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TATOOINE — Sandy accountant Jackson Renouf, 39, had a secret that he kept for eight years, even from his wife.
He has finally come forward into the understanding arms of Have You Seen This? to tell the world his secret: Renouf is a massive Star Wars nerd.
"I am talking serious Star Wars geek here," Renouf said. "I managed to conceal this mania from my wife of eight years so that she wouldn't know what a crazy person I am."
As it turns out, she didn't seem to mind too much, and Jackson began dropping his Star Wars knowledge on his family, letting his freak flag fly.
"I had a lot of catching up to do. My two little boys (ages 2 and 4) had grown up deprived of any knowledge of the Force. When they couldn't tell me who Luke Skywalker is, I realized I had failed them as a father," Renouf confessed.
You may be thinking this isn't such a shocking revelation as we as a world community ride the wave of "The Force Awakens" through the weekend. But how many of us professed Star Wars fans took pent-up, nerdy passion and unleashed it into a creative endeavor? How many of us thought about Star Wars so much, we not only wondered what stormtroopers did in their spare time, but made videos about it?
A fraction of a percent, I'd wager. Indeed, it could only come from a fan whose repressed fandom created a perfect storm for ill-advised late nights of creation with animation he bought on a whim.
"I had an idea for a short, and my wife suggested I use the animation software I had purchased … I started with just one and I loved the whole process. I couldn't stop thinking about more and more ideas, so I would tell my wife, 'Just one more.' "
And thus Renouf's YouTube channel, Undeleted Scenes, was born. He began to post animated videos of, for lack of a better phrase, subplots from the original trilogy.
My personal favorites include a video explaining why the stormtroopers didn't get down on the floor to shoot under a partially opened door at Luke and Leia's feet, and a video showing that stormtroopers wish they were Jedis, just like many of us.
While Undeleted Scenes hasn't quite had it's own liftoff, Elite Geek posted Renouf's video on its Facebook page, which features Obi Wan just after his death. So far, it has garnered over 50,000 views.
Whatever the success, Renouf doesn't sound like he'll stop making videos anytime soon.
"This has been such a blast for me. How many other 39-year-old accountants in Utah were laughing their heads off at 3 a.m. this week? I'm guessing I was the only one," Renouf said. "I've got a million ideas for more videos."
Yesterday's HYST?
Have You Seen This? Midair skateboard switcheroo
I repeat, they smoothly switch boards midair while several dozen feet off the ground and they do not fall or crash or die like a normal person would be prone to do.Martha Ostergar is the former Video Productions Manager of KSL.com. She has moved on to write elsewhere, but she can't seem to break her habit of cruising the Internet for amazing videos and writing about them. Follow her on Twitter at @monstergar.
