"There are no excuses now," says Suzanne Stefanac of the American Film Institute. "You don't need a giant camera and lights and crew of six anymore," she says of experimental filmmaking today. "Now, it's you and a cellphone, and -- if you have it --  the fortitude."

Stefanac is the director of AFI's Digital Content Lab, which was launched in 1998 as a place for, as she puts it, "like-minded souls to come together" and make innovative imagery that TV studios and directors such as James Cameron, an early participant, could previously only dream of. In the last decade, more than 90 projects have been completed by more than 700 people from all over the world, who collaborate on special effects, groundbreaking Web platforms and even iPhone applications.

The Digital Content Lab is one of "Hollywood's best kept secrets," said Stefanac, but it's gained attention in the last two years with an annual slot in the massively popular AFI Film Fest that takes over L.A. every fall. AFI DigiFest, which runs Wednesday and Thursday at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, involves two days of wall-to-wall pixels, geeked-out demos and screenings.

Wednesday's program explores projects currently in development by lab participants. Austin Lynch and the enigmatically named Jason S will discuss their "Interview Project," a beautifully shot and poignantly edited documentary series that captures the stories of random Americans encountered during the filmmakers' cross-country trip. Launched on David Lynch.com, the website of Austin Lynch's auteur father, the webisodes are developing interactive rating and feedback systems to reach a broader audience. "The opportunity to have people see your work," he says, "is much greater with online viewership."

Social networking and celebrity collide again in a tech-savvy bid to promote environmental awareness on the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation site, which is also innovating an interactive platform to steer the younger generation toward eco-conscious activism.

Eschewing the comforts of a crew, filmmaker L.M. Kit Carson, a Hollywood veteran who penned the script to "Paris, Texas," recently gained attention in digital filmmaking circles for his series "Africa Diaries," shot entirely on a Nokia cellphone. Carson will deliver an expository demo Wednesday on how to capture documentaries on the fly -- and probably on the cheap.

Thursday's program offers screenings of completed digital films, including "Urban Wolf," shot from the vantage point of security cameras in addition to a former Sony executive's violin-meets-guitar animated love story, produced via collaboration with more than 50,000 participants. Also showing is Josh Koppel's eBook "First Things Last," which attempts to merge a novel and cinema with an interactive iPhone application that scrolls forward to reveal prose and accompanying illustrative photos.

Likely the most anticipated film on the bill is the Purchase Bros.' "Escape From City-17," a virally popular project that used motion capture of the 3D environments in the combat-based video game "Half-Life 2." David and Ian Purchase have managed to astound YouTubers and gamers with this method of "machinima," combining captured digital footage with live action scenes shot on a low budget. The result is a new narrative that creates the illusion of a bloated-budget action flick -- but was made for less than $500. Obviously, the two didn't factor in salaries for themselves; rumor has it that they live together in a basement, turning down lucrative deals in favor of continuing the series, the second episode of which they'll premiere Thursday.

In previous years, AFI Fest and DigiFest required a ticket purchase, but given the troubled economy, festival organizers are opening up all screenings for free this year. A post-DigiFest cocktail party at the Roosevelt Hotel will feature outdoor screenings and will likely be abuzz with chatter about the future of "new media."

Austin Lynch predicts that the affordability and accessibility of digital  filmmaking will "create a greater diversity in the films that we see in the future."

"Of course," he continues, "nothing can change the fact that a good idea is essential to making a great film."

--Alie Ward

Image: A still from "Urban Wolf" by French director Laurent Touil Tartour