Gene Kelly: Choreography and the Camera

PRESENTED BY THE ACADEMY'S SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL

HOSTED BY PATRICIA WARD KELLY

With panelists:

Bill Taylor (moderator) - Academy governor - Visual Effects Branch, visual effects supervisor

Don Hall - Academy governor - Sound Branch, Council member, supervising sound editor

Victor Kemper - cinematographer ("Xanadu")

Tom Sito - animator ("Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid") and writer ("The Lion King," "Pocahontas")

Eric Goldberg - animator and director ("Pocahontas")

This second night celebrating the extraordinary talents of Gene Kelly took a more in-depth look at the contribution for which he most wished to be remembered: his role in changing the look of dance on film.

While Kelly is widely recognized around the world as the iconic figure splashing joyfully in puddles and swinging on a lamppost, he frequently encountered technical barriers and studio resistance in his efforts to build dance numbers into the structure of film and bring the dance, quite literally, into the streets. "Gene Kelly: Choreography and the Camera," hosted by his widow, film historian Patricia Ward Kelly, discussed how he overcame those obstacles and also explored the innovative ways that cinematography, animation and sound were used to create some of Gene Kelly's most memorable dance moments on film.