One of the iconic scenes in movie history is Michael J. Fox playing “Johnny B. Goode” in Back to the Future. If you’ve not seen it before, here’s the clip:
Beyond the obvious reasons why it’s great, there’s a small treasure near the beginning. Around the 20 second mark, you see some hands play the opening riff of the song. The shot is framed tight on the hands so that they can have someone else play that part, then cut to Michael J. Fox pretending to play the rest. Except, they don’t.
The slow pan up to his face at the 28 second mark is something you rarely see in movies, and helps to showcase just how amazing Fox is. While you didn’t actually hear his audio in the movie (he was just playing along), his ability to mimic the song that closely was a thing of beauty.
Fake it when you need to, but make it as real as you can at every possible chance.
