With filmmaking how often do we hear that the story is king and gear and what camera it is shot on takes a back seat. Plenty of guys throw similar lines around, like “Art over Gear” & “Who cares what it was shot on.” Well back when VHS was king of the house and BETA was king of broadcast two guys got together and devised a plan to make a quality movie (Short Film) for the least amount of cash in their spare time. Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt decided to use off the shelf software and existing consumer desk top computers and a Canon Optura DV camcorder to make 405 The Movie.
For the princely sum of $300 and three months time working on it when they could the guys wrote, shot, directed, composed and were the sound effects editors to produce the amazing 405 video that was quickly watched by over Four Million viewers back then. The movie and the guys won a slew of awards and it was one of the first internet viral videos, and can be found on many all time meme lists.
So the the 405 movie proved story can shine regardless of camera and gear a generation of filmmakers ago. The question is; what short film from now is this generations 405 movie? What current movie by the new breed has tapped into so much from so little?
I know I can think of a few, can you?
Oh and if you had not heard of the 405 movie before then shame, shame on you.
Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt went on to bigger and better things with Bruce becoming an Emmy nominated visual effects artist. You would have seen the guys work on many TV shows and movies like The X-Files, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Other credits include Spawn, Devil’s Advocate and the TV movie G-Saviour.
Please visit 405 The Movie for more.