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Production Designer Larry Paull Discusses Back to the Future 27 Years Later

 In 1966 a 28-year-old architect by the name of Lawrence G. Paull had viewed the movie Dr. Zhivago and was “dazzled by the art direction.” [1] Paull had found his artistic voice  limited in the conservative world of architecture, and looked to find a career in movies.  Paull ended up meeting  an art director and got work as a draftsman on a few productions.  In the early 1970s  Paull ended up becoming an art director and production designer on numerous television and feature film productions.   Paull in 1982 made a splash on the film industry with being the production designer of  Ridley Scott’s futuristic film noir Blade Runner. A few years later Paull was tapped production designer for a 20^th Century Fox's Romancing the Stone produced by Michael Douglas, and directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Romancing the Stone  ended up being the blockbuster break out film for director Robert Zemeckis, which allowed Back to the Future to be green lighted by Universal Studios. In the summer of 1984 key film  production positions were being filled.  Many crew members from Romancing the Stone found positions on Zemeckis’ Back to the Future.  Paull  looking forward to working with Zemeckis again  was tapped to deal with the creative challenges involved with designing a film where sets got to be filmed in the current times of the 1980s and as Zemeckis stated, “the peak of the American Dream,” [2] the 1950s.

             Paull’s art department ended up transforming the  Universal Studios  backlot from a decaying 1985 town to a thriving bustling  1955 community, convert a DeLorean into a time machine, and build numerous inventions of eccentric inventor Doc Brown.  Back to the Future ended up being the top grossing movie in 1985, 27 years later production designer Larry Paull who is a professor at the Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts took time out of his teaching for this exclusive interview with BTTF.com.

Photo Provided by Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts

You had worked with Robert Zemeckis on Romancing the Stone as production designer, how did you get the job of production designer of Back to the Future?

I believe one of the producers called about my availability. I was just leaving on a trip to Egypt and when I came back over Labor Day weekend, the studio, Universal, had not contacted my attorney as of yet, and it wasn't until a contract was agreed upon, that I started pre-production on the film.

What did you think of the script?  What interested you as a designer to tackle the project?

The script was very clever, but my main interest was collaborating with Bob (Zemeckis) on another project.

As production designer how did you first approach Back to the Future?  There are so many levels happening all at once: filming locations in two time periods, the Doc and his lab/garage with all the high tech props, and then of course the time machine itself.

Upon starting the film, I was told there was a location manager in Texas and another one in Northern California near Fort Bragg. I felt the town of Hill Valley was the key set in the film, whether it was 1955 or 1985. Due to the fact we were set to start shooting in November of that year and all the stores in these small towns were gearing up for Christmas, it did not seem logical to go on distant location to shoot the film. I then proceeded to walk to the back lot of Universal to look into the possibility of using the small town square as Hill Valley. I worked out a schematic plan of all the specific elements that were required in the script, and presented this to Bob about a week later on the back lot itself. Bob liked the idea and that was the end of the idea of shooting on location. All the sets would be on stage at Universal and the locations would be all over the San Fernando Valley and, as it turned out, South Pasadena.

At the time you did Back to the Future, not many movies were taking place in the '50s, did you find any creative hurdles to recreate the '50s as Zemeckis and Gale wanted?  The script reads like an ideal view of the '50s and Zemeckis has said in interviews he looks at the '50s as the pinnacle of the American dream.

The idea of recreating 1955 on a back lot, stage, and location is very challenging in the area of design. So, what I did was call the research department at Universal Studios and asked them to get me every Life Magazine, Look Magazine and any and all photographic research they could find on the 1950's. We never had a discussion about the look until I showed Bob the key research photos that I eventually used as reference material for the look of the film.

Were you involved in the decision to use a DeLorean as a time machine?  Did you do any design work on the original "chamber" time machine that Gale and Zemeckis wrote?  Kevin Pike also recalled that there was some discussion of a Mercedes Gullwing but it was short lived.

No. The DeLorean was in the first script I read. I don't recall a "time chamber". And I don't recall any discussions about a Mercedes.

Were you glad that the storyline got changed to the lightning bolt instead of the A-Bomb finale in Nevada?  Other than Andrew Probert's storyboards was any design work done for the A-Bomb test site?

I'm not familiar with the A- Bomb finale in Nevada.

How involved were you with the design of the DeLorean time machine, or did you let the concept artists tackle that?

 Ron Cobb designed the DeLorean and I was given copies of the drawings. Since this all came about rather rapidly, I took the drawings and instead of trying to duplicate what was in them, I decided to stay with the spirit of the design only. We had, I believe 6 or 7 weeks to put together the three DeLoreans. So Michael Scheffe was hired to ramrod the DeLorean under my supervision. For example, I gave Michael a brochure from a company in LA that manufactured wheel wells for hot rods. He went out and brought back samples of hot rod wheels and I selected the one that was used for the flux capacitor reactor. We didn't have the time or money to draw up details of the original design, cast them in fiberglass and basically duplicate what was in the original drawings. Another example of this is in the fuel receptacle, which takes anything as fuel it is a coffee grinder. By the time I started on the film, Ron Cobb was gone and only the drawings were there.

Orginal concept art by Ron Cobb, Andrew Probert & Mke Scheffe, and the  final completed "A" hero car.

Did you ever go to Kevin's shop and look at the surplus parts and the cars being  constructed, or was that more Mike Scheffe's job? Did art director Todd Hallowell work a lot with the design of the DeLorean at the shop?

I visited Kevin's shop at least twice a week to see how things were progressing on the Delorean. Michael Scheffe was there on a daily basis I believe. Todd was not involved as he was working in the art department as well as on stages as we were building sets.

Kevin Pike showed fans a photo from Life magazine that he got from you, to help build Doc's brain wave analyzer. Do you remember this at all?

The photo Kevin is referring to is one I came across thumbing thru Life magazine. It was an article on women and the lengths they went to, for curling their hair. That became the "brain wave analyzer.”

What were some of the fondest memories you have in designing Back to the Future?

My fondest memories are still the back lot street for Hill Valley as well as the 1950's bungalow Marty lived in with his family.

Do you recall any ideas that you thought strongly about but didn't make the final cut of the film?

Everything that was designed and built is in the film.

Are there any other stories from designing Back to the Future that you would like to share for fans?

There are no stories that I recall from the film. Just that, I am very happy with the way the film came out. It turned out to be my second nomination from the British Film Academy.

Mr. Paull thank you for your time in discussing Back to the Future with us!

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