Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with roles

Help us recreate iconic film costumes for our holiday party

Unicorn on the cob — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:22:37 -0800

[CostumeFilter]: My company is having a Hollywood-themed holiday party in two weeks. Please help me think of a good costume for myself and my boyfriend. Difficulty factors: He has a beard, I'm short and curvy. The idea is red carpet moments, classic Hollywood, or memorable screen roles. Ideally this would be something highly recognizable, like the Marilyn Manson/Rose McGowan red carpet look (but nothing x-rated) or, say, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Cleopatra. Unfortunately, I can't think of many "memorable" red carpet/Oscar moments that couples have shared, and I don't want to just buy a nice dress (boring!) when we could go full costume instead.

The couple with the best outfit wins a significant amount of spending money and a trip to Hollywood, so we are motivated; he is willing to shave the beard if it's worth it.

So far, we've kicked around the idea of going as young Obi-Wan and Padme Amidala or Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz (he'd make a reluctant cowardly lion) but we don't want to get TOO crazy on spending money and have a short amount of time to work on it, since the Thanksgiving holiday's about to start.

Both of us have black hair and he wears glasses, if that helps. The celebrities we most closely resemble naturally are Tori Amos (me) and a mix of Charlie Chaplin and Justin Long (him).

We don't have to go as a specific couple from the movie itself, just two characters from the same film will also work but I'm having trouble finding stuff like this by poking around on IMDB. Googling for Hollywood couples is equally unhelpful, since I'm trying to cross-reference roles and memorable looks. Thanks for any suggestions!

He's not refusing to be a man. What to do, what to do.

ellehumour — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:32:30 -0800

difficult gift shopping filter: Help me find books, toys, comics, music, etc that provide a broad, varying, and largely non-traditional view of masculinity for my little brother, who is absolutely nothing like me or anyone else in our family. More details than necessary inside! My twelve-year-old brother is the only boy in his immediate family. He has two sisters, two mothers, two former foster-mothers who are still part of his life, a biological grandmother, and an occasionally-present-but-mostly-absent biological mother. Bio-dad is not in the picture; adoptive uncles are in the American midwest, thousands of miles away and across a border. As far as friends and non-family-influences go, he lives in a very small town which some might classify as "hick" - if it's anything like how it was when I was growing up there (many years ago now - there is an eleven-year age gap between me and my brother), the vast majority of his peers are the children of dyed-in-the-wool rednecks, and well on the way to becoming dyed-in-the-wool rednecks themselves.

All the women in his life are very strong feminists, which is great in that (unlike his redneck-to-be peers) he respects women, but not so great in that he doesn't really have a lot of male role models to look up to, and as such, he tends to latch on to popular representations of masculinity and emulate them with great zeal.

He plays soccer, football, and hockey. He's in the boy scouts. He wants to join the military when he grows up. He's very nationalistic. He eats meat (I was raised vegetarian in that same household). I thought I had become the black sheep of the family by eschewing university to become an activist and artist, but this kid has me beat for that position by going in the exact opposite direction.

I'm not super-concerned - my mother, while supportive of his interests, is terrified that he'll get hurt playing violent sports and/or turn into some kind of adolescent fascist, but I figure it's probably just a phase, as he tries to figure out what his identity is as a guy in a very female-oriented environment. Nevertheless, in doing my (early-ass, I know) Christmas shopping, it occurred to me that it might help to present him with some alternate expressions and interpretations of masculinity - feminine boys, pacifist boys, queer boys, disabled boys, boys opposed to sexism, racism, etc as, well, boys. Boys who don't act like the boys and men on TV and in most mainstream comic books and novels. Men who take the expression of their masculinity beyond that of your average mainstream rock band.

Twelve years old is too young for Propagandhi's Less Talk, More Rock and too old for children's books with simple messages like Free To Be You And Me. As a kid, I systematically sought out and (figuratively) devoured books, movies and comics that featured heroines who were strong, firm in their convictions, capable, and cast off traditional womens' roles - what are some similar works of fiction, but for boys? Where is the Le Tigre of the adolescent boys' world? Where is the sequel to The Practical Princess - a book called The Prince Who Was Secure in His Masculinity, Comfortable With His Sexuality, And Empowered His Subjects By Treating Them All With Dignity?

Show me the way, Hive Mind. Help me help a twelve year old boy in a small town help himself.

Apologies if this ran a bit long. I am pedantic.

Sex Role Reversal TV show from 70s or early 80s?

hworth — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:30:56 -0800

Trying to remember the name of a TV show from my adolescence (1974 - 1981). It was an office drama in which sex roles were reversed. Women had all the power; women were the bosses, made the money, etc. Men were in support positions and were sex objects. The show was syndicated, and, in Boston, at least, was on a UHF station. Any ideas?

Are there needles in this haystack?

Other — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:24:20 -0800

I'm looking for user interface shops or departments within companies that do a particular kind of work, and that hire a particular kind of role (even if they have no jobs open right now). Do you know if they exist, and whether they're common or rare? Or, do you know how I can find out? What I'm looking for is defined by two things -- the kinds of interfaces the company creates and the kind of role I would have.

For the kinds of interfaces, examples of what I'd like would be the screen that a nurse uses to run a machine, or the pda application that a sales person uses to manage their road-trips. I like working on interfaces where:
-- The users have a goal to accomplish besides exploring the interface itself. So, not brand websites or information databases.
--The users really need or want to do the task; it's not something the company has to convince them to want to do. So, not most retail sites or marketing-related work.
--The goal is focused and concrete. So, not sprawling system or multi-purpose application work.
I think that embedded systems are more often good examples of this kind of interface than websites or PC applications, though I wouldn't rule those out if they satisfy the description.

For the kind of role
--I love gathering requirements and defining offerings through qualitative ethnographic research and analysis of the functions of comparable products.
--I love figuring out the logic and architecture.
--I don't mind qualitative usability testing.
--I don't mind some specification/documentation.
--I don't do any visual design.
--I don't do any quantitative testing, market testing, or ergonomic stuff like eye-tracking.
--I don't do any coding, not even in something like Flash or html.
So, I'd need a user experience role on a team where others are responsible for both the visual design and the techie parts.

Is defining the work and the role as above so narrow that I eliminate just about every position I might ever find? Or are there lots of potential matches? Do you know of any in particular? Or, do you know how I could find out, including for companies that aren't currently hiring?

My wife and I live in northern California now, but we're open to some other parts of the US. I can stay in my current, good job and out-wait the economy indefinitely.

Managing an Anothology Project

divabat — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:16:08 -0800

What should I take into consideration when spearheading an anthology project? What resources are out there for us? I'm organizing a book project to collect real-life stories related to the Others (non-Malay/Chinese/Indian, classified as "Other" on all official documentation) in Malaysia. This only started a few days ago, so it's all planning at this stage, but currently I've built up a great team and we're discussing issues on content, definitions, research, publication, and publicity.

While some of us in the group have some experience with publishing (as a writer, editor, or just part of the process somehow), none of us really have that much experience in starting, organizing, and managing such a project. I'm doing quite a bit of brainstorming to work out what we need to consider, but would like some ideas and tips in case I left anything out.

1. Publication - I've contacted a well-known socially-conscious (and somewhat alternative, but great for our target audience) local publisher, who is interested in looking at our manuscript when we're done. Their advice was to "just do it". This is great, but I'd also like Plans B, C, D, Etc.

How else can we find possible publishers, what should we look for in a publisher, and what should we ask them? Some in our group have suggested self-publishing - what should we take into consideration about this option? What other alternative options are there? (Malaysians, particularly our target readers, are quite web-savvy, but it is a bit difficult to purchase online due to Paypal/bank restrictions.)

2. Rights - how do we manage rights and contracts with contributors? I would like the contributors to keep the copyright to their works (and give an option for a Creative Commons license), but would this be a good idea overall? We're planning on field interviews (to get stories from people who won't necessarily write their own tales, such as older folk) and may possibly deal with translations - who gets the rights to those?

3. Finances - assuming we make money out of this, what would we do with the money? I don't think we'll ever make enough to pay each contributor individually (though that would be great!!). Donating the proceeds to an NGO would be great, but our topic is in-between niche and general and there isn't a specific NGO for Malaysian Others yet.

Also, I've heard a lot about how we shouldn't pay to get something published. If we're getting published through an established publisher, are there any costs we still have to look out for? We're thinking of possibly getting sponsorship - is it worth it? Would we need sponsorship? (Perhaps to cover costs of research and compilation?) Where would be good resources for money?

4. Timelines - what's a typical timeline for this project? I was thinking 6 months - get the Call for Submissions and guidelines ready within 3-4 weeks, get submissions for about 3-4 months, edit and compile and get everything ready for publication by Month 6. Is that realistic, or too short? What's normal?

5. Team needs - currently I'm scouting people for editorials, research/field interviews, publicity/promotions, website management, and logistics/finance/publishing. What other skills and roles would we need for a project like this?

Are there any resources for managing a project like this? I've seen plenty of books and articles on non-fiction writing, but those tend to assume you're the sole writer. Any resources on managing anthologies?

Thanks so much!

"He always plays himself."

amyms — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:02:56 -0800

What are some examples of actors "playing themselves" (not someone purposefully featured as themselves, but someone whose personality is so powerful that it overwhelms the character he/she is supposed to be playing)? For instance, some people say that no matter what movie he's in, Jack Nicholson always plays "Jack Nicholson." Other people say the same for Robert DeNiro or Clint Eastwood. I'm looking for some actors and roles that are the embodiment of this notion.