Nearly six months after the actual event, I'm finally putting up a gallery of some of my (better) photos from the BTTF.COM booth at FX 2002. Why now? Why not sooner? Eh, mostly because I was busy and I felt kinda weird at posting this stuff. I would like to point out right now that I was not a typical tourist to the event. I was fortunate enough to have the chance to help out behind the scenes -- finally meeting people like Stephen Clark, who I'd known since about the summer of '94 when I joined what was then the fan club, and then helped out with the club and later the web site since about the spring of '95 as a staff member. Therefore, some of the stuff I saw and did most people did not -- and I've always felt weird talking about that kinda stuff when I know I'm privledged and lucky. Ever since I was a kid I was petrified at the idea of people accusing me of bragging, to the point I'd actually put myself down for years.... But I digress.

Anyway, here are the best of my pictures. The actual photographs look a bit sharper than the scans, which for some reason have a tendency to bleach out some color and other details. (Which is why my face looks like this pale white orb in several of the shots.) But considering I was there all day on Saturday and Sunday, I had surprisingly little to show for it in terms of snaps. I was hella busy, so most of these were taken before or after the crowds were there.

I know I was lucky, and I will never forget that exhausting but fantastically exciting weekend!

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"To Marty, Partners in Time, September 5, 1885"	So says the inscription on the photo, which is missing with the actual prop. I asked -- I think I waggled my tongue to death with questions to the two owners of almost all of the collection, Jeff Castillo and Desi DosSantos -- and apparently the frame and all that didn't come with the prop when it was acquired. I actually got a print of the very photo, a smidge larger than the real thing, off e-Bay last year and have mocked it up good to look like the one in the film. It's my one real "replica," and the only one I really cared to replicate since I have always loved that photograph and wanted it hanging on my wall. People come into my room and do double takes with it, heh heh.
Screenplay with Notations	This is a fairly self explanatory picture of a screenplay that (I think) belonged to one of the prop masters of the original BTTF -- complete with his notes on things. This is from the scene where the photo is fist noticed to be fading out.
Synched Watches	This picture shows the nifty device that allowed Doc and Einstein to have synched clocks. (And, darn, ruin the illusion for me! For years I wondered how the hell the filmmakers had gotten the digital timepieces to move in such accurate ways together.... Sniff, it was all movie magic....)
Doc's Letter & Instructions	This set up struck me as neat-o when I saw it, which allowed one to actually read all the text if they so desired. (For the life of me, I can't remember if I made a go of reading it in person or not; I might've lacked the time or the thought.) Below it, out of the frame of this particular picture, is the map to the mine, which you can see in better detail in the Hill Valley Archives section of my website....
Bring Me the Head of Doc....	This was one of those things that made me go "Hmmmm," when I first saw it. The mindreading thingamajig the head has on is from "...The Ride" and it really truly does work. (Uh, in that it displays the same stuff that was in that film clip, not that it really reads minds.) The thing that I found more fascinating than the prop, though, was the head. I mean, it was creepy. So well done was it that the eyeballs actually had little veins in them, and some of the smaller kids at the convention were scared of it. It does look like a decapitated Doc, so I don't really blame them....
Window Dressing	These were a couple photos that were taken for the alternate 1985 in Back to the Future Part II. They crack me up -- the one on the left because it is so obviously faked, and the one on the right because Lorraine looks like she wants to bop her new husband over the head with her flowers.
"Brown Mansion Destroyed"	I was pleased with the way this photograph turned out. For my Christmas/Birthday gift a couple months earlier, my parents had given me a nice SLR camera so I could take up a photography hobby. So I was able to zoom in and get a real tight shot of the article and it actually ended up being in good focus without camera flash glare. Bonus! One can clearly see the date being Thursday, August 2, 1962, meaning the fire probably happened the night before. The photo's neat, too, because it really does look like the Gamble House -- used for the exterior shots of Doc's mansion -- burned to a crisp.
Hill Valley Railroad Map	This was another thing I found fascinating to look at, as it gave one a good idea on where Hill Valley was. Pretty much I knew that already, from other research done, but it was still way need to see in person!
Marty's Letter	That's really Michael J. Fox's handwriting. Don't believe me? Check out "Lucky Man" on page 215, where Fox shows samples of his script. But I knew this before. Kind of neat, if you ask me.
Marty's T-Shirt	I doubted it was such, because the shirt curled at the bottom, but apparently that's really true of it on screen. A tiny little detail I never noticed -- but since have -- in the films, and even on the BTTF2 poster! FYI, the shirt was purchased from JC Pennys, apparently, and is a medium. (I looked at the tag.)
Marty's 2015 Jacket	Fairly self explanatory, again. I believe this was the jacket prop that was used in the scene where the "Drying Mode" kicks on after Marty's unscheduled dip in the courthouse pond.
Doc's Train Shirt (and accessories)	If you look to the bottom of the photo, you will also see Doc's metal glasses and bandana from BTTF3 that he created using that shirt. Seriously -- what the hell did the locals make of that in the old west?!
Meeting Up with a Tannen	One of the two photos I actually have of me with Tom Wilson -- which is kind of funny considering I sat next to him during both days to help out with the signing. (Of course, it was pretty dang busy.) A rather fascinating experience, in that I got to see every reaction in the book people had with meeting a celebrity, and pretty nerve wracking because when it got slow, I couldn't figure out if I should make conversation or not. (I ended up being quiet -- for me.) Three people actually asked if I was his wife, which for some reason I found really really embarassing and really really funny.
In the Driver's Seat	One of the two photographs I got of me hamming it up in the DeLorean replica's driver's seat. Vvvvrroooom!
The DeLorean	On Sunday afternoon, the owners of the DeLorean replica that was on display at the convention, Oliver and Terry Holler, were kind enough to allow me the chance to actually ride in the car as it was driven around the local streets around the convention center. It was beyond cool, being the first time I'd been in a DeLorean that was being driven -- not sat in a parked one -- and it looked so much like the one in the films. I tried to remember every ounce of detail to use with writing later. Anyhoo, here another fan from Austrailia who helped out with cleaning things up, Rick, and I pose with the car on the back loading dock at the convention center.
DeLorean Interior	One of my photos, peering into the cab of the car.
More of the DeLorean	Fairly self explanatory.
Marty's POV....	Ah, that is, when Doc drives the DeLorean. I snapped this from the passenger seat vantage point for "research." I think the car was about to be turned on with me as the passenger this time. I was stoked!
Buford's Duds	After things shut down Sunday, I pitched in and helped break down and pack up all the props. It took nine hours; we finished around midnight and I had to be up at about 4:30 A.M. to make sure I got to the airport on time to catch an early flight. (I was going to go to Ohio to visit family for the rest of the week.) In between the hard work, the collectors allowed us a closer look at the props, touching them and all that, which was a real thrill and excellent writing research for fanfic! This is one of them -- me with Buford's coat. I'm about 5'6", so it gives one a good idea on the stature of the actors when I'm next to their costumes.
Clara's Dress	This really blew my mind when I saw the dress in person, which Clara wears during her pursuit of Doc in BTTF3. I always thought Mary Steenburgen was taller, but if I put on a corset, I could've probably fit into that dress. The things film does to distort perspectives of size....
Marty's "Authentic" Costume	Dude. I love Michael J. Fox. He rocks my world! I mean, I've had a crush/admiration of the guy for a decade now. But I never really realized how truely short he is. Knowing he clocks in an inch or two below my stature is one thing, but seeing the costumes he wore in the films really hammered it home. He's rather petite for a guy. A few wacky things -- someone sewed a patch to the stomach of the costume 'cause it had a rip that was probably too distracting to the camera from when Marty got dragged down the street. And the little sunburst on the belt buckle actually spins!
All Three Together	These were the way the costumes were displayed at the convention, pre-packing up.
Marty's "Space Alien" Garb	Yeah, even with the thing mounted on a stand, I'm about as tall as it. Blows my mind that something that flimsy is supposed to protect people from radiation, by the way. The material seemed as thin as paper -- but maybe this is a "Hollywood" radiation suit, as opposed to a real one.
Doc's "Devo Suit"	One can see how tall Christopher Lloyd is, sort of. This picture was taken, and then Jeff was like, "Want to hold the remote....?" so...
Crazy Driver	.....I held the remote for the DeLorean. It was cool. It even still works, with the lights and all that. Hee hee.
The Hoverboard	There were about a half dozen of these on display at the convention, in a flat case on the floor, and I helped get them out and put them away. That was rather a freaky experience. At one point Desi, who owned several of them, asked me how much I thought I was holding in my hand. I quoted some pulled out of the air figure, and when he told me the real worth was probably about four times that, I just about died. I kind of handed him the board quickly and was like, "Here, you take it!" Anyway, I have a copy of this photo framed on my desk. Why? Special nostalgia. When I saw BTTF2 in the theater at the age of ten, I was obsessed with the idea of hoverboards, sincerely believed they were real, and coveted one. Took me about thirteen years, but I finally got my chance to hold one, heh heh..... If you would've told me back in 1989 after I saw the film that I would one day touch one of the boards on screen, I would've scoffed, big time!