The literary era since 1979

On the night of the Oscars, "A Guide to Using the Hero with a Thousand Faces" was booked by Hollywood film companies of all sizes, including Warner, Disney, Paramount, MGM, as well as producers, directors, screenwriters, actors and others.

Random House did not dare to delay and immediately sent a professional editor to assist Bai Ruoxue and Mike in the translation.

Fortunately, the "User Guide of "The Hero with a Thousand Faces"" only had a few pages. Everyone worked overtime and rushed to complete a series of tasks including translation, proofreading, and revision within a week, reducing the number of pages of the entire book to the final 7 pages.

Soon, the first batch of sample books were sent to the eight major Hollywood film studios including Paramount and MGM for review.

Naturally, it was delivered to Christopher, who immediately distributed it to his colleagues in the animation department for circulation.

“Is this the book you’ve been talking about that structures The Hero with a Thousand Faces?”

Buck curiously turned to the first page.

Christopher nodded and said, "That's right!"

Linda glanced at the cover and asked, "Is the author the Chinese guy who just won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay?"

"That's right!"

Christopher praised him highly: "He is a great wise man. The 'monomiyth' model and the 'hero's journey' story he constructed are really wonderful!" Then he held up the user guide and said, "He wrote all of this in this booklet."

"Just a few pages?"

Linda shook the thin little notebook and smiled at Buck and the others.

Buck lowered his head and took a quick look. This is what he saw:
"From thrilling suspense films to hilarious comedies, from thrilling westerns to musicals, from epic war films to fist-fighting kung fu films, tens of thousands of movies actually repeat the same core story, that is, the 'hero's journey'."

"What a loud tone!"

I couldn't help but be surprised, "You actually want to use one story model to cover the plots of so many different types of films?"

Including Linda, everyone present had similar thoughts and felt that this new Oscar-winning Best Screenwriter was too crazy!

Fangyan not only describes the "Hero's Journey" and "Single Myth" models in words in the notebook, but also quantifies the characters and plot patterns in the model in the form of diagrams, making the entire story model intuitive and easy to understand at a glance.

"How about it?"

Christopher smiled: "What do you think?"

Linda, who had just laughed at the dialect, frowned and said, "Emm, it does seem to make some sense."

"What do you mean by a little bit of truth?"

Christopher confidently said: "This is definitely an amazing structuralist screenwriting tutorial!"

"Indeed, but I have a question, can this 'single myth' model really be applied to animated films?"

Buck asked the question that every other colleague in the room wanted to ask.

"of course can!"

Christopher said, "You can think back to the previous animated films you created. Are there any plots and plots similar to the 'hero's journey'?" Then he said solemnly, "Just like what is written in this book, 'Many unforgettable movies, like many unforgettable stories in the world, involve a journey. This journey may be physical movement, but more importantly, it is a psychological or spiritual movement.'"

Everyone looked at each other, unable to find anything to refute for a moment.

On the contrary, the "Guide to Using the "Hero with a Thousand Faces"" was increasingly proven to be correct and invaluable in the subsequent discussions!
At this point, the argument finally attracted Frank Wells, who happened to be patrolling the animation department.

Everyone shut up immediately and the whole office fell silent.

After all, this parachuted-in president and CEO has laid off a lot of people in various departments since last year, including the animation department, which is the mainstay of Disney, because Disney is in a very bad situation now, with its movies flopped and box office dismal. It can be said that Disney has one foot in the coffin.

"What were you talking about just now?"

Frank Wells looked around, intimidating without even being angry.

Christopher handed over the user manual and said, "We are discussing this script guide."

Frank Wells didn't care at first, but when he heard that it was written in dialect, he became interested:
"Is he the Chinese writer who wrote Saving Private Ryan?"

"it's him!"

Christopher said that this user guide converted Campbell's ideas from "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" into film language, studied and summarized the single myth model, and could be used as a reference book for script writing, and should even become one of the must-read books for Disney screenwriters.

Hearing this, Frank Wells became even more interested in the pamphlet:
"If it's as good as you say, I will discuss with Michael to promote this book throughout the company!"

………………

An hour later, there was a knock on the door of Disney's chairman's office.

Michael Eisner rubbed his brows, his tone revealing a hint of fatigue:
"Please come in."

"Michael!"

Frank Wells walked in with the "Guide to the Hero with a Thousand Faces" and asked, "You looking for me?"

"I want to talk to you in person." Michael Eisner said seriously, "It's a big deal!"

When Frank Wells asked, he found out that Michael Eisner was planning to completely shut down Disney's animation department.

"The animation department has been losing money. Rather than continue to lose money, we might as well cut the Gordian knot. In this way, we can save money, resources and talents and invest them in the film and television departments. We can requisition the land of the animation department for the TV and film department, just like we did at Paramount back then..."

Michael Eisner gushed.

Frank Wells frowned and said, "It's a good plan, but will Roy agree?"

“That’s the hard part about this whole plan.”

Michael Eisner sighed. Roy was the nephew of Disney founder Walt Disney, the only male heir of Disney, and also an important director of the board of directors. It was at his invitation that he jumped from Paramount, where he had worked for seven years, to Disney.

"We have not yet established a firm foothold in the board of directors and have not produced decent results to gain the support of the majority of directors." Frank Wells suggested: "At this time, it is better not to offend Roy easily."

Michael Eisner's face was livid. "We really need to give Roy some dignity. It's not time to tear each other apart. But Frank, we can wait, but Disney can't. The animation department hasn't released a profitable animated film in a long time."

"That being said, this doesn't mean the animation department will remain in a slump if we have a good script."

Frank Wells consoled patiently.

"I believe we will have a good script, but I have to doubt whether the people in the animation department can write a good script."

Michael Eisner's words were full of sarcasm.

"Why do you think so?"

Frank Wells was amazed.

“Isn’t this the development law of a company centered on creativity and innovation?”

Michael Eisner said: "When the founder of a company dies, or is excluded, or is forced to turn to other businesses, the company will inevitably be taken over by leaders who are concerned with financial reports and profits. Those people only care about maintaining the status quo, efficiency, and cost cutting. In the process, they will hinder the company's innovation and metabolism. Over time, the company will become rigid, weak, and even die..."

"Michael, I thought maybe this could help you."

Frank Wells handed over the "Guide to Using the Hero with a Thousand Faces".

Michael Eisner raised an eyebrow: "What is this?"

Frank Wells laughed and said, “This is the perfect solution to our Disney scripting problems!”

Michael Eisner flipped through the book casually and finished reading the mere seven pages in a short while.

"Who is this 'Yan Fang'?"

"It's the Oscar winner for Best Screenplay this year."

Frank Wells said: "The 'lucky Oriental' that Wall Street talks about is also a Chinese writer who enjoys a great reputation in the world literary world."

Michael Eisner's eyes were full of brilliance. "Only someone with his talent could write such a good thing!"

"Michael, we can definitely apply this 'single myth' story model to our future products."

Frank Wells nodded in agreement, "TV, movies, even animation!"

"Snapped!"

Michael Eisner slammed the table and promptly requested that more copies of the user guide be printed and distributed to various departments at Disney.

"Ahem, I'm afraid this won't work."

Frank Wells reminded, "Random House holds the rights. We can order a batch right now."

"That's it!"

Michael Eisner said: "Especially the producers, directors, animators, screenwriters, and script planners, these people must all have a copy, and everyone must write a review. Then we can organize a meeting to let them exchange their thoughts and ideas. What do you think?"

Frank Wells readily agreed and regarded this exchange meeting as a major test for selecting and eliminating talents.

Any unqualified employees who receive salary but have no ability will be eliminated from the next batch of “Guangjin List”.

"Frank, I was wondering if we could find an opportunity to work with him?"

Michael Eisner glanced at the "dialect" in the author's column and said, "He can write novels and scripts, but what about animated film scripts?"

A booklet of only 7 pages conquered Disney and, unsurprisingly, other Hollywood film studios as well.

The producers, overjoyed as they were to have found a treasure, went to Random House to order large quantities of the "How to Use the Hero with a Thousand Faces" booklet, and had it sent to every director and screenwriter they worked with. Some film companies had even begun requiring screenwriters to refer to the booklet when writing scripts.

In just a few days, the booklet on dialect became increasingly popular and was highly sought after.

Random House struck while the iron was hot and launched a series of guide books, including "Standards for Writing Screenplays" which was originally written for Mike. These screenwriting tutorials that used structuralist structures not only spread in Hollywood, but also became popular in film schools such as the University of Southern California.

With the title of Oscar-winning screenwriter, the sales of his script guidance books in dialects have been rising steadily.

Now with more recommendations and publicity from insiders, "A Guide to Using the 'Hero with a Thousand Faces'" and "Standards for Writing Screenplays" and so on immediately made it to the New York Times bestseller list, and are closely following the reprint of "Saving Private Ryan".

As a benchmark for high-end and serious newspapers, The New York Times also wrote a special book review in the cultural section:
“As we all know, The Hero with a Thousand Faces is not only a book about mythology, but also a book about writing. However, many people don’t know how to apply it to literary creation and script writing, which has become a difficult problem to solve so far.

However, "The User Guide of 'The Thousand Faces of Hero'" uses easy-to-understand language to teach us how to master the essentials. Ordinary people can understand it and even use it as a recreational reading to kill time and improve their knowledge; professional scholars are even more fascinated by it...

There is no doubt that it will play a huge role in film education and will almost become a must-read reference book for film students.

More importantly, the value of this book lies not only in guiding how to create, but also in allowing us to understand the various stages of film creation from a more macro perspective, allowing us to dispel the fog of mythology and see through the journey of ancient heroes, so that our journey in life can be more leisurely and listen to the wind. It can be said that this is a very valuable guide book for anyone who aspires to write scripts. "

In the days that followed, "A Guide to Using the 'Hero with a Thousand Faces'" became one of the must-read books in film schools around the world.

The 7-page booklet subsequently developed into a classic bestseller in the field of film studies. The screenwriting course designed based on this blueprint became one of the core courses in film departments of American universities. Even many film theorists have continued to improve the "single myth" model system.

So much so that both those who are about to enter the industry and those who are already in the industry regard his books and theories as the "screenwriting bible."

Even Hollywood film studios have been deeply affected, with films such as "Avatar", "The Lion King", and "Beauty and the Beast".

Of course, there are also some screenwriters who believe in the author theory and individual creation. They rise up and vow to spare dialects, find another way for script creation, and find new ways out, but they are often severely attacked by producers, directors, film companies and the market.

The result is that in 2008, the American Film Institute selected 500 representative works of American film history from 100 nominated films after comprehensively considering the films' performance in terms of critical response, awards, popularity, historical importance and cultural influence.

It just so happens that in this list of “95 classic movies”, the “hero’s journey” story model accounts for nearly % of the films.

As the founder of the "Hero's Journey" model, Fang Yan is undoubtedly regarded as one of the godfathers of Hollywood screenwriting. (End of this chapter)