In a very odd circumstance a couple of months ago, I became curious about movie continuity while watching Back to the Future. They did a fantastic job of coordinating all of the various clocks in the Delorian, the dance in 1955, the clock tower, and even the clock at the mall where for the first time Marty and the Delorian go back in time.
The issue I had when verifying all the times was with the interior shots of the Delorian’s time display. Every single image I could find on the internet did not include the full width of the display. The right side of the display was cut of on everything image, so the time was always cut off, leaving just the date.
Well, the other day, all my problems were solved (at least how it related to this question) because I just happened to turn on the TV at the exact moment when there was a shot of the full time display, including the time. I had my answer, and here it is…
The bottom line is the Mr. Zemeckis and his entire production staff did a fantastic job lining up all of the time events and synchronizing all of the clocks. Although it is a time travel story, so I suppose naturally that would have to be part of the production to keep it accurate. These are the small secret ingredients that go into good film making. Thanks for all your hard work guys and gals!
