- 405 (film)
and produced by Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt. It was the first short film to become widely distributed on the Internet and became a media sensation for a short time. It is generally thought of as one of, if not the first viral film property.
Plot Summary
The film shows a DC-10 jet making an emergency landing onto the 405 freeway in California, with the front part of the plane pinning a man's car to the road, forcing him to be pushed along by it until it comes to a stop. In the process of slowing down, the plane and the man's car almost hit an elderly woman driving slowly in her car, though she is oblivious to this fact.
Production
The film took three and a half months to make. The real footage, consisting of the actors in still vehicles, was shot in one weekend with an hour of pick-ups later. The
post production andvisual effects were completed later on by the two filmmakers in their spare time. All of the shots outside of the Jeep are entirely computer generated three dimensional models. The actors were shot in vehicles similar to the ones in the film but the exterior shots of the vehicles, the jet, the highway and background scenery in the film are composed of composited images from still photographs and video applied to three dimensional models created in computer modeling software. About 50% of the shots in the interior of the Jeep are digital effects.The Filmmakers
Branit and Hunt taught themselves the use of visual effects software before working as professionals. Both had been working as visual effects artists for a few years before making 405. While Hunt had a degree in filmmaking the use of digital effects software was not commonly taught in school at that time.
Technical Specs
The camera used to make the film was a
Canon Optura , a type ofdigital video camera. The effects were done on aPentium II andPentium III computer. The software used wasLightWave 3D ,Digital Fusion , and Adobe Premiere.ignificance
"405" is significant as an early example of the revolution in digital filmmaking and the use of broadband internet as a channel to distribute media. While the producers shot the film using a digital camcorder and created the special effects using personal computers, all on a budget of $300, the results rivalled that of many major film and television production studios at the time. Furthermore, $140 of the budget was to pay two tickets for walking on the highway shoulder while filming. It was issued to them by
California Highway Patrol Officer Dana Anderson (who is listed in the "Special Thanks" section of the credits). At the same time, with little promotional effort the film soon reached millions of online viewers through widespread internet access. By July it was featured on the siteiFilm where it had received two million viewers. [http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2000-10-13] As a result, Branit and Hunt signed a deal as directors with CAA as well as A Band Apart. They appeared on The Today Show, Access Hollywood, Roger Ebert, Extra and many more news shows and publications.References
* [http://news.google.com/archivesearch?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&tab=wn&hl=en&q=405+%22jeremy+hunt%22&ie=UTF-8 List of references (uncompiled)]
External links
The movie
* [http://www.405themovie.com/Home.asp "405" Official Site]
*imdb_title|0259165|405Producers
* [http://www.branitvfx.com 'branit|vfx' visual effects company]
* [http://www.screamingdeathmonkey.com Screaming Death Monkey]
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