The Auburn University Marching Band will give a halftime performance that pays homage to the "Back to the Future" films in conjunction with Aubie and some other surprises on Saturday Nov. 14, during the football game against the University of Georgia.
Corey Spurlin, marching band director, said this performance has been in the works for a long time now.
“I started planning it two years ago,” Spurlin said. “A lot of the logistical work and planning of the script and everything was started last spring and the work on the props has been going on all semester.”
Spurlin said the song selections came from iconic parts of the films.
“They’re all from the "Back to the Future" movies, it opens with 'Back in Time' by Huey Lewis and the News,” Spurlin said. “The middle part is 'Johnny B. Goode' from the famous guitar scene in the first movie and the closer is the actual theme music from the movie.”
The halftime show will incorporate several elements to make a big production, according to Spurlin.
“Basically what the show is it’s combining a lot of different entertainment elements that we use in our stadium,” Spurlin said. “We’re trying to pack them into one halftime show.”
Spurlin then talked about how they are planning on incorporating the new video board into the performance.
“Obviously, with the new video board this year, we wanted to incorporate that into one of our halftime shows…so the idea of having a little mini film came into play, which is what the show is really,” Spurlin said. “It’s an eight minute Aubie skit film that we created that combines the talents of the marching band with Aubie.”
The Aubie skit on the video board will put an Auburn spin on the Back to the Future movies, according to Spurlin.
“We took the Back to the Future idea and we kind of Auburn-ized it so to speak, so it’s an Auburn plot,” Spurlin said, “The basis of it is Aubie has a desire to go back to 1985.”
Spurlin said the skit also mentions important moments in Auburn’s history.
“Bo won the Heisman and there was the SEC championship basketball team and he sees the yearbook…and he decides he’s going to make a time machine to go back to 1985, but he gets trapped there,” Spurlin said. “He has to find the materials he needs to get himself back to 2015 in time for the second half of the game. So, as we play we develop this plot on screen throughout the show.”
Auburn football fans can also expect to see a famous familiar face in the skit, according to Spurlin.
“We’ve incorporated a special guest into the video that the crowd will see…that’s a very funny scene,” Spurlin said.
The marching band directors also wanted to get students and other faculty involved in the preparation for this halftime production.
“We also wanted to do something where we partner with an academic entity on campus, so the department of industrial design out of architecture helped to design a big prop that you will see at the end of the show, but that’s been a semester-long project for them,” Spurlin said.
Spurlin said while there are always challenges when preparing, it is exciting to see the show come together well.
“The really fun stuff was as things got completed, the props were completed and we saw them for the first time and the actual film component was completed,” Spurlin said. “One of the big challenges is just timing and making sure what we’re doing musically and visually lines up with what’s going on on the video board.”
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
