Back to the Future: Bootstrap Edition

The edit is done! It should be available soon. Sent the DLC to info. Also available on MS.

My edit is a deranged attempt to restructure the Back to the Future trilogy by combing all the movies and changing the time travel rules.

The primary goal was to make a single timeline version of the trilogy with no alternate histories or ‘ripple effect’. Its always bothered me that BTTF needs some pretty involved extrapolation to make any sense.

Without making this a confusing explanation of paradoxes, I wanted the plot of the movie to be a 'causal loop.' In other words, time traveling to the past does not alter history, but creates it in the first place.

To do this, I put all of the events in chronological order, regardless of which ‘timeline’ they were set in. Then scenes were slowly whittled away if they caused a contradiction, or referenced a scene that was cut. This led to a very bizarre, trippy version of the story where effects are seen before causes, and punch-lines are delivered before set-ups. More importantly, the time travel in the edit makes more sense. The movies now operate as a Bootstrap Paradox instead of a Grandfather Paradox.

The entire thing ended up being just around 2.5 hours long. Most of the scenes are set in the 1950s. There's no Hell Valley, only about 15ish minutes from the Old West and about 18 from the Future. 

Anyway, let me know if you're interested or whatever, or if you've got any questions.

Sounds interesting. The Reality Cut is still the high water mark, though.

Adabisi said:

Sounds interesting. The Reality Cut is still the high water mark, though.

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I just found out about Reality Cut a couple of days ago. Someone said it was "The Room of Fan Edits". Not sure what the editor did. Not sure I want to know.

QuackAtomic said:

Adabisi said:

Sounds interesting. The Reality Cut is still the high water mark, though.

Click to expand...

I just found out about Reality Cut a couple of days ago. Someone said it was "The Room of Fan Edits". Not sure what the editor did. Not sure I want to know.

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You definitely do. It's fun. Especially if you know nothing going in.

I started working on a cover. Not sure what to do for the back. Any suggestions?

Nice. The cover is shaping up well... but if I can make one suggestion, the "Bootstrap Edition" title should follow the same perspective as the BTTF logo. e.g.

TM2YC said:

Nice. The cover is shaping up well... but if I can make one suggestion, the "Bootstrap Edition" title should follow the same perspective as the BTTF logo. e.g.

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Thanks! Been having some trouble with that. Also, every time I render the image, some of the text moves around and some effects disappear. Very frustrating.

Can a admin please move this thread to IN-THE-WORKS? There's a couple things I was unhappy with that I thought of solutions for. No reason to have it in completed now.

Just to clarify: I originally had the edit end with a sort of cliffhanger when Doc and Marty arrive in 2015. The logic being that the viewer knows the outcome b/c of the earlier scenes in the 1950s. But also because I wasn't exactly sure how dodge all those alternate time line bullets. Just the other day, I thought of how to make it work. It's a bit of mouthful, but I couldn't pass up the chance to add a better ending. Involved a lot of heavy dialogue manipulation.

Just to clarify on that last post: I originally had the edit end with a sort of cliffhanger when Doc and Marty arrive in 2015. The logic being that the viewer knows the outcome b/c of the earlier scenes in the 1950s. But also because I wasn't exactly sure how dodge all those alternate time line bullets. Just the other day, I thought of how to make it work. It's a bit of mouthful, but I couldn't pass up the chance to add a better ending. Involved a lot of heavy dialogue manipulation.

Decided my opening credits were kind of shoddy, so I made new ones modeled after the opening to BTTF2. Except they combine the opening credits of all three films. Look okay to you guys?

pass = fanedit

I like what you've done there. Very clear, crisp credits and good use of backdrop

Very well done indeed 

QuackAtomic said:

Decided my opening credits were kind of shoddy, so I made new ones modeled after the opening to BTTF2. Except they combine the opening credits of all three films. Look okay to you guys?

pass = fanedit

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How long do you guys think is too long for an edit like this? It's just under 3 hours. Is that too much? Trying to figure out what else I can cut.

QuackAtomic said:

How long do you guys think is too long for an edit like this? It's just under 3 hours. Is that too much? Trying to figure out what else I can cut.

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For an edit like _this_ I think just under three hours is good; nonetheless, if you can cut something, then do, unless it hurts the film.

Honestly, that's impressive as it is (and not too long IMO). I just watched a great BTTF 2 & 3 combined edit that was 2 hr 40 minutes and it didn't feel long at all. There's a ton of great story and it flows quickly so I think your length should be fine.

Okay, fair enough. The only thing I could think to remove was the Johnny B. Goode sequence. It does nothing to move the plot forward, but it was one of the hardest edits. So I'm reluctant to let all that work go down the drain.

you could do a hard cut or fade from the moment right before the song Earth Angel begins to transition into the
Back to the Future Theme Music, before it cuts back to Marty taking his guitar off.

jswert123456 said:

you could do a hard cut or fade from the moment right before the song Earth Angel begins to transition into the
Back to the Future Theme Music, before it cuts back to Marty taking his guitar off.

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I actually already have a work around. I didn't put Johnny B Goode in until about the 13th version, and now I'm on v25. Most of Earth Angel is gone to avoid the fading effect on Marty. Best solution I had was to cut to Doc leaving for the school, then show PartII Marty coming into the gym at the end. To get around JBG, it skips to the stairwell.

Also, the edit is done. I've got a 720p version rendered. If a mod could move this back into COMPLETED, I would appreciate it. Want to submit it now.

Started rendering the 1080p final version. It's been going for about 5 days. It'll be watchable in ... maybe 3 more. The Vegas time estimate is super wrong, so idk when it'll finish.

EDIT: The long render time is due to the condition and age of my computer.

Alright guys, the edit is done. I've got a 720p version rendered. Had to abandon the 1080p for now, b/c my computer reset itself to do updates. Iffing a mod could move this back into COMPLETED, I would appreciate it. Also, not 100% on the first time submission process since the website layout was updated.