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Step into the Loft Cinema each month for First Friday Shorts, and you'll see filmmakers competing for a $100 cash prize provided by the Tucson Film Office. Stroll through the University of Arizona and Pima Community College campuses, both of which educational institutions offer classes geared to aspiring filmmakers. Take a tour of local high schools, several of which hold annual film festivals featuring student work. Even Cyberspace pulses with Tucsonans' work. A search of the word "Tucson" on the online video-sharing Web site Youtube.com found 1,034 results.

"I would say off the top of my head that there are 20-25 filmmakers in Tucson — maybe a dozen who have made feature-length films and the rest, shorts — not counting students," said Shelli Hall of the Tucson Film Office.

J.J. Giddings, operations director at the Loft Cinema, says the number grows quite a bit when you include amateurs.

"I'd say there are well over a hundred if you count all the people making films on their own and all the students — high school through college — that are making films," Giddings said.

Tucson hasn't been a hotbed for spawning Hollywood talent. Actor Garry Shandling was born in Tucson. Oscar-winning screenwriter/producer Diana Ossana owns a home here. Actor Dennis Quaid attended the UA, as did megabucks producer Jerry Bruckheimer. As far as directors, though, only Palo Verde graduate and Oscar-nominated documentarian Kirby Dick has made a national impact from the director's chair.

"Any position in the entertainment business is highly competitive, and directing films is perhaps the most competitive of all," Dick said.

"Documentaries are a bit easier to get into, because the budgets are slightly lower and audiences are more open to a wider range of subjects and approaches. My recommendation for becoming a documentary director is to begin making films as early as possible, first a short or two, and then move into features, because making a feature is only about twice as difficult as making a short, but it will do much more for your career."

And diving in young is exactly what Jennifer Beatty, Dan Reckart and Amanda Sherman are doing as they learn about closing down streets for production, luring investors and persuading grandma that theirs is a gig worth supporting.

Keep on eye on these three young filmmakers.

The costs of getting started in filmmaking (it's much cheaper to shoot digitally rather than on film):

● $150: Cost of 400 feet of 16mm film, which lasts four minutes. Expect twice the cost for 35mm film, the Hollywood standard.

● $800: Cost of developing film and other related costs to get a print ready.

● $10,000: Cost of making a short film.

● $350-$800: Cost of a digital camera.

● $60: Cost of editing software.

Woody Allen — Was a stand-up comedian and comedy-show writer, working for Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" before taking the Japanese film "Key of Keys," redubbing the dialogue and releasing it as "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" (1966).

Kirby Dick — One of the few Tucsonans to make it big as a director, Dick made small-time documentaries for more than 20 years before finally earning distribution and an Oscar nomination for "Twist of Faith" (2004).

Martin Scorsese — Before deciding on film school, he considered joining the priesthood. After graduating, he caught on with B-movie producer Roger Corman and worked in editing until he broke out with "Boxcar Bertha" (1972) and "Mean Streets" (1973).

Kevin Smith — He worked as a convenience-store clerk, dropped out of film school, sold his comic-book collection and maxed out his credit cards to make "Clerks" (1994), which was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival.

Steven Spielberg — Having been raised in Phoenix, Spielberg made home movies throughout his teens and dropped out of college to pursue his directing career. He worked as a production assistant, screenwriter and TV director before making "The Sugarland Express" (1974).

Film: "Innocent Convictions," (pictured below) an 11-minute drama about personal struggles within a family. DVDs are available for $5 if you contact Beatty through blueeyefilms.net.

Philosophy: "I love how exciting filmmaking can be. My favorite part is just making something happen. I shut down Fourth Avenue for a day while we were shooting. No other student really attempts something like that. You can make something simple, or huge and extravagant. I love how versatile the whole medium is. You're not just stuck to a pencil and paper — you can just do whatever you want."

Getting it made: Beatty, who recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career, made the film last school year as her senior project while finishing her bachelor's degrees in visual communication and media arts production at the UA.

Bubbly yet authoritative, Beatty talks about her film career with confidence and determination. She seems to adore the conflict and hardship that come from making independent film.

She borrowed $4,000 from her parents to complete the movie and culled donations from local businesses, including food from Domino's Pizza, Chipotle, Safeway and Bison Witches. Beatty also received $500 of Kodak film thanks to a Kodak Student Filmmaker Scholarship, which was awarded to her by the UA faculty.

Her cast of nine actors included four main roles, tapping friends of friends and acting listservs.

"I ended up casting a Jewish cast for my major roles, and I had to cancel some of my shoot dates to accommodate for Yom Kippur," Beatty said.

"Other than that, it was pretty problem-free until post-production, when it took three months to get the final negative back to us due to color-correction problems. I ended up having to send the film back three times before it came back good enough to edit."

One of Beatty's biggest challenges came from complications involving one of her actors, Susan Arnold, a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Beatty said she had to complete paperwork to have SAG approve Arnold's participation in her film. She needed letters of recommendation, detailed budgets, time sheets, proposals and contracts for her actors.

Once SAG approved of the film, Beatty had to keep a detailed log of the time Arnold spent working on the film in rehearsals, meetings, set time and post-production.

Film: "A Thousand Pieces" (pictured below) — A 10-minute horror short about a jigsaw puzzle that predicts a murder. Reckart says he's working to get the film, which won the 2005 University High School Film Festival, on youtube.com.

Philosophy: "Kids my age can take really cool ideas they have and express them on film to show their friends. Movies are just a better way to get an idea across. It's cool to tell a story, but it's cooler to see it on screen. Getting to make films is like me getting to be able to tell a really cool story in a different way."

Getting it made: In Reckart's film, a lonely piano teacher goes to a mailbox and finds a package addressed to someone else's home. One of her students opens the package and finds a puzzle. As she pieces it together, the image of the teacher with a man wielding an ax in the background emerges.

Reckart, a senior at University High, wrote the script with the help of his older brother. Self-deprecating to a fault, Reckart seems comfortable with his abilities but is quick to deny full credit for his work, pointing out the collaborative nature of the film medium.

He recruited six actors to star in his film and didn't have to look far for his talent. His mother, brother, grandmother and two sisters were all game.

Reckart says he and his family have always made films together as a regular family activity and see the art form as a creative outlet. Reckart, who takes pleasure in shooting movies with limited resources, says almost anything in the household can end up as a prop in the movie.

"As to equipment, most everything that we use is just stuff we have around the house. All our props and costumes are homemade," Reckart said. 

"We own a camera but even if you don't, most every family we know has one, and I'm sure someone would lend you one. Digital cameras are expensive if you decide to buy one, though. They can range anywhere from $350 to $800. The one thing that we did have to buy (was) some editing software (about $60). Other than that, if you're creative with your lighting and resourceful, you can produce a film using solely what you have at home."

Since Reckart shot with family members, recruiting and paying his talent were easy. He did need to cave in to one demand from his diva star.

"Most of my actors were drafted into the film rather than volunteered," Reckart said.

"I did have to promise my grandma, who doubles as my piano teacher, that I would be more regular with my practicing."

Film: Has made a few shorts. Plans to make her first feature, the 72-minute action film "DeTaga," next summer.

Philosophy: "When I was 13, I decided I wanted to be an actress. I'd done some theater and stuff like that, but it was never enough. I wasn't able to express passion for acting as much as I would like to. I decided to make a film, a Western, a couple years ago, and I loved making it."

Getting it made: Female action directors are few and far between, and even fewer are in their teens, but Sherman intends to rectify the situation. She displays a grandiose, Steven Spielberg-like master vision, with an aspiration of making a feature film while most kids her age are thinking of ways to weasel out of their homework.

A junior at Sahuarita High School, Sherman dreams of raising $15,000 through investments to realize the vision that's been dancing in her head. She's already making funky music videos and short films to post on YouTube.

So far, Sherman has pulled together $1,000 from investors who want to get in on the ground floor of her career, and she says she plans on making up the shortfall through fundraisers such as car washings or screenings of films she's made.

Most young independent filmmakers are content to shoot with easy-to-find local locations. But not Sherman, who wants her first feature to be a first-rate affair through and through. She says she'll use the money to fly her cast and crew out to California to shoot the film. She's still deciding on exact locations.

"DeTaga" is set in a world in which technology has regressed and children are rounded up as laborers in prison camps. Her story follows a group of kids who have broken out of the camp to start a rebellion. She plans to start shooting in June.

Sherman says that it took her six months to write the script and that she is shooting the film with friends and family filling the acting roles. She's set up Web sites on myspace (myspace.com/detaga) and www.geocities.com/detagamovie to entice backers to join her project.

On StarNet: Find a pair of Sherman's videos and a link to Beatty's videos at azstarnet.com/special/youngfilmmakers.