As screenwriters, one of the most important parts of our work is the first ten pages of our feature script. Today I’ll examine just the first THREE MINUTES of one of the 80s’ most notable films.
On my next post, I’ll compare this finished scene to what was written in the screenplay.
In the 1985 blockbuster “Back To The Future”, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, we are treated to one of the greatest opens in cinema. First, we only hear a sound: a CLOCK TICKING.
At fade in, we see them: dozens and dozens of clocks, ticking in perfect sync; symbols of what is going to be on the line in this film, time itself, getting Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) back to the future. One of those ticking clocks sports a dangling Harold Lloyd, foreshadowing the gripping climax when Doc Brown himself (Christopher Lloyd) will hang on for dear life to the clock tower downtown. Masterful.
Besides the symbolic clocks, numerous other significant moments are embedded here. Let’s walk through this scene moment by moment and see what else we find.
The camera floats past the clocks, to photographs of Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison, which we later see in Doc’s Mansion of 1955.
We see the video camera on Doc’s bed, which will later record the historic first test of the time machine.
We float past a coffee maker. The timer goes off, spilling coffee where there should be a cup. We pass a toaster that pops toast right on time but has burned it to a crisp.
I’d also note that these images make us chuckle, indicating the genre we are in: a comedy.
Perhaps most significantly, we now learn about the stolen plutonium through a TV news report.
And now we come to a robotic dog food can opener, which comically automates the opening of a can of Kal Kan, then dumps its contents into the perfectly placed dog food bowl below.
Okay, we are in the workshop of an inventor. And he must have a dog, (Einstein), who later will in fact become the first time traveler.
Now Marty walks in, skateboard in hand: another setup for the skateboard chase that will make us laugh in Act 2. Marty sets down the skateboard, taps it aside, and it rolls right into, yes, the case of stolen plutonium. So now the viewer is made curious: why is the stolen plutonium here?
Everything we see in this first scene brilliantly and cohesively sets up what is to come.
On my next post, I’ll compare this scene to the one scripted, and explore what some of the changes were. Should be a good exercise in rewriting!
Hint: This scene in the fourth draft of the script, dated October 1984, is completely different from what appears in the film!
On my next post, I’ll compare this finished scene to what was written in the screenplay.
In the 1985 blockbuster “Back To The Future”, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, we are treated to one of the greatest opens in cinema. First, we only hear a sound: a CLOCK TICKING.
At fade in, we see them: dozens and dozens of clocks, ticking in perfect sync; symbols of what is going to be on the line in this film, time itself, getting Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) back to the future. One of those ticking clocks sports a dangling Harold Lloyd, foreshadowing the gripping climax when Doc Brown himself (Christopher Lloyd) will hang on for dear life to the clock tower downtown. Masterful.
Besides the symbolic clocks, numerous other significant moments are embedded here. Let’s walk through this scene moment by moment and see what else we find.
The camera floats past the clocks, to photographs of Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison, which we later see in Doc’s Mansion of 1955.
We see the video camera on Doc’s bed, which will later record the historic first test of the time machine.
We float past a coffee maker. The timer goes off, spilling coffee where there should be a cup. We pass a toaster that pops toast right on time but has burned it to a crisp.
I’d also note that these images make us chuckle, indicating the genre we are in: a comedy.
Perhaps most significantly, we now learn about the stolen plutonium through a TV news report.
And now we come to a robotic dog food can opener, which comically automates the opening of a can of Kal Kan, then dumps its contents into the perfectly placed dog food bowl below.
Okay, we are in the workshop of an inventor. And he must have a dog, (Einstein), who later will in fact become the first time traveler.
Now Marty walks in, skateboard in hand: another setup for the skateboard chase that will make us laugh in Act 2. Marty sets down the skateboard, taps it aside, and it rolls right into, yes, the case of stolen plutonium. So now the viewer is made curious: why is the stolen plutonium here?
Everything we see in this first scene brilliantly and cohesively sets up what is to come.
On my next post, I’ll compare this scene to the one scripted, and explore what some of the changes were. Should be a good exercise in rewriting!
Hint: This scene in the fourth draft of the script, dated October 1984, is completely different from what appears in the film!
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