I think Keyframe is right here. There are many populr story shapes and even guides on how to shape your story using beats (eg if you're making a 90 minute feature film, the hero should run into a problem by page 5 and we should become aware of a villain by page 12 etc. etc.). Form lays out the temporal structure of the story and is useful in terms of adjusting pacing to fit the attention span and general expectations of the audience. The most popular story form in Hollywood is Hero's Journey, based on common elements in mythic archetypes drawing on the work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. It's a very useful tool for making sure you have a good story arc, without being overly specific.
Formula is more plot-oriented, involving stock characters, relationships and so on, eg part of the formula in every Terminator movie, supportive and antagonistic characters from the future (or with access to knowledge of the future) pursue the protagonist; the antagonistic robot finds the protagonist first and is about to kill her/him when suddenly the supportive character appears in a burst of significant firepower (to the surprise of everyone else in-world, but not to the audience) and tells the protagonist 'come with me if you want to live.' It seemed like a typical quotable one-liner in the first film, but it has endured because it encapsulates both the complexities of the basic time-travel story in the Terminator films and the more general dramatic need for the protagonist to make a risky investment of trust. The time-travel schtick is a narrative framework used to explore basic questions about the inherent anxiety of adult relationships.
Formula is more plot-oriented, involving stock characters, relationships and so on, eg part of the formula in every Terminator movie, supportive and antagonistic characters from the future (or with access to knowledge of the future) pursue the protagonist; the antagonistic robot finds the protagonist first and is about to kill her/him when suddenly the supportive character appears in a burst of significant firepower (to the surprise of everyone else in-world, but not to the audience) and tells the protagonist 'come with me if you want to live.' It seemed like a typical quotable one-liner in the first film, but it has endured because it encapsulates both the complexities of the basic time-travel story in the Terminator films and the more general dramatic need for the protagonist to make a risky investment of trust. The time-travel schtick is a narrative framework used to explore basic questions about the inherent anxiety of adult relationships.