405

Written, directed and produced by Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt, a pair of "self taught" visual effects artists, "405" is STILL a classic and an inspiration to aspiring filmmakers the world over.

Observe the mind-blowing special effects and consider the fact that this film cost them absolutely NOTHING to make. Zip. Nada. $0. They just used a simple digital video camera, an everyday home computer, and the following software:

LightWave 3D by Newtek for all of the 3D animation (the plane, the car, the environment).
Digital Fusion by Eyeon Software for compositing the CG and the live action footage together.
Adobe Photoshop used extensively for creating maps for 3D objects.
Adobe Premiere to edit the entire piece.
Illusion to create some of the smoke effects.

They shot all the footage on a weekend. The post production and visual effects were done in the late night hours after work (and on weekends). All in all, the entire production took about 3 1/2 months.

You can visit their website here.