The profession that I wished to enter has always been mechanical engineering. I discovered the profession during my high school years. I vividly remember it being my ninth-grade year, when I was talking afterschool with my English teacher and another student. It was there that the student brought up the subject of a friend who was studying to be a mechanical engineer. I naively asked what engineering is, and he explained what it was. I became interested in the topic, so I researched when I got home, and I was hooked.
Engineering, at its core, combines science, mathematics, and creative ingenuity to contribute immensely to some of the most groundbreaking successes in human history, from launching a man to the stars, to making the most efficient vehicles of land and air. Mechanical engineering has more to do with the latter, applying the concepts mentioned above into the designing and creation of machines. Something that this specific branch of engineering has over other branches is that it’s extremely broad, with various subdisciplines ranging from aerospace to nanotechnology. The things you’ll learn will help you become versatile in a plethora of fields, and it was what got me hooked.
According to the National Career Service, mechanical engineers on average work from 37 to 40 hours a week, but from there it varies. To quote the article, mechanical engineers may “have to work longer hours depending on projects and deadlines. You may be on a shift system, which could include evenings and weekends. Your working environment could vary from an office to factory production areas and outdoor sites (National Career Service).” Essentially, it boils to down to where one works at. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mechanical engineers work mostly indoors in offices, with only occasional visits to worksites. Nevertheless, this nothing more than a generalization. I personally prefer an office, since it gives me space to more properly organize myself. On top of that, it won’t be like one of those 9-to-5 jobs where the outside is only part of the imagination; every once in a while, I’ll be able to drop by and maybe even get my hands dirty.
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Moving on, the daily life of a mechanical engineer also has variety. According to OwlGuru, you can boil down the routine of a mechanical engineer to the following: they “review technical documents to plan work[;]confer with other personnel to resolve design or operational problems[;]confer with technical personnel to prepare designs or operational plans[;]evaluate characteristics of equipment or systems[; and] design industrial processing systems.” In other words, mechanical engineers must communicate daily with personnel over whatever mechanism that needs to be constructed, maintained, or upgraded. They must also run calculations to ensure that the machine will work after it is constructed or altered, and figure out what happens should a machine not work. It’s from these goals that one can infer that you must also learn to be organized, be able to work under pressure, be able to be flexible, and have knowledge of mathematics and physics. These are things that I’m improving slightly, but procrastination still haunts me, and more often than not prevents me from what I must do.
I want to close this topic by also explaining what the mindset a mechanical engineer has. The general mindset of any engineer, including that of mechanical engineering, could be best summarized in Guruprasad Madhavan’s 2016 book, Applied Minds: How Engineers Think. In this book, he demonstrates the tools an engineer has that allows them accomplish what they have. Specifically, he points to a form of thinking he calls “modular systems thinking.” Per the author:
It’s not a singular talent, but a mélange of techniques and principles. Systems-level thinking is more than just being systematic; rather, it’s about the understanding that in the ebb and flow of life, nothing is stationary and everything is linked. The relationships among the modules of a system give rise to a whole that cannot be understood by analyzing its constituent parts (Madhavan).
To put it simply, it’s the ability to distinguish the individual parts of, say, a radio, how those parts interact with each other, and how those interactions create the whole radio and allow it to function properly. Now, there are obviously more qualities of an engineer’s mindset that are just as important, but this is normally what distinguishes it from other careers. It is something that I have also yet to fully master, but have grown to become more and more accustomed to and have improved upon than a couple of years ago. It may simply be that these traits listed above are simply attained after years in the field. It may also likely be that it’s exhibited early on, which, to be brutally honest, is the very likely reality. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t know since I haven’t had any experience on the subject aside from school.
Moving on, it was also during my high school career, more specifically in my tenth-grade year, that I started to dabble into film through another friend. We were only instructed to do a side project involving myself and two other classmates. That changed in my junior year, when I became a part of the school’s YouTube channel. From there, I learned what it meant to shoot video, edit, direct, and produce. Even today, despite not even being in the class or not really being as passionate as I once used too, I still regularly pass by to see what happens and help out when I can. And so, I was left with this choice that I had difficulty answering over the summer: how can film and engineering relate to each other? Upon first glance, mechanical engineering and film initially appeared to be like justifying the merits of adding pineapple or bananas on pizza. In other words, its two completely different things that are both great individually but terrible when combined. Anytime I would tell my friends that I’m passionate about engineering and film, I’m always met with the joke following the lines of “those have nothing to do with each other.” However, I have found that this cannot be any further from the truth. Despite having to do with two completely different things, mechanical engineering and film can, and have, overlapped in more ways than one may initially think.
From the experience I’ve had in the studio, I’ve learned one important thing: film necessitates creativity. Whether you’re filming a vlog or a multi-million sci-fi movie, there must be a creative spark that everyone or almost everyone must have in order to captivate the audience. Directors have to think of a new idea that was never thought up before. Cinematographers have to know how to properly film a scene—that is, say, ensuring a subject is in focus so that he/she doesn’t appear blurry, or taking a manual shot that covers all of the action. At its core, film is an art that demonstrates our imagination by telling a story, and without the creative spark, it lacks direction. That’s what sets apart films like The Revenant from The Room, and I should know this from what I’ve had to go through.
On the big screen, movies can help keep an audience in awe, and/or evoke a certain emotion, like laughter or sadness. Behind the scenes, crews have to work together like the gears of a clock to help create those moments. Similar to how communication is vital to a mechanical engineer, film crews need communication as well. Each member of the crew has to know what they have to do. From prior experience, the class has, and still is, full of people who want to do their own individual idea without knowing what kind of focus they want to do. Compare that to last year’s senior studio, where everyone was able to produce content much more quickly then we have now, since they knew what roles they had: one student edited, another student became adept at the proper elements of film, etc. That class was able to properly communicate in order to get the most they were able to do and give their creativity focus. To quote the Los Angeles Film School, communication is key in any industry, but “when you’re a filmmaker working on set with countless other crew and cast members, good communication skills are absolutely necessary.” This is why any behind the scenes video of a movie are really heartfelt or thorough; because it’s a massive undertaking to create this form of art, and, should you do it well, it’s a pure moment of happiness when it’s completed and released.
Up to this point, I’ve discussed what these two fields are capable of individually. However, I would like to present an application of film toward engineering that can benefit any filmmaker: the Bolt Cinebot by Mark Roberts Motion Control Ltd., or MRMOCO. This machine demonstrates an application of one of mechanical engineering’s subdisciplines, robotics, toward an aspect of film, in this case cinematography. Standing at 3.2 meters at maximum height, Bolt has been used in multiple TV spots, commercials, movies, and even some music videos. Using the software available on the computer and the numerous motors powering the robot, it can help create shots that would otherwise be impossible to create.
For example, filmmakers back then were limited to shots taken from a truck or car (a track shot), a shot from a wheeled dolly (a dolly shot), and/or from a crane. Needless to say, it was able to portray it’s message, but it wasn’t very efficient, since it required gigantic mechanisms. This robot seeks to streamline the process and open the door for cinematographers to reach further beyond previously imagined. Using these robots, cinematographers don’t have to worry that there’ll be some sort of human mistake of something being out of focus, since they’re now given the ability to fine-tune aperture, ISO, and depth of focus as he/she deems as necessary. All that’s left to worry is to have the actors record the perfect take. And this isn’t the only piece of equipment either: MRMOCO has a huge selection of camera robots just like the Bolt, with some being more compact or others being humongous or more feature-heavy.
Should I ever enter the film industry as a mechanical engineer, I’d try to streamline this robot more than it has been. For one thing, the Bolt ‘cinebot’ is extremely hefty in both weight and price: per the website it weighs a whopping 1323 lbs. (600 kg), and if you want to add a track on it, it weighs an additional 231 lbs. (105 kg) for every 3 meters of track. It’s also expensive, costing several thousand dollars to rent per day. This limits low-budget filmmakers from taking advantage of this technology, which is why I would love to see if it’s possible to create a rig similar to the Bolt, but have it weigh less and be readily available to any filmmaker. An idea could be using electromagnets instead of the a track, and make sure that most of the weight belongs to the bottom part of the robotic arm. I’d also see if I can use plastic instead of the black polish MRMOCO has on their cameras. It would make it look less visually beautiful, but it’d allow the creativity these small filmmakers need to make it big. I’m of the opinion that anyone can tell a story; all they need is the right direction and gear for it.
Film is an artform, something that can enable someone to tell a story set in some faraway world confined to our imagination, or something that can bring to attention a clash of perspective to deliver a thought-provoking or ambiguous theme. However, in order to create the ability to create such provocative art, you need an engineer’s mind and tools to tell it.
References
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers
- National Society of Professional Engineers
- Engineering.com
- American Society for Engineering Education
- Autodesk Education Curriculum
- Columbia University Mechanical Engineering Department
- ACMEHub – The Mechanical Engineering World Blog
