GREAT SCOTT! What BTTF Really Looked Like! VFX Breakdown

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October 21st is a great day for all of us "Back to the Future" fans and to commemorate it we're going to do an in-depth dive into the incredible special effects and VFX that went into this "timeless" classic! so let's harness the lightning, channel it into the Flux Capacitor and take a trip, Back to the Future!

#backtothefuture
The Back to the Future trilogy isn't just some films about time travel, they're films about a young man and a crazy scientist, risking everything they have in the present, to change the past, in the hope for a better future, oddly enough, ILM, the visual effects company responsible for the movies did a similar thing, using everything they'd learned from the past and every tool available in the present to create some visual effects that belonged in the future.

Back To The Future.
This first film was made at a time when modern CGI and digital compositing didn't exist, all the effects animation was hand-drawn, one frame at a time, and then printed optically onto the live-action plates. Wes Takahashi was the creator of the iconic DeLorean Time Slice Effect, Director Robert Zemeckis said he wanted something never seen before, he said he wanted it to be violent, "like a Neanderthal sitting on the hood of the DeLorean and chipping away the fabric of time in front of him- or something to that effect." so Wes Takahashi got to work on various effects, sparks and glowing lights, flashes and vapor trails, and in the end, Zemeckis wanted a combination of absolutely everything.
The flashing pops, animated comets and vapor trails, the animated sparks that bounced off the space/time fabric, and the Time slice tearing open were all hand-animated in ink, pencil, or airbrush, the blue glowing tubes were done by hand roto-ing each frame and then giving the timings to the Optical department so that they knew when to double expose some light onto those areas, and the implosion effect was actually a practical explosion, printed running in reverse, and then composited with everything else into the final effect.

Back To The Future II.
The second film was a combination of old techniques and modern solutions, since convincingly real CG models were still unavailable a remarkable amount of practical models and miniatures were made for this film, Biff's Casino and Hotel building was an 8ft (2.4m) miniature building with light bulbs behind the window cutouts, the police hovercar was a 1/5 scale model made from vacuum-formed plastic, there was a 1/5 scale DeLorean with servos to fold the wheels up, and every other hovercar in the movie was actually a physical prop, they were all shot individually in front of a blue screen and the chroma-keying method was done chemically, each one was then choreographed to one camera move.
Perhaps one of the most interesting scenes in the movie and one of the hardest (because it took 3 whole days just to shoot) forced ILM to make an important innovation which was then used in multiple scenes throughout the movies. In the dining scene where Michael J Fox plays the role of Marty Senior, Marty Junior, and Marlene, digital compositing and virtual cameras were not available so split-screen was their only option, the two biggest problems with split-screens were that the camera had to remain in exactly the same place and the seam between the two shots had to be disguised by something, normally a strong vertical line like a tree or door jamb, or sometimes just a black background, Zemeckis wanted neither of these things, so ILM designed and built the "VistaGlide".

Back To The Future III.
Just like the previous films, in this film most things were done practically, the DeLorean Time Slice effect was achieved the same way, miniatures and models were used, and they even built the entire set of 1885 Hill Valley from scratch with intricate detail, but one scene in the film balanced practical effects, physical stunts, digital effects, and pyrotechnics almost perfectly, Clara's hoverboard rescue scene required stunt horseback riding, when Clara gets onto the train, steam, fire, and explosions for when the train's boiler explodes, digital blue screen work for when Clara hangs upside down and also for her and Doc's hoverboard escape, digital removal work for the cables that caused the DeLorean to do a wheelie and a 1/4 scale set complete with steam train, track and DeLorean for the end of the scene.

This video was sponsored by Atlas VPN.

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This old school special effects are way cooler than any modern computer generated effects!

davidstarsky

The Back to the Future series (espeically part 2) will always be the greatest movie(s) of all time for me

candausc

BTTF was well before its time. Its a all time classic and will never be bettered by any.

leemaguire

All the multiple character scenes were incredible, especially the dining scene. It's a masterpiece that amazes me since then, and it still does.

SpielSatzFail

This trilogy is fantastic and magnificent and all but... I've been listening to that background music for like 8 months everyday constantly and very simply never ever could I get enough of it and I don't think I will be able to quit listening it any time soon. It's addictive! Billion thanks and apreciations personally to whoever composed and aired it.

alicanerturk

It took us about two weeks to get all of the coverage through the McFly 2015 home. Four hours a day just to apply the make ups (and an hour to remove at the end of a shoot day/night). I remember one week my time card had a 19, 21 & 26 hour long days. It was grueling for all, and especially for me since I was hung upside down for most of it.

idiotglee

Can we appreciate how many things have been invested that was in these movies ❤

HTWHEELS

As a child of the 80's, I appreciated that extra work and extra detail done back then, everythings digital now😔, the model cars had me fooled all these years....🤣

kingleo

Remember when movies had great stories?

NoRMusic

One of my all time favourite movies, and one that show NEVER be rebooted!!

MoviesRemastered

One of the greatest movie & trilogy ever made, thanks for the walkthrough, really awesome video!!

motionstudio

My dad had the box set of back to the future yeats ago!
It had all three films and the fourth tape was the makeing of all three!
Its still ground breaking to this day and is still one of my favourite memories with my dad🤗

markbuckley

Old school practical effects seemed they are real!

appi

Dude the point of the first movie was to *NOT* change the past so that Marty could still exist. It being a better present when he got back was a pleasant side effect of smaller consequences.

rgmusicom

6:58 I especially loved watching them jump on the skateboards, so much rehearsal went into this movie, to get the few hoverboard scenes perfect.

I absolutely love every hoverboard scene and love seeing these never before seen skateboards behind the scenes‼️

capcomeva