Presentation - Hidden figures / modern figures : A journey of breaktroughs in cinema and space travel

By Mulder, Los Angeles, Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 29 november 2017

On Wednesday November 29th, 2017 at Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The Academy Science and Technology Council in collaboration with NASA held a panel. This panel was split into two parts. The host was Beverley J. Wood, a industry veteran. She came out of retirement to moderate this panel. One group was the movie Director Theodore Melfi, along with people who helped make the actual movie (included Fox 2000 president Elizabeth Gabler, writer-director-producer Theodore Melfi, film editor Peter Teschner, cinematographer Mandy Walker). The second was woman who were inspired and work at NASA ( Jet Propulsion Laboratory) currently (Dr. Bill Barry and NASA engineers Tracy Drain, Jennifer Trosper and Powtawche Valerino). The panel was put together to celebrate the movie and the real life story of the woman shaped history and continues to do so.

The director of Hidden Figures is Theodore Melfi. He actually was waiting on word back for Spider Man. When he was pitched the script over phone before script was actually made. But when he heard the story he wanted to drop everything to do this movie. He ended up choosing to do Hidden Figures instead of Spider Man. When Theodore reached out to NASA about this project. NASA gave him a consultant Dr. Bill Barry. Theodore sent Bill a advance copy of the script. Theodore called Bill to ask some quick questions about the script. Since Bill had made some notes. Bill said it took 4 hours to get threw the first half of it. Theodore wanted to make sure it was right. For the movie they even had the costume director and the set director together. Matching the colors to outfits and sets themes. The space pod scene had real life footage from the actual launch of John Glenn into orbit. Taraji P. Henson who played Katherine Johnson. Learned quadratic equation, after the 8 year old shot her part and did her monologue perfect. The director, Theodore Melfi wanted to make sure this movie was done right. He said every movie he finds one word that help describe the film. That word was (threw).

The second half the panel was Modern Figures. One panelist was Tracy Drain a systems engineer. Tracy works at JPL. She worked with the crew that developed and the operation of the Mars Reconnaissance. She is currently working on the Kepler project. The Kepler Mission is a project to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near that are sustainable for life. A second panelist was Powtawche a navigation engineer. Powtawche works at JPL. She grew up on a reservation. And had a love for the stars. She worked on the Cassini mission. The Cassini mission was dedicated to the discovery of (Saturn) that was the size of school bus. She currently works on the Parker solar probe. Which will be the closest ever a man made item had been to the sun. A third panelist was Jennifer Trosper. She worked on the Mars pathfinder mission. This mission was ground breaking. As it proved Mars is the most earth like planet, there was drinkable water on the planet at some point, they also found evidence of life. It was discovered that Mars has a Grand Canyon, and has a mountain that’s three time as bigs a Mount Everest. She is currently working on Mars 2020. That is focused on speeding up the samples and diagnostic info quicker. Jennifer became the first woman fellowman at NASA. Which is the highest recognition she can get at her work. NASA has about 6000 woman employees. Out of that 1200 are black woman, and 1000 are not in science field. In 1943 first black woman was allowed into NASA.

Synopsis:
Three brilliant African-American women at NASA. Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe). Broke down barriers of segregation and sexism. To serve as some of the most brilliant minds behind one of the greatest operations in history. The launch of astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) into orbit. Beating out the Russians to a stunning achievement. While forever changing history.

Hidden Figures
Directed by Theodore Melfi
Produced by Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams, Theodore Melfi
Screenplay by Allison Schroeder, Theodore Melfi
Based on Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons
Music by Hans Zimmer, Pharrell Williams, Benjamin Wallfisch
Cinematography Mandy Walker
Edited by Peter Teschner
Production company : Fox 2000 Pictures, Chernin Entertainment, Levantine Films
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date : December 25, 2016 (United States)
Running time : 127 minutes
Country : United States

Adrian Jones photos and Official photos

Written by Adj85 (Adrian Jones)

(Source; Oscars.org)