LOS ANGELES (AP) – Shane Felux is an independent filmmaker whose "Star Wars Revelations" was seen by over four million people in its first three months. His next project, "Pitching George Lucas'', reached even more.

But unless you've downloaded his online movies – or are part of his fan legion at the comic book convention, Comic-Con – it is likely you've never heard of him.

Felux is hoping that could change with "Trenches'', his 10-episode, short-form, sci-fi thriller coming to ABC.com and YouTube. It is among 20 online programmes in development at Disney-ABC Television's new digital content studio, Stage 9.

"I'd been saying, 'I'm the little guy just making movies hoping that the industry raises its head to what the little guy can do and say, All right, we'll give the little guy a shot'. So my shot happened," says the 36-year-old writer-director, who produces films from the basement of his northern Virginia home.

Television studios like ABC Television, CBS, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures Television are looking to partner with artists to produce online videos popular with young viewers and men who are abandoning traditional prime-time offerings.

Among the 18-34 set, the proportion who watch online videos on a weekly basis increased 42 percent, up from 28 percent last year, Leichtman Research Group reported in a study released in February. Men 18-34 account for 40 percent of daily online video viewers, but make up only 17 percent of online subscribers, according to the study.

"The consciousness of video on the Net has elevated pretty dramatically in the last year or so, and the next phase of that is really providing a higher quality video experience for that audience demand," says Sean Carey, senior vice president of Sony Pictures Television which launched six comedy originals last month on its online comedy network CSpot via Crackle, YouTube, AOL Video and Hulu.

A growing number of independents, such as MyDamnChannel.com, have emerged, with backing from venture companies, to create original online shows. Former TV executives are also launching content sites like Dean Valentine's Comedy.com, founded by the UPN and Disney Television ex-president.

"I'd always felt, even when I was a part of those companies, that it was just such a crummy way to make entertainment," says Valentine, a former NBC comedy programmer. "I'd always likened it to if you were passionate about making the world's best goat cheese, you'd start a little farm in Vermont; you'd get the best grass and the best goats and make really distinctive goat cheese.

"Then if Kraft came along and said, we'll buy you out ... pretty soon what you get is Kraft goat cheese. That, I think, is what happened in the entertainment business. It was just making this kind of stuff that was increasingly unlikely to be compelling."

So far, traditional media companies have "been really conservative," says Todd Spangler, tech editor for Multichannel News, a trade magazine.

"They want to make sure that anything they do online isn't eroding or undercutting what their legacy business is."

Dennis Miller, general partner in the Boston-based venture group Spark Capital, suggests that the studios will fail in this arena.

"They're in the business of making $4 million hour series and $3 million comedies. No one is highly motivated to be making shows for two thousand bucks for the digital division."

Advertisers, however, are eager to find partners online with compatible content.

"It's like in the very early days of television (when) you had shows like 'Quiz Show' or 'Twenty One' brought to you by Texaco or Geritol," says Dina Kaplan, co-founder and COO of blip.tv. "That's exactly how Web shows right now are being monetized. You have specific shows where you'll have a sponsor that really wants to reach a specific demographic."

Unlike television, however, success online is measured by brand-ability and "buzz" than numbers, Kaplan says. "A show that gets 100,000 viewers is a show that you'd be proud to take to a sponsor if it reaches (its) niche audience ... and the people creating should feel very good about themselves."

That is, if artists working within the studio structure can get past the growing pains.

"This is the studio system where they've got to approve your casting and approve your crew; the script goes through like 20 revisions, then they've got to see the edit and then they've got notes," says Felux.

"I have a very grassroots type of approach and it's even very different for them."

The bottom line, says Stage 9 general manager Barry Jossen, "is we're trying to make our situation appealing to anyone to be involved with us.

"They get the opportunity to make new things and kind of participate with us in the experimental quality of the whole thing," says Jossen, an Academy Award winning short-form filmmaker.