George Lucas used it to shoot the latest Star Wars epic but it's just as useful to amateur film-makers. Steve Pratt finds out why director Mike Figgis is championing the new digital technology.

TWO years ago, film-maker Mike Figgis returned to Newcastle, where he grew up, to introduce a screening of his film Time Code, which he predicted would change the face of film and film-making as we know it. He returned to the Tyneside Cinema, where he saw his first art house movies, last week and admitted that the revolution was happening slower than he'd predicted.

He's become aware, in the intervening years, of a resistance to change. People in Hollywood are protecting their control over the industry and safeguarding their profits. It's a war between the high and the low budget, he contends.

He's waving the flag for low and digital film-making while others, like Star Wars creator George Lucas, are defending the high ground. Figgis will tell you that the advances in digital cameras means anyone can afford to make a movie as long as they have a camera, computer software, a few friends and a good story idea.

Lucas may have shot the latest Star Wars film Attack Of The Clones on digital rather than celluloid but his equipment is not the affordable stuff that Figgis uses. His film Time Code made front page news in the New York Times after he shot this motion picture entirely with hand-held digital cameras in a single continuous 93-minute take with no editing.

There's always been something of the rebel in Figgis. He's dabbled in both experimental work, small budget films such as Newcastle-made Stormy Monday, and studio films including Internal Affairs with Richard Gere. Film-making at its best, he asserts, should be cutting edge and street smart - the type of films he hopes will be shown in the Tyneside's new digital lounge, or the Mike Figgis Digital Lounge to give its full name.

The lounge is in the cinema's former seminar room, transformed by funding from Northern Rock Foundation and One NorthEast. The space aims to provide regional film-makers and media workers with a place to meet, see video, DVD, satellite and web-cast films and to show their work to the public. The room will also be used as a centre for training and development as part of the drive to retain budding talent in the region.

Tyneside patron Figgis welcomes the move, prompted by his remarks to regional film-makers last summer that urged them to use new technology to "just do it". "Every year the price of digital equipment comes down. The problem isn't making films any more - the door is open, anyone can have a go. The problem is screening them," he says.

"This is a small room, but it's a start. It's a kind of workshop where you can try things. I'm actively talking to people about seeing up a digital cinema in London. That's one of my ambitions."

Although his diary is chock-a-block for the next year, he intends to return to the city to make a real-time film on location as part of the Newcastle-Gateshead 2008 Capital of Culture project.

"It would make sense to link it with the bid. I'd like to tie it in with a bigger event. That would be more useful to the community than just a project to do with arts or students. I would rather it was something people could take a bit more pride in," he says.

Meanwhile, the digital lounge is a significant opportunity for local film-makers to take up the digital challenge. "The thing I like about film is it's popular culture, like rock and roll in a way. If it can function on that level, something like the digital lounge becomes so useful," he explains.

"You can get a digital camera and make a really good little film, but what do you do with it? Go to Warner Brothers and have them tell you to get lost? Or go to the BBC who say they're sorry but they're programmed for the next three years?

"Now you can screen your film in the lounge in front of a tough audience and then discuss it."

Figgis knows all about the difficulties of getting films distributed. His latest, Hotel, failed to find a major distributor in the US and has had only a limited release here. That's despite a cast including Friends star David Schwimmer, Salma Hayek, Julian Sands, John Malkovich and Saffron Burrows.

"The film is out there, so that's okay," he says philosophically. "I've devoted myself to touring with the film. It's been screened in a lot of galleries, including the new Getty gallery in Los Angeles. I don't mind - the realisation that you don't have to conquer the world with a film is a healthy one."

Given his past experiences with Hollywood - including having the Richard Gere film Mr Jones taken away from him in the editing stage - it's odd to learn that he's about to spend three months in Canada directing a thriller for the Disney studio.

"I've always tried to keep a foot in both camps because it helps me if I'm taken seriously in their world. They think I'm a bit nuts, but I'm taken seriously as a film-maker," he explains.

"I took a deferred fee on Hotel and that hasn't made any money so I've not been paid. I need to earn some money to do other projects, although I'd say I'm in a privileged position."

He's also making a documentary on British blues as part of a Martin Scorsese-produced series and undertaking his first art project for 15 years with an installation in Valencia.

He's contributing to the digital revolution himself by asking manufacturers to make equipment more film-maker friendly.

"I'm trying to persuade them to make it simpler. Most people don't want a camera with 28 options," says Figgis, who's designed his own camera rig like a steering wheel that goes some way towards meeting his needs. He's a man clearly in love with and eager to embrace digital film-making.

"In some ways, I think it's even more beautiful than film," he says.