# things movies get wrong about your industry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181 "2009-06-18T15:31:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/41 "2009-06-18T19:47:53Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > ITA with the above – but I know you know that some major papers have, or did have, more than one edition. It might not be entirely realistic, but it could be argued that the movie/TV journalists were working at odd hours because they needed to get their story in the afternoon edition. You put the paper to bed at night, but you are still working on stories. > > The paper I used to work at \*would \*have had somebody in the newsroom at 4:30 a.m. Not any more.☹ I know, and I suppose the _Los Angeles Tribune_ may have put out both a morning and afternoon newspaper. I didn’t work at a paper until 2006, and the metro paper I worked for went from three editions (state, metro, late) to two editions (state, metro) to one with the ability to chase two or three pages. Then they laid me off last year. I assume they’re still printing _something._ ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/42 "2009-06-18T19:48:18Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > You’re fooling yourself. In my high school experience, a teacher only had to be very mildly attractive for half the student body to be absolutely gaga over him or her. And I don’t know any high school teachers but most of the college instructors I know admit to being twitterpated by the 18 to 20 year olds occasionally, so it’s not a stretch to imagine 16 to 18 year olds turning the heads of high school faculty. Exactly. In high school, there were maybe a half-dozen teachers that I was attracted to, and if they had made any sort of overture, I probably would have dropped my pants in an instant. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/43 "2009-06-18T19:49:02Z")
**BKReporter** , you do know that the _Marley and Me_ movie was based on an auto-biographical book written by Owen Wilson’s character, John Grogan, right? I don’t know if the raise amount was accurate, but Grogan was a popular columnist, not a reporter. For my own industry, since I’m somewhat in the movie-making field, things tend to be accurate. ---
**Author:** ![bobthebuilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobthebuilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobthebuilder)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/44 "2009-06-18T19:57:53Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > The professors dress up in suits with patches on the elbows and have huge offices that look like libraries. I had a professor who was actually like that. Pretty nice office wall to wall books up to the ceiling, and wore suits with the patches on the elbows. I think he spent everything he owned on books. I did go to a private college, but not one that would be recognized as having an exceptionally high standard. (actually it has a reputation of having an exceptionally low standard.) ---
**Author:** ![BKReporter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@BKReporter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BKReporter)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/45 "2009-06-18T19:59:00Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > **BKReporter** , you do know that the _Marley and Me_ movie was based on an auto-biographical book written by Owen Wilson’s character, John Grogan, right? I don’t know if the raise amount was accurate, but Grogan was a popular columnist, not a reporter. > > For my own industry, since I’m somewhat in the movie-making field, things tend to be accurate. Yeah, but even newspaper movies based on true stories tend to have a lot of stuff thrown in for dramatic effect. Again this was in the '90s, and I haven’t read the book. I’m not saying it would be impossible that he got his salary doubled. But you figure, budget-wise, that’s essentially like adding a whole other position to your newsroom, something that newspaper bean counters will fight you tooth and nail over. And his editor probably wouldn’t be able to make an offer like that right on the spot like in the movie. He’d need to consult with (more likely go begging hat-in-hand to) his own bosses first. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/46 "2009-06-18T20:05:09Z")
As a programmer, I laugh hysterically at movies like Sandra Bullock’s “The Net” or “Live Free or Die Hard,” because… because I wish ANYTHING in my job worked as fast as the evil hackers’ nefarious plots. A villain just grabs his laptop, types in two lines, and voila! Every trace of your existence has been completely erased! The villain clicks his mouse twice, and bingo, the Pentagon is aiming missiles your way! It takes me waaaay longer to get logged on than it takes movie villains to destroy the world! ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/47 "2009-06-18T20:05:57Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > **BKReporter** , you do know that the _Marley and Me_ movie was based on an auto-biographical book written by Owen Wilson’s character, John Grogan, right? I don’t know if the raise amount was accurate, but Grogan was a popular columnist, not a reporter. The “columnist” part is what makes it semi-realistic. Reporters are almost exclusively unionized, and their pay is according to scale. John Grogan spent most of his time at the _Philadelphia Inquirer_, and would have been a member of the Newspaper Guild. Columnists might be able to bargain for more money; reporters, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/48 "2009-06-18T20:08:12Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > What “backwards compatible”? It’s not like the Apple whatever’s specifications are some intrinsic rung on the ladder of computer development, such that the aliens themselves must have once used the same networking protocols and so on. It’s a mish-mash of thousands upon thousands of arbitrary choices and capricious historical contingencies. You’re right bot “backward compatible” the way we think of it. But once you get to highly advanced alien species that has mastered FTL travel and has gigantic hovering spaceships, drive techno-organic power suits to protect their small fragile bodies… them having computers that can figure out how to communicate with a primitive earth computer…isn’t the in the realm of “RIDICULOUS!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/49 "2009-06-18T20:10:19Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > This is false? I tried finding information about a friend’s death a few years ago online and couldn’t find anything. > > Unless it particularly newsworthy and has had other media cover it.. yeah you probably would have to go to the archives to find information that old. In other words, the movies and TV always show people just searching in the “Search Box” and getting all these beautifully indexed articles that are exactly what they want, from any given time period. Instead of using databases at a library (or through some institutional membership, library or other) or going somewhere physical and looking stuff up in indexes and on film and on paper. ---
**Author:** ![EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilHamsterOnCrack)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/50 "2009-06-18T20:14:06Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Teachers are not sexually attracted to students and students are not sexually attracted to teachers. Members of either group would flee from any possibility of a liaison. BS. The hot girls in the class got more attention from the male teachers at my HS. And every guy I know wanted to screw at least one hot teacher. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/51 "2009-06-18T20:23:39Z")
Groundhog Day: Phil and his buddies are gallivanting around town drunk off their asses and driving in a ridiculously reckless manner. The cops are chasing them. So far, so good, this is what would happen in real life. But the when they stop, one (ONE!) cop gets out and calmly approaches Phil and asks, “Are you okay, sir?” (or something to that effect). The point I’m making, of course, is that this is definitely NOT how a policeman would react in such a situation. Even though I’m not a cop, I know from watching COPS and several cop-chase shows on TruTV that all the cops would surround the subjects’ car, take their positions with weapons drawn and they’d be making arrests, shouting “GET ON THE GROUND!” ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/52 "2009-06-18T20:25:49Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > You’re right bot “backward compatible” the way we think of it. > > But once you get to highly advanced alien species that has mastered FTL travel and has gigantic hovering spaceships, drive techno-organic power suits to protect their small fragile bodies… them having computers that can figure out how to communicate with a primitive earth computer…isn’t the in the realm of “RIDICULOUS!!!” _shrugs_ It still is for me. We all have our various thresholds. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/53 "2009-06-18T20:31:06Z")
Contrary to what you see on 24, there is very little information that can be recovered off a computer hard drive in 30 minutes after terrorists have blown said computer to smitherines. > [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > You’re right bot “backward compatible” the way we think of it. > > But once you get to highly advanced alien species that has mastered FTL travel and has gigantic hovering spaceships, drive techno-organic power suits to protect their small fragile bodies… them having computers that can figure out how to communicate with a primitive earth computer…isn’t the in the realm of “RIDICULOUS!!!” It’s ridiculous that a computer advanced enough to figure out how to communicate with a completely alien technology would be taken out by a crude virus. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/54 "2009-06-18T20:35:17Z")
I work in the office furniture industry, and BOY, does Hollywood get everything wrong about us. For instance: 1. Hollywood wants you to believe that gorgeous women are just throwing themselves at office furniture executives on a daily basis. This rarely happens. 2. Supervillains, aliens, evil politicians and invading countries always try to disable our furniture-making capabilities immediately, to cripple the U.S. While this is accurate, Hollywood makes it look like a third-grader with a paperclip could bring our industry to its knees. We have multiple, independently redundant levels of security, including orbital lasers, to insure that we can continue to make ergonomic chairs regardless of the threat level. 3. I have never, ever seen a desk or a credenza transform itself into a crime-fighting robot. 4. While the various companies in the office furniture industry do wield enormous geopolitical power, they have NEVER banded together and plotted to take over the world. 5. It’s true that the majority of us office furniture executives do have incredible good looks, chiseled bodies and the ability to disarm and defeat numerous ninjas, terrorists and/or aliens, but we also have our sensitive sides; Hollywood seems to want us just to be action heroes. There’s more, but you get the gist. It’s frustrating. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/55 "2009-06-18T20:35:27Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > You’re right bot “backward compatible” the way we think of it. > > But once you get to highly advanced alien species that has mastered FTL travel and has gigantic hovering spaceships, drive techno-organic power suits to protect their small fragile bodies… them having computers that can figure out how to communicate with a primitive earth computer…isn’t the in the realm of “RIDICULOUS!!!” And yet, these superior advanced computers that figure out how to communicate with a primitive earth computer somehow neither notify anyone that some primitive earth computer has hacked into their system while they’re conquering/destroying said world, NOR managed to overcome the computer virus written on said primitive computer? :dubious: There aren’t even enough :dubious: for that one, really. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/56 "2009-06-18T20:37:45Z")
> [@mj\_2](#): > > I think it was Independance Day when the humans took control of the alien computer operating system by connecting to it with another computer. > Why didn’t they just go ahead and claim the aliens were running a Windows operating system. The Microsoft Monopoly is bigger than you thought. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/57 "2009-06-18T20:42:54Z")
Former teacher here. Yes, the hotness quotient of both students and teachers is way out of whack. I also agree that there is always a “hot for teacher” discussion whenever you have adolescents and adults who are reasonably symmetrical. Teachers don’t have to be stunners. It’s just the idea that an adult woman or man is in proximity to horny youth that sets this off. From the professorial perspective: I at least use Powerpoint in my lectures. You will rarely see me riffing or waxing eloquently on the profundity of my last joke. I do wear tweed though… it is something of a uniform for academic dudes. But I do show up in jeans and t-shirts when I’m not teaching, and I’m virtually indistinguishable from other human beings outside of the classroom. (Lots of movies have the prof in a bow tie and tweed at the supermarket, walking the dog, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/58 "2009-06-18T20:45:58Z")
> [@Sauron](#): > > I work in the office furniture industry, and BOY, does Hollywood get everything wrong about us. > > For instance: > > 1. Hollywood wants you to believe that gorgeous women are just throwing themselves at office furniture executives on a daily basis. This rarely happens. It does, but Hollywood would have you think it is all blondes. Simply not true, its mostly redheads. > [@](#): > > 1. Supervillains, aliens, evil politicians and invading countries always try to disable our furniture-making capabilities immediately, to cripple the U.S. While this is accurate, Hollywood makes it look like a third-grader with a paperclip could bring our industry to its knees. We have multiple, independently redundant levels of security, including orbital lasers, to insure that we can continue to make ergonomic chairs regardless of the threat level. Oh now don’t be bitter about that, DOOMDESK was only one movie > [@](#): > > 1. I have never, ever seen a desk or a credenza transform itself into a crime-fighting robot. Uh, excuse me? Incident 23? You have to have viewed the video and documentation on that one. > [@](#): > > 1. While the various companies in the office furniture industry do wield enormous geopolitical power, they have NEVER banded together and plotted to take over the world. Not this week, anyway. > [@](#): > > 1. It’s true that the majority of us office furniture executives do have incredible good looks, chiseled bodies and the ability to disarm and defeat numerous ninjas, terrorists and/or aliens, but we also have our sensitive sides; Hollywood seems to want us just to be action heroes. If you guys would stop referring to your families as ‘expendable units’ Hollywood might be a bit more sympathetic in its portrayal. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/59 "2009-06-18T20:48:02Z")
> [@ArrMatey](#): > > On the second part I disagree… Of course, I worked for one of the most lax video game production houses in the world, but occasionally devs would bring home one of the dev kits for a weekend or whatever to hammer stuff out with it. Only when the project was near completetion was there real accountability for where they went (granted, as I said, lax company, and also one that folded immediately after the game I worked on went gold.) But the character in question isn’t a dev, he’s a tester. I can believe a studio letting a developer take a kit home to work over the weekend. A tester? No chance. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/60 "2009-06-18T20:48:58Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > Uh, excuse me? Incident 23? You have to have viewed the video and documentation on that one. That didn’t happen. You understand? That NEVER HAPPENED. > [@](#): > > If you guys would stop referring to your families as ‘expendable units’ Hollywood might be a bit more sympathetic in its portrayal. I prefer the term “planned obsolecence”, myself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181.md?page=4)