Things that back to the future taught us about script writing - Class task

Alan Silvestri

Alan was first drawn to music at an early age. Beginning as a drummer, his love for instruments quickly grew to include the bassoon, clarinet, saxophone and guitar. Writing his own music and forming numerous bands during his early school days, his musical life would lead him to the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was to enroll as a composition major.
As a guitarist in Cochran's popular band, Alan toured America. Continuing to explore his love of music, he moved to Hollywood and the result was his first movie score with 1972's "The Doberman Gang (1972)".
He would score a number of small films during this period before breaking through as a television composer during the second season of the hit series CHiPs (1977)
Silvestri's talent for percussive melodies would particularly impress Robert Zemeckis, who gave the composer his breakthrough score in the action-comedy hit "Romancing the Stone (1984)".
Both director and composer were suddenly propelled to a hugely successful collaboration that would include the "Back to the Future (1985)" series, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)", the Oscar-winning "Forrest Gump (1994)" (for which Silvestri received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score), "Contact (1997)", "What Lies Beneath (2000)", "Cast Away (2000)" (for which he won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition), "The Polar Express (2004)" (whose song "Believe", co-written with Glen Ballard, won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song), "Beowulf (2007)", "A Christmas Carol (2009)" and "Flight" which was released on November 2nd, 2012.
 Through the years and over 100 scores, Alan has distinguished himself in many genres, from action sci-fi (Marvel's "Avengers Assemble (2012)" and "Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)") to thrilling suspense ("Predator (1987)", "The Abyss (1989)"), to galloping westerns ("Young Guns II: Blaze of Glory (1990)", "The Quick and the Dead (1995)"), youthful fantasy ("Stuart Little (1999)", "Lilo & Stitch (2002)", "Night at the Museum (2006)" trilogy) rollicking comedy ("Father of the Bride (1991)", "The Parent Trap (1998)", "What Women Want (2000)") and heartfelt drama ("The Perez Family (1995)", "Maid in Manhattan (2002)"). But whether composing orchestral action, or tender melodies, Alan Silvestri's work has always been identifiable by its keen sense of melody and theme. He has won 2 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: Standing Up in the Milky Way (2014) and Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)


The idea of "Back To The Future" came from the writer wanting to know if he would have been friends with his father if he went to school together. He then developed the idea and created an entire story for the idea.
The script was rejected over 40 times before it was made.