February 22, 2008

• MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

  I posted this 4 years ago explaining how I worked in my marriage proposal into the pier scene of “Better Luck Tomorrow” before the film ever came out.  However, this was before the advent of YouTube and describing it verbally or in text just never seemed to do it justice. 

  I always thought it’d be cool for hard-core fans of the film to see it and I even suggested to MTV Films to include it as a hidden Easter Egg on the “BLT” Dvd but was shot down after being told of the escalating costs of getting the rights to the Backstreet Boys background music, paying actors, etc. 

  But two days ago, I learned how to upload videos from my camera for a montage for Kollaboration this Saturday – so as a result: Here it is below!

  The Prep: I wrangled the “BLT” guys together to reshoot the scene under the pier.  Wrote a little script, got the director, Justin Lin, to work out the same camera angles.  Kept the continuity of the scene by sticking a tissue in my left nostril (since my character had a major nose bleed in the prior scene), went to Macy’s to purchase the same clothes so they’d match, etc. 

  The Plan: was to mail the tape to MYSELF, telling my then girlfriend that Justin had mailed me the newly re-cut scene of the cast under the pier. 

  Then we’d watch the new footage — and this time, instead of the gun being in the box (as it is in the theatrical release) – a ringbox is there.  And when I turn towards the camera and the girl (Zooey Deschanel)  ”throws” the ringbox off-screen and says, “Now, get down on one knee…” — my real-self, OUTSIDE the TV screen, would pretend to have caught the ringbox. 

  In reality, I would have the ringbox palmed in my hands to make ”the catch” through the TV screen appear seamless.  I’d pause the tape (as my on-screen persona instructs me to do) and then propose in real-life, with ring in hand.  When she would hopefully say ‘Yes’, I’d unpause the tape and the cast on the TV screen would cheer.  Make sense?

  But as we all know, things hardly ever go as planned.  Here’s –

  What actually happened: While Kim, my then girlfriend, was watching TV — I opened the package with the tape.  I had the ringbox in my pocket ready to do “the catch”.  Summing up the all acting ability I could muster, I coolly announced, “Hey look. Justin just sent me a tape of our reshoot footage under the pier.  Wanna see it?”

  Now I must preface — this was in November 2001 and the biggest cliffhanger on television at the time was on a show from the defunct WB called “Felicity“.  And America was waiting on baited breath to see if Felicity (Keri Russell) would finally choose to be with her dependable Resident Advisor, Noel (Scott Foley) or long-time crush, Ben (Scott Speedman).  So her answer to my question was, “No!  I want to see who Felicity chooses!” 

  Hmph.

  So I proceeded to wait in my office for 30 MORE minutes (with ringbox still in pocket) until I heard her say, “Okay, we can watch your stupid re-shoot footage now.”  (Keep in mind she’d already seen several cuts of the film at this point.)

  I popped in the tape and the scene unfolded:  Roger Fan gives me the box, I open it, the ring’s inside, Jason smacks me on the head (superhard, by the way.  Which I futilely attempt to shake off) I turn to camera and start gushing about all these feelings I have trapped inside, etc. 

  And what was her response?

  “Omigosh.  This is sooo lame…”  She actually thought the footage was real.  She thought Justin had switched the entire plot and now my character in the movie was proposing to my on-camera love interest Stephanie (Karin Anna Cheung).  Yes, even despite the obvious format change from Film to DV, the cheesy music playing underneath and looking DIRECTLY into the camera.   It was only until she saw Zooey Deschanel pop into frame (who I shot a movie with called, “The New Guy” and was in no way, any part of “BLT”) did she realize that she was in the midst of a marriage proposal.  She exclaimed, “No way, no way…” and the rest played out perfectly.

  But of course, since I already had all the guys there — I had to have a bit more fun with the whole thing.  So as you can see, we had a ball shooting the “Plan B: In Case She Says No“ sketch playing up Zooey and my makeout scene in “The New Guy” along with the “Deleted Scene“. 

  I love Justin popping out from behind the camera, Sung’s non-verbal improvisation at the end of “Plan B” mouthing, “The ring’s small but hey, whatcha gonna do?” and I still crack up every time Roger yells, “You will love her!” at the end of the last scene.  Fun, fun sh*t.

  Anyway, thanks goes out to Evan Leong, Fabian Marquez, Justin, Roger, Sung, Jason and Zooey for making this an awesome memory for all time.

  So if you’re a fan of the movie, enjoy!  Nothing like good ‘ole illegal, viral material (wait a second, I just realized – that besides the 5 sceonds at the top, all this stuff was orginally shot by us – so no studio studio owns it)!  And to this day, I still don’t know who the heck Felicity did wind up choosing.

  • 4:03 am
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