to explain for newbies, although it's hardly likely that anyone in the part of the bloggosphere hasn't heard it yet, the A-Z challenge is a month-long blogging challenge, hosted by TossingItOut.blogspot.com.
There are 26 letters in the alphabet (in English) and you have 30 days to dedicate one post per day to each. Easy peasy.

So far, I have the A-poem planned (need to work on it though), then a series about my ride back to Germany on my motorbike (we'll see how creatively I can combine this traveling experience with writing), and last idea goes to: a multi-post elaboration on the a Hollywood practice called "The Heroes Journey", which I think is highly advisable for writers to at least know about. It's the knowledge of conventions that enables us to alter and experiment with them.
So, what are you ideas so far?
I hope to see you there soon.

5.  Define a ‘blockbuster,’ and outline the economic logic which has encouraged the emergence of the blockbuster trend. In your answer, please use one recent film as a central example.

2012 (Roland Emmerich, 2009) is a contemporary Hollywood “blockbuster”, a term originating from large-scale World War II bombs and since the 1950s coining major film hits (Steve Neale: 47). Blockbusters emerged in America in the 1950s to 1970s as part of the New Hollywood and by using 2012 as a central example, this essay explains their historical development and defines blockbusters.

The major studio’s oligopoly in the USA ended with the Paramount anti-trust suit in 1949, overturning the vertical integration system where exhibition was secured due to the studio’s own first-run cinemas. “Consent decrees” gave cinemas independence and led to new competition (Jill Nelmes: 35).
...

Peter Kramer, senior lecturer in Film Studies, had news for his audience at the Cultural Exchanges event (4/3/10): Hollywood is not really American; it’s rather a global network.
Who would have thought that?
Hollywood steals resources from all over the world. German directors, British novel adoptions, African culture or Canadian cities like Vancouver, used to resemble New York, just to name a few. Only two things are still American about the production – the monitoring body in Los Angeles, CA, and American scriptwriters.

This relates to the Europeanization of Hollywood that occurred in the 40s – 50s. Why? Because the global audience grew. Nowadays, ¾ of the revenue comes from outside of America, mainly Europe.
I never thought before about how Hollywood projects global concerns into its most successful films, which often deal with alien invasions and the global destruction.
Kramer hints that the American setting of so many films, which I always reasoned as pure egoism and self-praise of the US, is in fact supposed to represent all of humanity. In other terms, when we see America fight and win in films, America stands less for itself, but for the whole world.
This can be seen in the victory of human kind against aliens (Independence Day), against nature (2012) or itself in form of the Nazis in Indiana Jones. I enjoyed Kramer’s propositions a lot and I think it helped all visitors, not only the many attending Film Studies students, to see Hollywood from a different perspective.