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Awesome Back To The Future Proposal

Andrew Shanahan May 2010 5 Comments Bookmark or Share

Ok. Stick with this until about 1m 30s, then prepare to have your mind ba-lown.

Back to the Future Proposal. Please vote for us at the Ultimate Proposal Contest! http://bit.ly/bt8EII from Corey Goldfeder on Vimeo.

Geeky? Hell yes. Vaguely amateurish? Possibly. Requires balls of steel to pull off a proposal of this magnitude and the possibility that she might say no? Y-E-S.

Corey Goldfeder, we salute you and offer up a 1.21 GigaWatt salute of pure respect.

Here’s the full story from his Vimeo page:

On June 21, 2009, I took my girlfriend Chani to a showing of “Back to the Future,” which was being presented as part of a Michael J. Fox retrospective at a film festival in a historic local theater. In reality, the film festival didn’t exist and I had rented out the theater. The management was in on my plan, and helped me with fake tickets and putting the movie on the marquee outside. About 20 friends and neighbors that Chani didn’t know came to sit in the theater so that it wouldn’t look suspiciously empty.

At the appointed time, we entered the theater and sat down. After some previews for upcoming films, “Back to the Future” began to play. About 20 minutes in, however, the movie… diverged… from the original script, becoming instead a marriage proposal. This video begins at the scene just before that point, so you don’t have to sit through the whole thing to watch the interesting part.

During the long pause (when I am standing awkwardly on screen) I got down on one knee with a ring and proposed. She said yes! At that very moment, both of our families entered from another room (they knew the exact second to come in based on when the movie had started).

For those who are curious about the technical details, I did all the filming and editing myself, using a digital camera propped up on a chair to film me acting against a “green screen” made of green disposable tablecloths. I used a free 30 day trial of Pinnacle Studio to do all the chroma key work. It took 10 to 15 hours of editing to get things the way I wanted them.

To the best of my knowledge, the approximately 90 seconds of unedited footage from the original movie in this clip, and the approximately 30 seconds of composite material clearly comprise a derivative work that falls under fair use. (The remaining 2 minutes are entirely original.)

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5 Comments »

  • Marriage Blanket, Back to the Future Proposal & Star Wars Cakes said:

    [...] Back to the Future Marriage Proposal – staggered [...]

  • Proposal Ideas | Wedding Resource said:

    [...] want a guy to make a dreamy proposal to them, so guys, make sure you read this post and watch the back to the future proposal so that you will hopefully be inspired to make a one-of-a kind proposal to your love. Enjoy this [...]

  • Rashell Choo said:

    Awww what a cute idea, I mean manly and cool. Love hearing stories like these!!

  • Geeky Proposal Ideas « Wedding TV Blog said:

    [...] would say that you should go down on one knee. Corey Goldfeder would say that you should edit footage of yourself proposing into the classic film Back To The Future and then arrange a screening of your edited film at the local cinema. Who’s to say Corey’s not [...]

  • Geeky Proposal Ideas « The Wedding Community Blog said:

    [...] would say that you should go down on one knee. Corey Goldfeder would say that you should edit footage of yourself proposing into the classic film Back To The Future and then arrange a screening of your edited film at the local cinema. Who’s to say Corey’s not [...]

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