Everyone on the Same Side
A filmmaker showed me — and a group of teens — how collaborative creation is the Heroine’s Journey in motion.
Last weekend, I was at Camp YATC, leading a group of teens through a screenwriting intensive.
On the final day, filmmaker Martin Gooch joined us.
He told the story of how he became a filmmaker: how, at age five, he went to the movies and knew — this is what I want to do.
Years later, he stopped to help a woman whose heel had broken in the street.
That small act of kindness led to a phone call the next day offering him a job on a massive Sylvester Stallone film.
One act of care changed the trajectory of his career.
Martin went on to work on Harry Potter and other major productions, directing British television and writing screenplays and novels of his own.
But what struck me most wasn’t his résumé — it was the tenderness with which he spoke about his love for directing.
He said:
“There’s nothing else like it. When you’re on set, everyone is working toward the same thing.
It’s not like sports — no opposing teams. Everyone is on the same side, investing themselves in something real.”
That line pierced me.
Everyone on the same side.
In that moment, I realized Martin was describing the Heroine’s Journey — the path of love, collaboration, and creative interdependence.
The Hero’s Journey is about conquering fear, going it alone.
But the Heroine’s Journey is about returning to connection.
It’s about remembering that our power comes not from domination, but from communion.
Later, Martin sat with the kids as they performed their scripts. One by one, he offered reflections that helped them see what was possible inside their own words. Then he directed a student named Claire through her monologue three times.
Each time, she reached a deeper level of truth. By the third, she was incandescent.
What he did wasn’t just coaching — it was witnessing.
The Heroine’s Journey in motion: to see another so clearly, and to be seen in return, until everyone is changed by the exchange.
I left that day thinking about how love is the truest form of direction.
How every great work of art is a collective act of faith.
How our job — as writers, as filmmakers, as creators, as humans — is not to conquer, but to connect.
And perhaps that’s the lesson the kids will remember most — the way it feels when someone believes in your light enough to call it forward.
— Amy