Re: Back to the Future II 2015 Jacket Build
Someone might want to reach out to him to ask for advice, methods, etc. Unless he's one of those jerks who likes to keep that kind of stuff a secret for no reason.
:cry...lol...
Just found this thread... Pretty great detective work all around. I have to give kudos to Gary for the work he’s done to come up with some innovative techniques to simplify making the Red diamond material. Although the technique is different; his samples remind me of the Silicone and urethane tests i did early on.
I started out testing with silicone thinking i would create something that would have a longer lifespan. The silicone is pretty great to work with and looks amazing. Almost too good. It always has a wet slick look... The problems i found with silicone were trying to assemble the jacket. The silicone required the entire jacket to be sewn as no adhesives gave me the strength i wanted. I was also left with a jacket that was extremely heavy and did not have the light weight look of the screen used jacket.
From there i went on to urethane rubber... I liked the look of the urethane but i found the results to be sort of inconsistent. Perhaps i wasn’t mixing properly or the material was old... The higher durometer urethanes yielded a much better result but did not give me the flexibility of latex.
I was beating my head against the wall trying to recreate the look of latex then it dawned on me... um... why dont i use latex? The Screen used jacket i had access to was surprisingly still in really good condition and very soft and flexible.
Some of the questions i can help answer from this thread...
The entire jacket is latex even the cuffs. The cuffs are skinned and backfilled with foam latex. And i found that these were the most deteriorated off all the components on the jackets i have seen. I use urethane on my jacket cuffs in order to prevent this. The color is a transparent charcoal gray but almost black. They have a very subtle iridescent sheen to them. I compare it to oil floating on top of a puddle in a parking lot. I haven’t tried to recreate this because in the films the cameras don’t even catch it.
All the components bellows and gray sleeve material included are latex. Nothing was bought off the shelf at a fabric store. All of the parts were molded from found parts and just cast from latex. Contec, i have to say I’m quite jealous that you have a light lens with the proper pyramid points or nips as i read somewhere earlier:cool. It must be a vintage light diffuser. It seems as though in recent years most the manufacturers went to a shallower round prism.
Another bit of unknown information. The entire jacket is dusted with ultra fine glitter. My mouth fell open when i discovered this. But now that i have said this, you will notice it when you go back and watch the Blu-Ray. Specifically when Marty walks out from the alley in 2015. The jacket sparkles like crazy... I have only done two jackets with this mainly because people don’t see this when watching the film and let’s be honest it’s not that cool to wear glitter.
Liner... When i spoke to the guy who made the screen used jackets. (Please dont email me for his info). I asked about the liner. The only thing he could tell me was that it was the only fabric that universal gave him and specifically said to use it as the liner. He said he thought they made it but wasn’t sure.
Is this how that one guy made his "100%" accurate jacket did it? I put that in quotes because there are a few things that are inaccurate.
People tend to judge my jackets on that YouTube video i made of my prototype jacket which is the same jacket seen in that pic earlier on in the thread of the 7k marty costume. True, that one isn’t 100% accurate. It is a large size with screen accurate pocket measurements and components and just had a black liner. The red diamond material is very thin and not quite the right color. I look back at the first jacket and cringe. But it had to start somewhere. Since then i have scaled everything up for various sizes.
Here is a pic of what i consider my most screen accurate to date both looks wise and size. Size small like the hero jacket. My only complaint about this one is the collar height which i will be adjusting soon for him.
Anyway, sorry for the super long post. Just wanted to help out a bit if i could.
-Ed
Here mine! It's a bit a female version of this as I'm a girl! hehe, hope you'll like it, for those who didn't see it yet 
