Andrew Probert inside one of Universal's DeLoreans before Filmtrix modified it into a time machine
How did you get involved with Back to the Future — was it because you had worked with Universal before?
Yes, that's probably where I heard about it. I remember talking to Robert Zemeckis about being considered to do the storyboards. The way the studio system works, you hear about projects and go to the "powers that be" to see about getting on board. When I talked to Zemeckis (I don't remember now if I read the script beforehand), I
asked him if he also needed designs for the car. He said, "Oh no, we got Ron Cobb to design it." So I was brought on to do storyboards.
Did you work with Larry Paull, the Production Designer?
Yes, but there was very little contact with him. I pretty much worked directly under Bob Zemeckis and Todd Hollowell, the art director.
On the recently released DVDs, Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis stress, for their type of film, that using storyboards is of the utmost importance. When I look through Kevin Pike's old storyboard book, I am overall amazed at how close the ones you did ended up in the film. How did you get to do certain scenes, did you find you worked
closely with the director?
Yeah...what usually happens is you read the script, then you as an illustrator turn to the director and they make the determination of what scenes they'll need storyboarded. So you take that sequence and draw it — either the way you think it should be shot or the way your director describes it to you. A lot of directors, like Steven Spielberg, sketch up little scribbles on their own and then bring in an illustrator to produce the finished boards.
Did you work for Universal directly in their art department? In terms of production, who did you work with the most?
Yes, for some projects I did work in Universal's art department, but for Back to the Future, I worked in Amblin's large and very comfortable art room. I was working directly under Zemeckis, but Spielberg was in & out from time to time. We would see each other and chat about things, knowing each other from my working on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but on this project I was working mainly for Zemeckis.
Andrew Probert in Amblin's large art room, with the wall covered in DeLorean concept art
I believe your hallmark and best-known sequence as being storyboarded by you is the mall scene at the beginning of the movie. Did you visit any the sets? For example, did you actually drive around the mall and think, "Hmmm, this could be interesting here, and the DeLorean should fish tail here," and so forth?
What happened was, Bob brought us out to this mall and said, "This is where I want to shoot the sequence." We all were standing where the DeLorean comes out of the truck, and he said, "Marty will be coming down that hill," gesturing toward one of the entry roads. "The Twin Pines Mall sign will be there, and Marty will be looking here, at Doctor Brown's van." Basically, we went through the script and mall sequence where he described how various actions would take place. For instance, he pointed out the street from where the terrorists would enter and pointed out where he wanted the photostand to be, which they would collide into at the end of the sequence. We talked about the various entrances
to the parking lot through which Marty would try to escape. We then noticed that some of those entrances were locked off at night so I suggested to Bob that Marty, knowing where the entrances were, would try to escape in that direction, but finding them blocked, is forced to find other routes of escape. When the meeting was over, I took my notes home, along
with a diagram of the mall parking lot, and spent the next couple of days storyboarding that sequence. What amazed me was how closely Bob agreed with my sketches and shot a lot of it that way. I really took that as quite a complement.
What other scenes beside the mall scene and the Peabody farm scene did you actually storyboard?
I did the clock tower, and also the scene where Marty intercepts his dad peeping on Lorriane, and then gets hit by the car.
How did the Eric Stoltz change-out affect your storyboarding work? After they dumped several reels of film, did you have to tweak or change anything for Micheal J. Fox, or did they stay with the original storyboards?
I had forgotten that whole switch thing — how weird is that?! I honestly don't remember when, in my storyboarding, that transaction took place. I don't recall having to tweak the storyboards — I think I would remember
having to redo whole sequences.
Yeah, Back to the Future had a lot of re-filming — they filmed Part I twice, and then the two sequels back to back. And to think they had to rebuild some of those Back to the Future sets again for the sequels — that was really amazing.
I have read somewhere that you also had a hand in developing the Back to the Future logo. Is this correct?
Yes, I did, actually. The final version is colored differently and the whole logo is sort of bent or curved, where mine was straight. But I consider that just a refinement, and a good one at that.
Probert's original logo was used on everything from blueprints, to the production letterhead
By the time you got involved, we know it had already been decided that the time machine would be a DeLorean. Was it the clock tower draft, or where you there before that?
I storyboarded the little heard of "Atomic Bomb sequence". Doc Brown is able to sneak Marty and the car into one of those "Ground Zero" test towns. The car was rigged with a huge dish to harness energy from the up-coming blast. All Marty had to do was drive directly toward the explosion at 88 miles per hour. The bomb would detonate and charge the car, which would time-jump just before the shock wave hit it. I'm also reminded that, as originally written, the entrance of the car into our time period was preceded with a static field, which would have the effect of making everyone's hair stand on end a second before the car appears. For instance, when Doc Brown and Marty are talking at the mall, as they
wait for Einy's one-minute time jump, their hair stands up and the car blasts back. In the bomb sequence, we dissolve from the blast to the same location in 1985, joining a tour group at Ground Zero when everyone's hair stands on end just as the car bursts into the present.
So what happened with the Atomic Bomb scene?
After I storyboarded it all out, the producers took the storyboards to ILM, who wanted to charge one million dollars for that one bomb effect. Well, that meant the scene was out and a new "25 zillion gigawatts!!" source had to be found.
And that is what led to the clock tower getting struck by lightning. I think the clock tower worked out better for the story — another scene pencilled by you.
I agree — it worked out much better. This brings up an interesting point about storyboarding. As a storyboard artist is working on a sequence, he/she is constantly thinking how that scene will play. That's what we're there for. As I was boarding the scene where Doc Brown discovers Marty's note, warning him of the terrorists, it occurred to me that the way the scene was written, it would telegraph to the audience Doc Brown's benefiting from the letter. You see, the original scene had Doc Brown tearing up the note and admonishing Marty as he walks across the street to deposit the scraps into his Packard's ash tray. I felt by showing this, the audience would quickly anticipate Doc Brown retrieving & reassembling that note later on. I approached Bob Gale about this and we walked out to the backlot to discuss it. By
acting out the actions written in the script, I was able to comunicate my concerns. I then suggested the magicians' trick of making the audience look at one hand (which was the tree limb knocking down the cable), while the other hand tucked those scraps into his coat pocket. I hoped the limb would make the audience forget about the note, and Bob agreed.
Even still today on the BTTF.com message board, some fans still ask about how Doc got the note and we keep pointing out how he threw it quick in his pocket. It still works on the new viewers
of the films.
Right, so see there, it works,... pretty neat huh? So, you see, the scene-by-scene analyzation that storyboard artists go through can help productions in other ways too.
You mentioned to me before that you had been doing some DeLorean concept sketches on your own. When did you actually get hired?
I was brought into the production a little while before Cobb, and I just couldn't resist sketching out some of the ideas I had about the look of the DeLorean time machine, in addition to cranking out my boards. A bit later, Ron Cobb came in and jumped right into designing the actual time machine car. Where my drawings showed a preference for an actual "designed" machine, Ron's vision was a lot more practical by coming up with an amazing amount of seemingly found & improvised components — a beleivable look to something Brown would have put together himself. But just as he finished his amazing set of drawings, he left the show for the Val Kilmer movie Real Genius to design their space plane. When he left, the producers liked most of what Ron had put together but didn't feel the design was complete. They reviewed my sketches and Steven suggested that I should continue the process, using Ron's ideas as a basis.
Bob Gale and Andrew Probert in front of the DeLorean concept wall in Amblin's art room
As a designer, are you very fond of the design of the DeLorean by itself?
Oh yeah, I was very intrigued with the beautiful DeLorean design, and most impressed by the fact that John DeLorean was able to start a new car company and actually be competitive.
When you were working on the design of the time machine, did you go out to surplus supply shops and look at parts for ideas?
No. The word was "Don't worry about the parts — we will try and match the drawings." And they did an AMAZING job.
Did you ever talk to Kevin Pike and his crew? Did you ever get to see the finished vehicles in person?
Yeah, I visited the shop a few times, during the car's modifications, and it looked like a great place to work. Lots of creative guys there. I would take Polaroid pictures of different parts of the car for my boards.
The film process is one of collaborations, however, every artist deep down has their own personal idea of how something should be. Directors sometimes have director's cuts as an example. Out of all the design work you did on the DeLorean, was there one idea that you personally liked the most and wished to have seen used? Did you find that the final verision really should be the only verision?
No, I am very satisfied with the final time machine, although I do wish they'd gone with my version of the interior. I know it was too slick of a concept, but I thought it worked.
What differences in interior were there? I do know some bits and pieces of your interior still showed up like the small compass on the time displays.
Actually, I think I brought that idea in from Ron's concept. The big difference with my interior and Ron's was that mine was a lot cleaner, and I had placed my version of the flux capacitor on the ceiling between the two seats instead of being hung on the back wall. And I didn't have anything on the arm rest because it was impossible to shift gears comfortably, so I kept that area clean, but offset a keyboard toward the passenger's side. The reason I had put the flux capacitor on the ceiling was because it would have made it easier for Doc Brown to point to (and for the audience to see) as he was explaining it all to Marty (and us) during his introduction to the time machine.
Now onto another key Back to the Future area you were involved with. How did you get tapped to make the infamous Tales From Space comic book and the Match Made In Space novel?
I don't remember exactly, but it seems Bob asked if I could do the cover for the Tales comic. Bob wanted the cover to match the scene where the Peabodys first see the car in their 1955 barn. We talked about the scene and the original idea was to make it seem like the DeLorean had actually crashed through the roof. So I did a little production painting to determine what the DeLorean might look like sitting in the barn with its wheels buried in hay. The nickel alloy body would have looked to the Peabodys like some sort of space craft. Once approved, I did the comic cover in the style of the popular "E.C. Comics" of that period.
It turns out that one scene had a lot to do with development of Back to the Future. It is the scene that led to the use of the DeLorean. It was revealed in the DVD that the CEO at Universal LOVED the comic book scene and the whole idea, and that he actually wanted to change the title of the film to Spacemen From Pluto. Did you ever know that this scene and the comic with the DeLorean had such an effect?
No, I never heard that one. I was a little disappointed with that scene though because Bob planned to have debris fall from the ceiling. The reason being, that when the DeLorean hits the barn, the top of the barn collapses inward, creating the hole you can see in the film. As debris continues to fall inside, the camera was to tilt up as the Peabodys look up at the opening. This would have reenforced the notion of the Delorean crashing through their roof. It was a great shot — I don't know why it was removed, but it was written and storyboarded that way.
Well, I love all the little in-jokes you put into the comic cover, including DeLorean headlights and a DMC black grill. Do you have any other stories or in-jokes?
One interesting story is when Larry Paull was creating signs for the stores on Main Street, he used names of various crew members. I told Larry that my father owned a music store called "Probert's Music Shop" and would he be able to find a place to put that on Main Street. "No" was his answer. So when I discovered in my comic cover research
that it was common practice for comic artists to include a signature box in the artwork, I of course wanted to stay true to the style, so I included one on the cover I did. Knowing the cover would be seen in a close-up, I thought this would be a fun way to get my name on screen after all. But after all that, in the final shot Otis Peabody holds the comic — for that anticipated close-up — with his thumb across my signature box. What can you say? Then when I did the hardback cover Match Made in Space, I took the opportunity to get my name on that cover by creating a "Probert Publications" logo for the spine, and all you see is a blur as they spin the book around. Oh well.
I know you sent many young kids and collectors, including me, to the comic stores in search of that issue!
Yeah, that was an amazing compliment to me when I heard about it later.
With the Match Made in Space book, what went into designing that cover?
Again, Bob described what he wanted to see on the book cover. I did three sketches of different compositions, and he chose one which I developed into a painting.
There are all sorts of small details in the book cover like the hairdryer and the walkman on the spaceman's suit.
Yeah, it's all there because the basis for George McFly's novel was this nocturnal visit of Marty in his radiation suit. I simply took details from the scene and put them on the cover.
On a more serious note, are you aware that bootleggers have been making fake copies of your Tales From Space and Match Made in Space covers and selling them to young fans, namely on eBay? These are inferior, low resolution scans pulled off the internet. As a fellow person in a creative field, I keep telling these folks it's wrong, but I'd like your take on this.
Unfortunately, it seems that when some people can't do something themselves, they just steal from others.
So overall, how do you rate your experience on Back to the Future? I know that, while many fans may not know just how much you did put into this film, we have all enjoyed the benefits of your added vision to this series.
Well, thank you very much. Overall, I would rate the experience as excellent. And then they went on to make the Back to the Future trilogy into what I feel is the most successful of any other trilogies, in terms of its continuity, good storytelling, and just plain fun.
Are there any upcoming shows or sci-fi conventions you'll be a guest at where fans might have a chance to meet you in person?
Yes, I will be attending the CONvergence 2003 Convention. It's the only one I have planned this year.
Was there anything else that you worked on in the film that I may have missed or don't know about, that you would like the fans of Back to the Future to know was of your mark?
No, that's really pretty much all I did for that film. I was blessed with a few other projects-turned-classics, starting way back with the original pilot film for Battlestar: Galactica. If anyone is interested in seeing more, they're invited to drop by my website at www.ProbertDesigns.com.
I hope you all enjoy the insight and intrical details that the creative team behind Back to the Future did to create — in my eyes — one of the most enjoyable films of all time. My thanks to Andrew Probert, as without the generous donation of photographs & images that he provided to be showcased here, this article could not have been made possible.
— Tom
