I had posted a while back Victor Navone's Alien Song short film that landed him a gig at Pixar. This is another one of those inspirational stories of really talented people making really original stuff on their own, and Hollywood comes running after them. For Bruce Branit, though, lightning struck twice.

  First came "405," which made its internet debut in 2000. Branit and his friend Jeremy Hunt made this short with a home video camera, a pc, and Lightwave software. It went viral real quick and eventually landed Branit some high profile effects work on "Star Trek: Voyager," "King Kong," "Lost," and "Pushing Daisies," to name a few. Here's that original short:

Here's the follow up - a highlight reel of the great press they got.

Now he's done it again with "World Builder." If "405" launched Branit into the world of Hollywood special effects, "World Builder" is the one that launches him as a filmmaker. Apparently he submitted this to dozens of film festivals and was rejected from all but five of them. Um, what?! At any rate, it's been a colossal hit on the internet, and he's now developing a full length feature based on the short. I hope they really take the time to finesse the script - it's got fanboy status now, and them fanboys are picky . . .