<P> Melora Hardin was originally cast in the role of Marty's girlfriend Jennifer, but was let go after Stoltz was dismissed, with the explanation that the actress was now too tall to be playing against Fox . Hardin was dismissed before she had a chance to shoot a single scene and was replaced with Claudia Wells . Actress Jill Schoelen had also been considered to play Marty's girlfriend . </P> <P> Following Stoltz's departure, Fox's schedule during weekdays consisted of filming Family Ties during the day, and Back to the Future from 6: 30 pm to 2: 30 am . He averaged five hours of sleep each night . During Fridays, he shot from 10 pm to 6 or 7 am, and then moved on to film exterior scenes throughout the weekend, as only then was he available during daytime hours . Fox found it exhausting, but "it was my dream to be in the film and television business, although I didn't know I'd be in them simultaneously . It was just this weird ride and I got on ." Zemeckis concurred, dubbing Back to the Future "the film that would not wrap". He recalled that because they shot night after night, he was always "half asleep" and the "fattest, most out - of - shape and sick I ever was". </P> <P> The Hill Valley town square scenes were shot at Courthouse Square, located in the Universal Studios backlot (34 ° 08 ′ 29" N 118 ° 20 ′ 59" W ﻿ / ﻿ 34.141417 ° N 118.349771 ° W ﻿ / 34.141417; - 118.349771). Gale explained it would have been impossible to shoot on location "because no city is going to let a film crew remodel their town to look like it's in the 1950s ." The filmmakers "decided to shoot all the 50s stuff first, and make the town look real beautiful and wonderful . Then we would just totally trash it down and make it all bleak and ugly for the 1980s scenes ." The interiors for Doc Brown's house were shot at the Robert R. Blacker House, while exteriors took place at Gamble House . The exterior shots of the Twin Pines Mall, and later the Lone Pine Mall (from 1985) were shot at the Puente Hills Mall in City of Industry, California . The exterior shots and some interior scenes at Hill Valley High School were filmed at Whittier High School in Whittier, California . The Battle of the Bands tryout scene was filmed at the McCambridge Park Recreation Center in Burbank, and the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance was filmed in the gymnasium at Hollywood United Methodist Church . The scenes outside of the Baines' house in 1955 were shot at Bushnell Avenue, South Pasadena, California . </P> <P> Filming wrapped after 100 days on April 20, 1985, and the film was delayed from May to August . But after a highly positive test screening ("I'd never seen a preview like that," said Frank Marshall, "the audience went up to the ceiling"), Sheinberg chose to move the release date to July 3 . To make sure the film met this new date, two editors, Arthur Schmidt and Harry Keramidas, were assigned to the picture, while many sound editors worked 24 - hour shifts on the film . Eight minutes were cut, including Marty watching his mom cheat during an exam, George getting stuck in a telephone booth before rescuing Lorraine, as well as much of Marty pretending to be Darth Vader . Zemeckis almost cut out the "Johnny B. Goode" sequence as he felt it did not advance the story, but the preview audience loved it, so it was kept . Industrial Light & Magic created the film's 32 effects shots, which did not satisfy Zemeckis and Gale until a week before the film's completion date . The compositing involved for the film's time travel sequences, as well as for the lightning effects in the climactic clock tower scene, was handled by animation supervisor Wes Takahashi, who would also work on the subsequent two Back to the Future films with the rest of the ILM crew . </P>

Where was the first back to the future filmed
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