I was just reading the screenplay for Ghostbusters, and I thought the description for the ectomobile was kind of strange compared to what came out in the movie. just thought I’d post it incase someone hasn’t read it yet.
"INT. GARAGE BAY – EQUIPMENT RACKS – NIGHT
Everyone pulls throwers, traps, packs and harnesses off the wall.
EXT. FIREHALL – NIGHT
The garage door slides up and in a blaze of light and screeching tires,
the ambulance squeals out and makes a right turn. The vehicle has been painted flat black and has been fitted with communication wafers and antennae. All the original lights have been replaced with purple and white strobes and the siren has been altered to emit a low, unearthly moaning The purple and white strobe bars give the car a strange ultraviolet aura. It rounds the corner and heads up the West Side Highway.
EXT. HOTEL – FRONT DOOR – NIGHT
The black ambulance screeches up to the main entrance, siren blaring.
Emblazoned on the door is the Ghostbusters’ new logo. It’s the
international symbol of prohibition, a red circle with a diagonal red
stroke across a ghost. The DOORMAN steps forward as Venkman, Stantz and Spengler leap out of the car. They open up the rear door and remove their equipment. People on the street stop and gawk.
INT. HOTEL LOBBY – NIGHT"
Flat black and white strobe lights? its kind of the opposite of what the final product was.
If you looked into this any further you would have found a ton of explanations on the development of the car. The color was changed to white for higher visibility during night shots. Check the wiki on it, man!
Just did, the interdimentional(sp) aspect I always thought was strange, but I know early versions of GB was much more complex. I just love seeing early ideas flesh out into the final product its always interesting to me
The car was written as being black through pretty much every draft of the script, but all of the concept art showed it as white, even going back to the original pitch art that Aykroyd commissioned from his friend John Daveikis.
Yeah, they never had any art of the black one. Dan imagined it as black and violet with blue lights, which would have been much spookier and hearse-like, but someone (possibly Ivan Reitman) realized that a car that color wouldn’t show up in any of the night shots. So it went from a hearse to a big weird ambulance.
Even Dan admits that that they made the right decision there.
its always interesting to me