The eight steps run: you, need, go, search, find, take, return, change. Its advantage over longer models is that it fits on one line and can be checked against a short piece in about a minute. Its second advantage is that it forces the sixth step — the price — which is exactly the step corporate storytelling deletes.
The circle is also the fastest way to test a two-minute film. Write the eight words down the side of a page, put the timecode of each next to it, and the gap in the list is the structural problem. Two steps in the first twenty seconds and six crammed into the last ten is a diagnosis, not an opinion.
It is a compression of the monomyth rather than a rival to it, so use whichever gets you to the missing beat faster. Neither is a source of story; both are ways of finding out what is absent.
What are the eight steps of the story circle?
You (a character in a zone of comfort), need (they want something), go (they enter an unfamiliar situation), search (they adapt), find (they get what they wanted), take (they pay a price), return (they come back), change (they are different for it).
How do you use the story circle on a short film?
List the eight steps, put the timecode where each one lands, and look at the distribution. Crowding at the end or a missing "take" is the usual finding, and both are fixable without a rewrite.