Once upon a time an underground filmmaker got spectacular reviews from the press and saw his name make its way into the history of cinema books.This is the fairy tale that aspiring filmmakers have heard time and again.Hundreds of young directors and producers are in pursuit of that happy ending every year.

But in search of that dream, there is the nightmare of finding financing. Making a movie with a budget of $10,000 is the challenge that novice and young producer and directors face. "The best films are the inexpensive ones," says Yitzi Zablocki, President of the Columbia Producers and Directors Club. The club is a student association that, for the last year and a half, has been acting as a film production company, giving the students the opportunity to write scripts, produce and direct their own films. "When you work under minimum budget, the movie must be script-driven and focused on the payoff, twisted at the end."

This is the philosophy under which more and more young directors. Using digital technologies, that allow shooting and editing without high expenses on film rolls or editing devices, the new generation of filmmakers is paying more attention to content. "These are more in-depth movies, rather than a group of friends getting drunk in a car," Zablocki says.

The idea has already found a great number of followers. After one year, the Columbia Producers and Directors Club already has 100 members and plans to shoot about 10 short films per year, with a budget of about $100 per movie and equipment borrowed from Columbia University. "I joined the club as an actress because I wanted to learn how a movie is made," Irene Alameda says, who plans to shoot her own movie next year. "The themes go from the broken dreams of love to new styles like last year's 'mockumentary," Alameda says.

In an industry where the feminine presence is reduced to a few names, Alameda points out that women are increasing their presence in the filmmaking industry, and raising the quality levels. "Women are scripting and shooting more intimate themes, whereas men are going for more superficial tapes."

Theory is one of the main strengths of the young directors, who unlike young Scorsese or Spike Lee, can afford to pay less attention to the technical side of filmmaking and concentrate on script.

But when "The end" is on the screen, the novice and young directors still face the same problem. The digital revolution and the explosion of movie making has not answered how to achieve good levels of distribution.