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Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........
2

Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

(OP)
http://www.nspe.org/PEmagazine/11/pe_0811_Screen.html

Auditions anyone?  Don't forget your pocket protector, slide rule, and horn rimmed glasses to "look" the part.  If this flies, the messaging will be interesting to see.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

The central characteristic for the engineer character will be the ability to drink all comers, including aliens, under the table. Also the character should be a master or mistress of all engineering rather than one discipline. Chief Engineer is the best title to use.

HAZOP at www.curryhydrocarbons.ca

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Part of the problem is that if engineers are to be portrayed doing what they are supposed to do in heroic fashion, it makes for a boring story line because nothing dramatic or tragic ever happens.

We are, indeed, the world's most boring heroes.

Regards,

SNORGY.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Positive discrimination?

But this could be tough.
Hollywood will be a tough sell and it isn't just getting engineers represented, it is getting them and their disciplines (I'm sure that will be the first barrier, explaining to Hollywood that there are different types of engineer) represented in a non-clichéd manner.

I guess we ought to look back and list good and bad presentations of engineers in films.

I'll kick off with What's er face in Bullitt and the painful scene of looking up headloss data.

If I can think of a good presentation, I'll add it later.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

China Syndrome: man who found duplicated weld records...

Regards,

SNORGY.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

lacajun,

   You need to write a script featuring an engineer as the main character.  The script should feature explosions, car chases, helicopters crashing, large breasted women in tight, skimpy outfits (may or may not be the engineer), and some sort of evil plot by the company's MBAs.  

   Have I missed anything?

               JHG

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Gunfights where no one hits there targets, sutpid reporters, and...

That about covers it.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Why not remake 'DamBusters' or something, that had a fair bit of Barnes Wallis in it as I recall.

You could do the same with other comparable endeavors.

History Channel etc. do these kinds of things sometimes but may go more mainstream.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

(OP)

Quote (drawoh):

some sort of evil plot by the company's MBAs.

I like that best of all!  And, sadly, I am not a writer and especially a screen play writer.

SNORGY, I've listened to a lot of colleagues' wives over the years.  They didn't mind the "boring hero" they married because they were stable and handy.  That stable part is the most prevalent comment I've heard from women as a desirable characteristic in men.  Considering my dad's instability, I would have to agree.  These are solid, educated women that think engineers make excellent mates for life.  smile

The thing I've heard most often about engineers is that we're a dorky, socially inept lot.  But, I have witnessed the social faux pas of non-engineers, too.  smile  I think some of the faux pas of others need to be documented.  I have found most engineers to be rather socially savvy.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

You also need an alien invasion and then the engineer (sorry, computer engineer) gains access to their main frame and selects automatic updates from Microsoft.........
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

lacajun:

Thank you so much for the encouragement.

Insofar as social ineptitude, to me, a little mix of nobility, character, humility, modesty and integrity goes a long way.  I believe that engineers, for the most part, with due consideration of other demographics, consistently show the optimum of that mix.  So much so that I can almost (but not quite) tolerate an engineer with an MBA thrown into that mix, other things being equal.  If all of that is boring, then I guess I am boring.

To me, the acid test is how animals - not people - perceive you.  I spent a peaceful half hour this Sunday morning lying down with our two horses outside the horse shelter; one even put his head back down in my lap for a few (not especially comfortable) minutes.  Just glad they didn't roll over...

I'd like to see a lawyer or MBA do *that*.  OK, secretly, I might hope one of them actually did roll over...

Not that I am in any way bitter...

Regards,

SNORGY.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

I don't know, US engineers definitely have more of a 'perception' about them than seemed to be the case in the UK.  Of course, in the UK they probably thought an Engineer was the guy that fixed the TV/Washing machine/car - or if you're really lucky re-built the car engine or drove a train.

However, I digress.

My US wife has been told many times that 'I'm not like a normal Engineer' by friends and colleagues - and these are folks that have met their fair share of Engineers since we live in a town dominated by a military research base and many of these ladies had been married to engineers on base or at least had friends whose spouses were engineers on base etc.

Did 'Better off Ted' sort of feature engineer types?  Though I have to say the main tech folks were nerdy lab rats from the one or two episodes I saw.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Off_Ted

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

I think Michael Schofield (sp?) in the series, "Prison Break" was about as well-cast an "Engineer-Hero" as it gets.  The series was certainly captivating enough.

I just think it's really hard to cast engineers as heroes in anything in movies or on TV.  It's hard to put a dramatic or entertaining (other than comical) spin on what we do.  If that's not bad enough, it is complicated further by the fact that the audience would have to be intelligent enough to truly understand whatever heroism might be present.

When we (my wife and I) go out for dinner with our circle of friends, it is not often that the conversation is centred around "engineering" topics - unless everyone else is making fun of me or the nerdy aspects of it.  Unless you're with other engineers, there's not a whole bunch of interest to talk about.  We talk about stuff in our "life away from engineering", where there is common ground, and I suspect that most people derive their taste in "entertainment" in a similar way.

To me, engineering isn't what I *do* (because that is boring, so I am told), but it's what I derive money from to pay for what I *do*.  My life would be much less complicated if I actually got paid for sleeping with livestock, as alluded to in my previous post.  Sadly, that gives rise to a revelation concerning how I could have generated extra income when I was of dating age in high school and university.

Regards,

SNORGY.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

I didn't participate in that thread.  I don't know what the lady and the horse were doing in that thread.  I would imagine, however, that now might not be an ideal time for me to state that our horses are both geldings.

Regards,

SNORGY.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

And who says engineers are socially inept?

To return to the topic (hopefully taking the focus off SNORGY for a bit:), how about the airplane designer in "Flight of The Phoenix", the orignal, I never saw the re-make. There's a hero engineer / designer for you. OK, I know he designed models, but...

Regards,

Mike

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

That film (both versions) made you want to shoot the b****d. So how's that for a comment on an engineer's social skills.
Even James Stewart wanted to shoot him at one point.
(But please, why did they remake it?
Why does Hollywood make life difficult by remaking good movies. I can think of none, off hand, that were better than the original. Now if they took some god awful film and remade it  then they'd be hard pressed to make a worse remake. Actually, the remake of FothePh wasn't bad. It didn't add anything though.)  

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

(OP)
drawoh, since you brought up big breasted women, I had the privilege of watching Dolly Parton getting milked last night.

I've heard a lot of people say engineers are socially inept.  In all of my years, I can remember one engineer that I would say is the stereotype that Hollywood produced.  Most of the engineers I've worked with are interesting people and usually have something going on they find either pleasurable, challenging, or interesting beyond engineering.

Heck, I dated a guy, not an engineer, that thought engineers were socially inept.  He told me that I was numerous times.  Sadly, he didn't recognize the taste of his own feet even when dealing with someone else's grief.  I kicked him under the table to prevent the grief faux pas but he didn't recognize that signal either.  He was another case of Freudian Projection.

I've been told I am not the normal engineer because I talk and don't mind talking about any topic.  That always surprises me because most of the engineers I've worked with are like me.  Some have a much, much better sense of humor.  Mine is too dry.

SNORGY, I don't find those traits boring at all.  Often they are attributed to the more interesting people and those with strength of character, which we have too few of today.  I guess I've passed the acid test with my neighbors' dogs and cats.  I haven't had pets since childhood but their's will lick me all over, rub me all over, and beg for attention.

I don't watch TV so I am clueless about a lot of stuff on it.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

"I've heard a lot of people say engineers are socially inept."
Well that describes an outsiders viewpoint, to the group I work with. Or most of us.

Let's see, one that loves plants, one that is a local food expert, two that play in a rock band, three that play golf, one that farms on the side, all boring people.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

I've been part of various engineering teams.  The first was a fantastic social bunch, a real mix (male and female). We'd work and play together.

Since then it's been up and down.  Some gregarious teams, some introverted teams.  Sadly it's the latter now. I could come and go with nobody noticing most days.
 

- Steve
 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Lacajan: Please explain " the privilege of watching Dolly Parton getting milked last night".

cranky108: What is wrong with farming?

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

(OP)
Xera, this Dolly Parton is a cow and so named for her large udder.  I didn't name the cow just watched it get milked at a dairy.  These guys had interesting names for their cows.  None were bad just interesting such as Raccoon, Snickers, Master Eight, etc.

Although I grew up farming, my uncle's cows were for beef not milk.  I'd never seen one milked until last night.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

jmw, I'd sorta forgotten his personality, hadn't seen the movie in a long time.

Aww, go ahead, shoot the b****d, sit in the desert:)

 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

The character "Q" in the James Bond movies...is an engineer, no?

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Quote (btrueblood):


The character "Q" in the James Bond movies...is an engineer, no?

   Does he score any babes?

   It is not good enough to make the movie.  People have to watch it, and cheer for the engineer.  In the 60s version of Flight of the Phoenix, the engineer is German.  This was back in the days when Germans were the bad guys, and I vaguely recall that he was sort of a good/bad guy.  Try to guess who the Good Guy is in any movie with James Stewart in it.

   Did anybody mention No Highway, this time with James Stewart as an engineer?

   You can watch The Electric House on You Tube.

               JHG

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Is that a Neville Shute story? Neville Shute Norway was a top notch engineer.

Yep, google says so though confused as to the film title.... in the UK the same as the book, somewhere else as "No Highway in the Sky".

In the remake he was no longer a German...... Hardy Kruger was good in the original but.... the remake? And what was Bertie (Dr House)  doing in that film? Fed up with playing second fiddle to a mouse I guess.  

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

MacGyver was "trained as a scientist", and the Professor from Gilligan's Island held several degrees (B.A. from USC, a B.S. from UCLA, an M.A. from SMU and a Ph.D from TCU).

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."


Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of these Forums?

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

drawoh, excellent, I should have thought of that one, I have the book.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

There's nothing wrong with farming. Just not normally thought of as sexy.

Remember it was ex-Germans that launched a V2 rocket into Mexico. Sort of made the predicessor to NASA look bad (a little history).

Degrees don't make someone smart. Just ask the press about our former presidents (present one also).

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Quote (MadMango):


..., and the Professor from Gilligan's Island held several degrees (B.A. from USC, a B.S. from UCLA, an M.A. from SMU and a Ph.D from TCU).

   The professor who was too stupid to repair the boat?

               JHG

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

The same... not enough practical application.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."


Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of these Forums?

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Then he was a scientist and not an engineer.

PS the second part of my last post, for those who didn't figure it out, referred to Flight of the Phoenix and not No Highway.
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

MacGuyver the Motion Picture?

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East - http://www.campbellcivil.com

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

What about "Dam Busters" - an engineer figured out how to skip a bomb and blow up German dams in WWII

Still a great movie....  My wife hates it...

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Apollo 13? That movie was 90% engineers. Hell, didn't Gary Sinise or Kevin Bacon play an engineer?

 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

How about Michael Douglas in "Falling Down"?  That certainly was a flattering view of engineers.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Sorry - didn't read through all the old posts very well.

Another movie - can't remember the name - but it dealt with the first British passenger jet that kept falling out of the sky.  Like three of them if I remember.

The engineer figured it was a fatigue failure and proved it by testing.

It might have been "No Highway in the Sky" as previously mentioned.  Just don't remember..

How about "Myth Busters".  While I don't believe either is an engineer - they are pretty good at what they do...

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Yes, it was "No Highway in the Sky". Jimmy Stewart starred as the engineer.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Yep - that is it!!

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Of course, the Star Trek engineers of every series.  owg, I still remember Scotty drinking some sort of alien robot under the table to help free the Enterprise (Mudd's Women?), and getting into a bar fight with Klingons to defend the ship's honor (Trouble with Tribbles).  

Also Kaylee from Firefly.

Reed Richards?  For a scientist, he sure can cobble together impressive equipment in a hurry.

Buckaroo Banzai comes to mind as well: scientist, test pilot, neurosurgeon, rock star.

Nevil Shute has a book, The Trustee from the Toolroom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trustee_from_the_Toolroom, that I'd love to see made into a movie.  While not strictly an engineer, the main character uses his technical knowledge to schmooze his way halfway around the world on a mission to recover diamonds for his recently orphaned niece.



 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Bottom line - I guess cutting people up (surgeons) or saving them from the gallows is just not as sexy as building a bridge or skyscraper..

Oh well - I love what I do and if I don't do it right I will end up meeting the two people mentioned above.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

I think one of the second string on Myth busters is an electrical engineer. Also was listed in dream jobs in Spectrum. I just can't spell his name.

 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

I thought we already mentioned No Highway in the Sky...
Oh, maybe that was in the reading list thread .....

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

I mentioned this one in an earlier thread, but liked it enough to mention it again - Transatlantic Tunnel (1935).

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - Robert Hunter
 

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Having thought about this I could see a TV series in the vein of a 'makeover' show, with a team of highway/traffic engineers (and possibly a landscape architect...cough) brought in by a community (or even just a street of neighbours) to either improve safety or just the quality of the amenity.

The show would of course need to be filmed like those build your own home programmes, ie over several years, with the presenter interviewing the residents and the professionals on each visit.

"So...no progress from six months ago...when you hadn't progressed anywhere from the six months before that...Slow process this civil engineering lark, isn't it?"

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Would you do better with something like "build it bigger" hosted by say an engineer?

Or a better title "Build a Utility".

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Debaser,

   There actually are some possibilities here.  There was the Troubleshooter program on the BBC, although I don't think the guy was an engineer.  There is a good parody of the program up on YouTube.  His visit to Morgan Motor Company was close to a parody.  Buying a Morgan is not a rational decision.  Morgan occupies a weird market niche, and it is hard to discuss them rationally.  

   Would it be professional and ethical to have an engineering program on TV equivalent to Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay?  Ginia Bellafante is quoted on Wikipedia saying that "the thrill of watching Mr. Ramsay is in witnessing someone so at peace with his own arrogance."  Bar Rescue with John Taffer is similar.

   Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly by Boothroyd, Dewhurst and Knight provides a lot of design case histories.  This might make for interesting TV.  I have idea what Boothroyd, Dewhurst and Knight are like in person.  Would you be willing to have them call you an idiot on prime time TV?

               JHG

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Well, yeah, if the money's right:)  

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Independence Day - Jeff Goldblum's character is an engineer, who reprograms the alien vessel on the fly.  And isn't he also an engineer in The Fly?

I like the idea of an Engineering Office Nightmares, where the pedantic engineer constantly faces deadlines, his arch nemesis, The Architect, and his constant foil, the contractor.  Shop drawing drama, and the true-to-life CAD guy who breaks keyboards and mice from beating them when the principal backchecks the mark-ups from the third iteration of backchecks (a real character from my past.)  Or the CAD guy who simply was too dumb or too inept to do the simplest of tasks involving anything but drawing a line on paper.

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

on the fly....in The Fly. Very nice juxtaposition.

HAZOP at www.curryhydrocarbons.ca

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

How about "Carbine Williams" again starring Jimmy Stewart (as I recall).

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Quote:

I like the idea of an Engineering Office Nightmares, where the pedantic engineer constantly faces deadlines, his arch nemesis, The Architect, and his constant foil, the contractor.

Surely the Contractor is the recurring comic relief?

Every time you issue drawings they say "Why I've built more o'these* than you've had hot dinners" (*where 'these' is anything and everything), before calling you three days later asking how you are going to get them out of their mess.




(Ducks and covers winky smile )

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Completely agree about our nemesis though.

I think that, when they graduate, architecture students should be made to wear top hats instead of mortar boards and given stick-on moustaches to go with the capes.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Villainc.svg

RE: Engineers on the Silver Screen and the Little Screen.........

Debaser, I've not heard that expressions before, love it.

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