The Hero's 2 Journeys

By: Michael Hauge, Christopher Vogler

Narrated by: Michael Hauge, Christopher Vogler

Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Make your story the best it can be on two levels. Hear each superstar teacher present his unique approach to story telling.

The "Outer Journey" is the essential structural principles driving every successful plot. Each brings years of practical experience and extensive research to story structure, character arc, and how to give your story greater commercial appeal. Full of specific examples.

The "Inner Journey" is the deeper storyline that makes a story truly great. Hauge's view: The Hero moves from hiding within a protective identity to experiencing his or her true essence. Vogler's view: The Hero's inner need is invisible at first, but is revealed to the Hero by the end of the story. Full of specific examples.

This is ideal listening for all writers (including screenwriters, novelists, and playwrights), actors, filmmakers, studio executives, game designers and developers, storytellers, and anyone with a passion for movies and stories.

©2003 Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler (P)2003 Writer's AudioShop

Highly Recommended!

Worth every penny. I would listen a couple times to catch everything, or pause & take notes!

great for story tellers and writers

Gave me an awesome framework from which to understand movies and to tell my stories

Systems to storytelling

I loved this. I've listened to it over and over. I'm a producer. When I work with a writer, and I can't figure out what it is that's missing, I listen to this again with the particular script in mind. It helps me recognize where we can improve the story.

This is a great book for any writer, director or storyteller of any kind. If you are serious about making meaningful stories, you need this.

Great Insight for writers!

I like this title because it offered real insight into the process of understanding screenplay writing and the soul of that creative process. A must for any screenwriters or creative writers.

Incredibly informative!

Incredible and in-depth articulation of the Hero’s Journey. An essential listen for any storyteller.

I enjoyed this.

The audience is screenwriters, but the ideas are excellent and valuable for novelists.

Christopher Vogler and Michael Hauge conducted a workshop for writing movie scripts based on Joseph Campbell’s work. This is the recording of that workshop which includes some questions from the audience.

I rarely watch movies. My feeling is why watch a movie when I could read a book? Books have more depth. When I see movies based on books I’ve read, I’m disappointed although I do enjoy the visuals. As I listened to this lecture, I felt further reluctance to watch movies. They’re all made with the same formula! (or most of them) The first 10% is seeing the ordinary world and the call to action. Other parts include meeting the mentor, encountering tests, the supreme ordeal, and return with the elixir. These parts were first defined by Joseph Campbell. He studied mythology and found consistency in all myths in all cultures. Apparently all humans always want the same story.

During the 1970s George Lucas used these ideas when he wrote the first Star Wars movie. During the 1980s Christopher Vogler wrote a memo organizing Campbell’s ideas into guidance for movie making. Vogler worked for Disney at the time. Vogler later turned his memo into a book “The Writer’s Journey.” I was bothered by Vogler’s claim for credit. He talked as if he were “the first one” to consider using Campbell’s ideas for movie making. He never mentioned that Lucas used them earlier. On Vogler’s website (mentioned below) he states “I had discovered the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell a few years earlier while studying cinema at the University of Southern California. I was sure I saw Campbells ideas being put to work in the first of the Star Wars movies and wrote a term paper for a class in which I attempted to identify the mythic patterns that made that film such a huge success.” This rubs me wrong. Lucas clearly stated that he used Campbell’s work when he wrote Star Wars. Vogler’s comments are pompous. My distaste is the reason I did not give this 5 stars. But the subject matter is excellent. Most of the examples are from three films: The Firm, Shrek, and Titanic. I was surprised that the speakers didn’t use Star Wars as an example.

This audiobook is a good way to learn about Campbell’s ideas. The authors talk about the hero’s outer journey, his inner journey, and major character types. Hauge defines four character types: hero, reflection (friend), nemesis, and romance character (or the object of hero’s pursuit). Vogler’s website (thewritersjourney com) has a helpful summary of the outer journey and eight character types. (My thoughts, not in the lecture: Since all plots are the same, it is critical to have unique, engaging, and fascinating characters. This seminar does not discuss that.)

A couple of Hauge comments. The inner journey is to find your essence. At the end of the workshop, Hauge summarizes with three arcs that consistently occur in American movies - three transformations the character needs to make.
1. risk being who you truly are
2. risk connecting to other people (romantically or other)
3. stand up and do what is right, the honest thing, to stand up for the truth.
He says “love encompasses all of these. All great movies are love stories.”

NARRATORS:
The narrators are the authors. Their voices were fine.

More Michael Hauge

Mr. Hauge's theory on Identity vs Essence really sparked a torrent of ideas on me - and now I want to know more.

Unfortunately, 2 of the 3 hours (seem to be) all Mr. Vogler and his application of the Hero's Journey. But once you 'know' about the Hero's Journey, I don't find there's much more here to gain.

Not sure the price is right however. But take it from me, Michael Hauge is where it's at if you want to write screenplays or novels.

Great!

One of the best story telling books ever! They know what they are talking about

Great for new writers

This workshop is great for people who are forming ideas for a novel or screenplay. The structures that Hague and Vogler talk about aren't cumbersome or limiting--they actually help you to go deeper and generate exciting characters and story lines. And the fact that it's only three hours makes it short and punchy, so that you can get to work as soon as you've finished listening.

The audio is very good, considering it's a recorded workshop.

A great help for those wanting to write compelling

This was a huge help to me in learning the structure of stories and how to write them more compelling.