he name of the film is "Elevation" and it starts, appropriately, in an elevator. Two people, a man and a woman, are stuck between floors. A conversation ensues, an attraction is sparked, but when the doors open, the two depart without exchanging so much as their names — a mistake they'll spend the rest of the film trying to rectify.

It's the sort of narrative film project rarely seen in Hawai'i. Just 14 minutes long, the romantic comedy of errors is written, produced and directed by local filmmakers, starring an all-Hawai'i cast. It was shot in Honolulu by a local crew, and painstakingly edited on a Macintosh laptop computer in University of Hawai'i student filmmaker Seong Kyu Whang's kitchen.

"Elevation" exists largely because of a digital media revolution that is enabling a new generation of local talent to express its creativity in ways formerly reserved for a select few.

Whang and his cohorts are students at the university's Academy for Creative Media, one of the main cogs in a movement to turn Hawai'i's film industry into a viable, self-contained center for film and digital arts.

Over the past decade, and particularly within the past five years, low-cost digital technology has made it possible for would-be filmmakers, special-effects artists, video game designers, animators and others to pursue their creative impulses and gain practical experience without leaving home or spending a fortune.

Today, virtually any motivated person can make a professional-quality film with as little as a digital video camera, a laptop and basic editing software like Final Cut Pro, costing just a few thousand dollars.

"Basically ... (digital video technology) makes it financially feasible," says filmmaker and Academy for Creative Media instructor Anne Misawa. "It gives access to a means of making films. Anybody with an interest can now make a film, beginning to end, by themselves."

In skilled hands, the end results are impressive.

"In general, the indie film community has blossomed," says Misawa, who studied filmmaking at the University of Southern California and has written, directed, shot and produced several films.

Last year, ACM student Kevin Inouye's low-frills digital short, "Tale of Haiku Jones," was screened at two major Asian-American film festivals and the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival (as part of a package of ACM shorts). Even established filmmakers like Edgy Lee and Stephanie Castillo have incorporated digital cameras into their work.

"It's just storytelling," says ACM chairman Chris Lee, in Honolulu on a family visit on a break from the Australian set of "Superman Returns." "We have everything you can imagine at our disposal with 'Superman,' but you can tell a compelling story without burning film."

EASIER, NOT EASY

While digital technology makes filmmaking more accessible to a broader spectrum of people, it can't eliminate all of the arduous but necessary work.

Whang spent a month writing and rewriting the screenplay for "Elevation," one of three projects selected for production in his advanced cinematography class last semester. Working closely with Farrington High School pal and fellow ACM student Jeremiah Tayao, Whang scouted locations, obtained permits, auditioned nearly 50 actors and helped manage a crew of 10 to 15 classmates.

To make the most of limited and sporadic shooting opportunities, Whang drew stick-figure storyboards and worked with Tayao on meticulously planned shot lists.

"The beauty of editing on digital is that you can do it as you go along," Whang says. "You can see what you've shot and edit right away. You get a real feel for the movie that way."

With everything he needs already loaded in his laptop, Whang has spent the summer completing the tedious editing process wherever and whenever he can, usually in his kitchen.

"With digital, the cost is low, but it requires a lot of time," Whang says. "But that's OK. Time is something I can afford."

RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE

Like many of their classmates, neither Whang nor Tayao had much practical experience with digital filmmaking before entering UH.

"I always wanted to get into film, but it just wasn't available," says Tayao, 20. "Farrington has a program now, but when I was there, the closest you could get was either newswriting or yearbook."

Still, Tayao says he's grateful to have started his film career when he did.

"The whole evolution of digital video has really helped students," he says. "Before, you would have had to have gone away to film school at USC or NYU. You also needed a bit of money, not just for school but for film. Now with a digital camera and a laptop, you're pretty much done."

Tayao says digital technology will enable local filmmakers to produce not just the fine documentaries for which Hawai'i is known, but culturally significant narrative films — drama, comedy, you name it — as well.

"That's something we're lacking," Tayao says. "This is a unique location, and with our melting pot of ethnicities, we should be able to create narrative films that are totally unique, things people have never seen before."

BROAD BASE

While much attention has been focused on the two-year-old Academy for Creative Media's precocious accomplishments, Chris Lee and others in the program are quick to acknowledge other groundbreaking digital media arts programs in the Islands.

For years, film-related courses were offered in various University of Hawai'i departments, and UH was one of the first in the country to invest in then-state-of-the-art Avid editing equipment.

The university's Pacific New Media program, formerly the Film and Video Summer Institute, has been classes in production and other film-related subjects for nearly 20 years.

Director Susan Horowitz says interest in the editing software Final Cut Pro has been so strong over the past two or three years that staffers have gone to Apple Computer for formal training. The program is now a certified Apple training center.

"There are a lot of experienced professionals who come to upgrade their skills, but there are also many beginners who have never touched a camera," Horowitz says. "Really, anybody can do it now. Whether it's a home movie or a documentary, anybody can make that film."

Community colleges have also played an important role in promoting digital media.

Kapi'olani Community College's New Media Arts program offers courses designed to launch careers in animation, interactive computer graphics (think video game design) and other computer-aided media technologies, such as Web design.

Leeward Community College, which has well-regarded digital media and television production programs, is set to unveil a new, powerful $200,000 computer bank that will enable student animators and video game designers to move time-intensive computing chores off their personal laptop and desktop machines.

Administered by Pipelinefx, the computer bank will be linked to campuses throughout the UH system, as well as high schools along the Leeward coast.

YOUNGER AND YOUNGER

The power and allure of digital filmmaking hasn't been lost on Hawai'i's elementary, middle and high schools. Where once only a small number of schools integrated film and video production into their curriculum — Kalaheo was one of the first — such projects are now as common as school newspapers and yearbooks.

Chris Lee remembers visiting with students from Stevenson Intermediate School and being impressed with a short film they had made using just a Webcam.

"Kids grow up so comfortable with the technology now," Lee says. "It gives expression to what they're seeing. It's one way technology has liberated our creativity."

No public school has embraced digital media more enthusiastically than Wai'anae High School, which offers practical instruction in video production, web design, video game design and other media through its Searider Productions program.

Headed by Candy Suiso, a former Spanish teacher who used to record skits on a VHS camera to motivate students, Searider Productions acts as a working production company, providing service to several community groups.

"The students come in raw, but they learn to do incredible projects," Suiso says.

The program has partnerships with 'Olelo and other organizations to provide training for its students, some of whom, in turn, pass along their knowledge to intermediate and elementary students.

Teachers and alumni from the school have also moved on to head digital media program in other Hawai'i high schools.

"All kids have a creative side and through this technology, they're able to take their ideas for PSAs or games or stories and create something," Suiso says.

"It's a visual generation — the MTV generation," she says. "They're good at multitasking, and they need things to be quick and visual. The projects they work on here are relevant to their lives."

PLAYING THE GAME

The digital revolution has opened new opportunities not just for the next generation of Kubricks and Altmans and Tarantinos, but for a new wave of less-heralded animators, special-effects artists and video game designers.

At ACM, the privilege and burden of instruction falls largely on chief technologist Kaveh Kardan, the former manager of software research and development for Square USA in Honolulu.

Kardan's video game design students get hands-on experience working on a wide range of projects that go beyond the stereotypical shoot-'em-up thumb fodder.

James Steele, a computer science student, took Kardan's narrative game design class last year.

"We went through the whole product cycle, from creating the concept to getting it to the demo stage where a company could then review it," Steele says. "When the class was over, I had something real for my portfolio, and that was invaluable."

The class, an even mix of computer science and art students, collaborated on four video games using the school's proprietary software.

Steele also joined fellow students Melissa Bolosan and Solomon Enos in working with Hawai'i marine experts to design an educational online game in which players have to keep a virtual coral reef in ecological balance.

Like his counterparts in the film program, Steele says, he views himself primarily as a storyteller — one whose medium has enormous potential for growth.

Steele says he'd like to work on computer-animated feature films, something he says would be easy to do from Hawai'i.

"We're capable of doing huge projects here," Steele says. "Because of the nature of our work — working off a computer screen — there is no real distance. It doesn't matter if you're here or in Australia or in New York.

The trick, as Kardan says, is convincing people that Hawai'i has a legitimate pool of qualified talent.

"The long-term goal is to have an available and qualified work force," Kardan said. "If we have that, companies will come."

Just as important, Kardan says, students could have the option of working for special-effects, animation or video game design companies based in Hawai'i. Already, Kardan says, ACM students have found work with cause & f(x) pictures, the ambitious local digital special-effects company founded by Kai Bovaird and Paul Almer-Ryan.

MADE IN HAWAI'I

The opportunities created by digital technology have emboldened many students to take a chance on a career path they might never have seriously considered.

Dimitri Kim, 26, earned a bachelor's degree in architecture but returned to UH to study film after working at Square One.

"I was just a grunt there, but it was one of the most exciting jobs I've had," he says. "After doing that, I knew that I wanted to be somewhere in this huge industry."

Most ACM students profess a strong desire to remain in Hawai'i, working on projects that represent the state's history, culture and values.

"We've been waiting for Hawai'i-themed stories born from people who are raised here," says Jason Ordenstein, 24. "We're not satisfied by what we see."

Ordenstein, who says he didn't even know where to find the "record" button on a digital camera when he took his first film production class, says he believes ACM — and the digital revolution that helped spawn it — will change all that.

"I'm a perfect example," he says. "I was born and raised here, I have a writing background, and I never would have had this opportunity otherwise."

Rylan Akama, also 24, says he wouldn't mind going to Hollywood and directing "a money-maker." Still, he says, he'd also like to remain in Hawai'i and help build the local industry.

"We're kind of like the first wave of (narrative) filmmakers here, and I want to be a part of that," he says.

More than a decade after Hawai'i-born independent filmmaker Kayo Hatta struggled to bring her groundbreaking "Picture Bride" to the big screen, conditions finally seem to be ready for such a push.

"There are a lot of people trying to make it happen," says ACM student Ty Sanga. "If we do quality work, people will have reason to invest in us. That's the goal."