How to Put Yourself in 'Star Wars'

Here’s some good news for anyone who wants to celebrate Star Wars Day by taking a trip to a galaxy far, far away — but who doesn’t have enough credits to charter the Millennium Falcon: All you need to enter the Star Wars universe, it turns out, is a few Adobe programs, a decent green screen, and several hours of free time.

That’s what 33-year-old freelance filmmaker Chris Seerveld used to create his hit viral video, in which he inserts himself into various scenes from 1977′s Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope (you can watch the clip above). The clip — which was inspired by an earlier video Seerveld made, in which he placed himself into a brief scene from Back to the Future — finds the filmmaker sitting alongside Luke Skywalker and the rest of the Rebel pilots as they listen to plans to destroy the first Death Star, then helping them with the attack. 

“The whole thing started out as a joke,” says Seerveld — but it was an elaborate one: To make the clip, he recorded himself against a green screen (they’re very cheap these days!), reacting to the very serious onscreen events with sarcastic quips and exaggerated expressions. After capturing himself, he used Photoshop to remove the various actors he was replacing, then layered video of himself atop the blank spots where the actors were removed via Adobe After Effects, a program that allows you to mash-up video and images quite seamlessly.

Then, it was on to the video editing software, Adobe Premiere, to stitch all the scenes together and help destroy the Death Star… not that Luke Skywalker really needed his help.

If there’s enough interest, Seerveld says he’d love to turn the concept into a web series, focusing on ‘80s films and current events (like perhaps getting beaten up on the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight).

“I feel it’s funniest when there’s an awkward or absurd situation that you can just react to [in a manner] similar to the audience’s reaction to the scene,” he said. “Star Wars worked out great because of all the hype right now… I’m looking to do Coming to America, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi next.”