ZOOM IN ON PLACES TO BE A FILMMAKER

Among programs, Web sites and festivals for young filmmakers: 30 by 30: Kid Flicks. This show is shown daily at 4:30 p.m. ET/ PT on HBO Family Channel (seen in almost 45% of HBO homes). Khadine Mitchell’s Morning Noon Evening Night airs Wednesday; Ryan McCulloch’s Without You and Chaille Stovall’s Looking for God, July 15; and the Kelly/Pfeiffer team’s Benny, July 25.

The show’s Web site (www.hbo4kids.com) has films previously aired and an online festival, with categories for live action and animation for ages 8 to 18.

ZOOM. The PBS children’s show includes a kid-made film or video in every episode. For submission info, go to the Web site (www.pbs.org/wgbh/zoom) or send a copy of a video to ZOOMvid Box 350, Boston, Mass. 02134.

Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. This showcase of children’s films, Oct. 12-22, includes a category for films produced by children ages 3 to 13. Call 773-281-9075 or check www.cicff.org. The organization also offers workshops and camps.

The National Children’s Film Festival. Organized by 15 museums across the USA, the annual event (Nov. 4) has categories for elementary, middle and high schools. Recently merged with the Los Angeles-based Backyard Film Festival. Call 877-543-3456 or visit www.childrensfilmfest.org.

The Bolt Indies Film Festival. This online fest is sponsored by www.bolt.com, which caters to teens. For festival info, select “Movies” from the drop-down menu on the home page.

Nine-year-old Chaille Stovall found himself inspired back in 1998 when he saw a TV evangelist predicting that all who had not embraced Jesus would go to hell. Struck by the thought of such a bleak fate for his Muslim and Jewish friends, the Miami youngster set out to find the truth.

The result: Looking for God, a 20-minute documentary that includes interviews with such religious leaders as the Dalai Lama and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Chaille didn’t stop there. Like a growing number of youngsters across the nation, he found that he enjoyed moviemaking. “I love telling true stories on film about life experiences,” says Chaille, now 11. “I am working my way up to my heroes, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Kenneth Branagh.”

His new project is Party Animals, a two-part, 40-minute documentary about the presidential elections. He even has interviewed the big guns, Al Gore and George W. Bush. Lots of kids like Chaille are converting their bedrooms or garages into mini-studios, plotting out storyboards and recruiting pals and parents to make movies.

“The demand for entries into our film festival doubled since last year,” says Nicole Dreiske, executive director of the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, the country’s oldest and largest film festival. Enrollment at Boston University’s summer film workshop for teens is up 20%, too. Chris Cavalieri, director of Boston University’s Institute for TV, Film and Radio Production, thinks he knows why: “Videos and film are significant in the socialization of young people, and technology allows them the tools to create their own stories.”

Though current cameras and editing software make filmmaking easier than ever, it’s about to get even simpler. The Lego Studios Steven Spielberg Movie Maker Set, a $180 system for personal computers, is due in November. Designed for kids ages 8 to 16, it consists of a movie camera, editing software, and movie props and sets.

“In focus groups and test markets, we discovered a strong demand for filmmaker products for our consumers,” says Lego America’s Michael Boland. “We wanted to enhance the storytelling process for these kids.” But for now, kid filmmakers are blazing trails at home and at school with traditional film and video cameras.

Filmmaking has been at the center of 18-year-old Khadine Mitchell’s education for the past three years. The North Miami resident attends a South Miami magnet school that has a film program, where she created the 10-minute Morning Noon Evening Night, about a woman’s recovery from domestic violence.

Now that she is about to graduate, she realizes that filmmaking has enhanced her education in many ways: “You need a lot of patience and good people skills to make films.” She also learned to “be around kids who are responsible” and give herself “permission to be creative.” And “plan, plan and plan.”

Other young filmmakers agree that planning is key. Tiana Vermette, 17, a member of the Penobscot Tribe on Indian Island, near Bangor, Maine, directed a crew of eight kids to make How the Raven Stole the Sun, a short film based on an ancient Indian folk tale. The crew studied the story, she says, then “created paper cutouts similar to paper dolls with movable hinges, which were then laid out on paintings and filmed.”

The toughest part of making a movie, she says, is making the deadline. “We had a 10-week production schedule, and we had a hard time,” she says. “Without my dad and brother’s support, we would have never made it.” All the hard work can pay off. Film festival honors come with cash prizes for as much as $2,500, and short films by kids can get exposure on TV and on the Internet. HBO Family Channel airs 30 by 30:Kid Flicks, a TV series that shows only kid-made films, and the show has a Web site that includes short films already aired. In addition, the TV series ZOOM, which airs weekdays on PBS, shows one kid-made film a week and hopes to show more, says producer Kate Taylor.

Web sites like www.atomfilms.com and www.ifilm.com feature short films and take submissions from filmmakers of all ages. And at least one site that caters to teens, www.bolt.com, includes a film festival.

“Our festival gives our 2.3 million members an opportunity to create their own short films on any opinion,” says Derek Johnson, online host for the Bolt Indies Film Festival. “With larger numbers of kids watching films, many more want to express themselves.”

And the way they are doing that is continually stunning grown- ups. “These kids are turning out better product and experimenting with longer films,” says 30 by 30 executive producer Dolores Morris, who predicts it won’t be long before young people tackle feature-length films.

That’s entirely possible, but don’t expect to see a multimillion- dollar kid-made film at your local multiplex, says Hollywood producer Peter Samuelson (Arlington Road). But once high-speed Internet access “is available to everyone, it will be feasible for kids to deliver their feature films individually. Kid-made films will be able to bypass the traditional distribution channels run by major studios.” The kid-film big time at the moment is getting an assignment from HBO Family’s 30 by 30 or groups such as the Partnership for a Drug Free America.

Ryan McCulloch, 17, is making his first high-budget ($10,000) film for the anti-drug group. His 10-minute Clayton’s Choice tells the story of Clayton the bear, who resists the temptation of drugs from Rocky, a rhinoceros, the school bully. Ryan, a high school junior from Vacaville, Calif., snatches almost every waking moment to stay on budget and juggle a cast of 30 clay characters (plus his dad, Bill) to meet his Aug. 1 deadline. Clayton is one of the nearly 20 titles on Ryan’s filmography.

I get my ideas from boring movies and then storyboard them using my own characters,” he says. Like Ryan, the Pfeiffer sisters, Ashli, 12, and Callie, 14, find inspiration in Hollywood films. “It’s a great source for ideas,” they say.

The girls take their creations seriously, even forming a company called Ya Ya Productions with 15-year-old twins Maggie and Sabrina Kelly, their next-door neighbors in Maple Plains, Minn.

The four girls are deep into production on their fourth film, Pushing Back the Limits, a 23-minute drama they have been editing on a computer in the Pfeiffers’ basement.

The inspiration for the movie came from real life, a gravestone the girls saw marked “Elizabeth,” with no second name. The four conjured up a story about what Elizabeth’s life might have been like in the 1800s and how much more freedom girls have today. “We recruited community members, got costumes from the Long Lake Pioneer Museum, garage sales and even made a few,” Callie says. “So far, we have kept our film under $500.” The team has quite a treasure chest to draw on: The girls won a $2,000 prize at the 1999 National Children’s Film Festival for Benny, which Ashli describes as “a short subject about a gang of ducks that kidnaps a puppy for revenge against dogs.” “All our farm animals blame the fox because he has a bad reputation,” she continues. “Actually, it’s about prejudice that is around us all the time.”

Ashli may have learned something about prejudice in society by making that film, but she also learned something about tolerance that might prove useful if she ever directs temperamental Hollywood stars. “It was hard directing live ducks,” Ashli says. “They just wouldn’t follow my orders. ”Lights, camcorder, action! Just a few years ago, an aspiring filmmaker needed a creative imagination, a Super 8 camera and a loan to get started. But with affordable camcorders and nifty editing software, young filmmakers can make a polished product for less than $1,000.

“This technology has done to filmmaking what the word processor has become to the writing process,” says producer Stavros Stavrides, who runs the Internet Film Group Web site (www.ifilmgroup.com). Beginners, Stavrides says, need only a hand-held camcorder at a cost of several hundred dollars. The picture may not have optimal resolution, but it’s an inexpensive, effective way to explore filmmaking. “You should start simply,” Stavrides says. “Pick a subject like your neighbor or parents, or even your goofy brother, and keep it simple.” For a more serious filmmaker with a little extra cash, Stavrides recommends a digital video camera ($1,000-$7,000), which has a clearer picture and sharper colors.

A digital video-capture card, which transfers video onto a hard drive, is usually needed to edit footage by computer. For it to run effectively, you’ll need a powerful computer -- a Pentium II or III, an iMac or a Macintosh G4 -- with a lot of hard-drive space and memory.

For a beginner, there are several video cards for less than $200, such as ADS Pyro, Pinnacle Studio DV and Digital Origin Intro DV. All supply editing software for adding music, creating dissolve and fade shots, and making titles.

More sophisticated maneuvers -- creating composition shots by taking out the background, for instance, or adding up to 99 tracks of music -- require software with a price tag north of $500.

But then you get something “close to what you see in the movies,” Stavrides says. “You’re getting better image and sound quality, and you get a high-quality film.”