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[sebaslive]

Anyone hear his bafta speech? https://soundcloud.com/bafta/charlie-kaufman-screenwriting-lecture

One part I found interesting is when he discusses how we don't know we are being fed garbage by writers using a formulaic process to writing the same thing over.

I assume he means the hero's journey which is known as the guide to writing just about anything. There is also the expression "fake it till you make it" which basically justifies the process of copying anything popular until you have a name for yourself. What to do in this world where everyone is contradicting the other when it comes to everything?

Anyways its a great podcast!

[Graham-]

I doubt he means the hero's journey. That's just one "trope." There are lots of little details that get coughed up over and over because of complacency, laziness etc. - you know all the things we are/have.

[sebaslive]

sigh* but being original is too much work. It's a good thing people like sequels more than original IP's right? 

[Graham-]

that's because original ips don't respect the roots of good creation. some asshole understands 20% of what makes some thing good, abandons the formula and falls all over himself. tropes exist b/c being original is hard. then you have to understand _everything_.

[sebaslive]

Or does that very same asshole have the 100 percent but could only manage to explain 20% of it to his team/producers/etc and must succumb to tropes since it makes it more possible to explain based on a reference point everyone can understand?

[Graham-]

bullshit. if you really understand you won't be a pushover about it. producers bring value. you want their money you have to satisfy their demands.

that's what sales is. you get an idea, but then you blow it open because you _really_ get it.

[sebaslive]

“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”
Albert Einstein

and that dude was pretty smart.

[Graham-]

   I thought the same quote.

[moi]

it's not always true

[Graham-]

by "enough" the speaker means to complain about it not doing what you want. he is speaking about a very advanced understanding.

[Runefrog]

Charlie Kaufman is a very untraditional film maker and, in my opinion, an amazing scriptwriter. His ideas are baffling but are somehow mesmerising and fun.

Writing formulas shouldn't be ignored because they're the skeleton to your plot and they have a proven track-record of working.
Take the 3-Act Structure that most movies use: Every 30 minutes something 'major' happens that raises the stakes and pushes the protagonist towards his goal. The hero eventually hits rock bottom, has a revelation to change, and this change indirectly (or literally) causes him to overcome all odds and eventually 'wins'.
Films from the 30's - 50's were based on the 8 Sequence Approach: Films were basically eight 10-15 minute scenes stitched together to form a story.
TV shows have a 5-Act Structure that conveniently splits each episode into easily-digestible pieces, but I've never quite understood the 5-Act Structure because TV shows have limited time to set things up and have to quickly build tension and then quickly resolve it.

Games, on the other hand, are so different because every genre has to take on a different formula. You can't write a puzzle game in the same way you'd write the script for The Last of Us.