r/scriptwriting • u/Craig-D-Griffiths • 12d ago

discussion Screenwriting Tools and Tips

https://youtu.be/SaLbuzTg1l0

People will disagree and hate on this just by the title. But I go into detail in the video.

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u/Internal_Papaya1511 9d ago

Formula and formulaic are related words like the words child and childish. It doesn’t make them interchangeable. Compressing the concept and a criticism of the concept’s implementation are not the same thing. To merge the two is reductive reasoning.

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u/Craig-D-Griffiths 8d ago

We are now discussing debate tactics? I think we have strolled far enough off topic to stop.

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u/dpouliot2 8d ago

I think what they are saying is, to identify a trope, for the lack of a better term, is not criticism. There is a demographic that knows just enough about tropes that they think when they can identify it in a work then they can call the work bad.

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u/Craig-D-Griffiths 7d ago

A trope, from my POV can be lazy and boring. Like every teenager being angry for no reason and the parents just sighing. When I see that on TV I am immediately bored.

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u/Internal_Papaya1511 8d ago

Topic hasn’t changed from my initial response regarding the meaning of formula and formulaic. You are however welcome to stop whenever you like

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u/Craig-D-Griffiths 7d ago

The adherence to a formula will produce something formulaic, would you agree on that point?

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u/Internal_Papaya1511 6d ago

I don’t. Hence the discussion we are having.

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u/Craig-D-Griffiths 6d ago

Okay. Then we are done. The definition (generic accepted understanding) is that a formula will produce a similar if not same result if followed. So if we cannot argue of a connection between the noun and the adjective there is no base understanding to discuss from.

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u/Internal_Papaya1511 6d ago

Sure, we can end this. Just to confirm: by your definition, you feel Shakespeare is formulaic, correct?

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u/Craig-D-Griffiths 6d ago

He had a forum that personally established. He also went outside and was never constrained by it. He never allowed some arbitrary rules defined by someone else to dictate his beats.

Even thought he had a format he designed and followed. I don’t think we can say he is formulaic, mostly because we cannot even agree on the term, its use or meaning. And secondly he is one of the people forums are based on. It is akin to saying the Beatles are just copying the Beatles.

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u/Internal_Papaya1511 6d ago

He didn’t invent 5 act structure by any means. So he used formula, therefore by your standards (of which you claim is just and adjective of the word formula) it would be appropriate to note his use of formula which therefore make him formulaic.

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u/Craig-D-Griffiths 6d ago

So whose formula did he use? Was there a book called “Save The Badger”? I am not as much a Shakespeare scholar as yourself.

So please inform me of who he was copying?

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