A Hollywood hopeful has flown camera equipment and crew from Los Angeles to Bermuda to film his first independent movie.

Bermudian film student Andrew Greene, 17, who has just finished his first year at the University of Southern California, will be filming the 15-minute movie on Marshall's Island.

Mr. Greene has used his $50,000 budget -- which he received from Bermudian sponsors and his father's company, Berco Ltd. -- to bring in a Panavision camera with 35-millimetre film, lighting and electrical equipment from Los Angeles.

The script, which Mr. Greene wrote this year in school, is based on the life of an old-time Bermuda fisherman.

"The storyline is essentially about a love triangle between a fisherman, his wife and the sea,'' Mr. Greene said.

"The fisherman represents the old way of doing things and the wife represents the new way,'' he added.

Mr. Greene hopes to enter the film in a number of international film festivals including the annual Bermuda Film Festival.

"Ultimately, the first vessel I would like to get it premiered in is the prestigious Berlin Film Festival,'' he said.

"I spoke to a few prominent people in the film industry and they were quite sceptical. A lot of them thought it was too big a project for a freshman, but that only gave me more incentive,'' Mr. Greene said.

Mr. Greene has chosen two Bermudian actors, Jon Legere, 20, and Stephen Knotman, 19, and one American actress, Katherine Barko, 19, to star in the movie.

The cast has been rehearsing over the past week and are working to perfect their scenes before they start filming tomorrow.

And Mr. Legere and Mr. Knotman have been practicing heavy, exaggerated Bermudian accents.

Mr. Greene said: "Using the Bermudian accent gives it novelty. It makes the film much more interesting.'' Ms Barko, who is studying acting at the North Carolina School of the Arts, said: "This is a great opportunity to work on transferring between stage acting and film. It makes you more versatile which will always get you more work.

"I've been in other student's films but never with such extensive equipment,'' she added.

Mr. Knotman, who has just finished his first year at Trinity College at the University of Toronto, said: "I'm really excited because I have never done anything on camera before. It's all been on stage.'' And Mr. Legere, who is studying fine arts at State University of New York at Purchase, laughed and said one of the most challenging parts of his role has been to grow a beard.

The actors and the crew -- seven graduate film students from Andrew's University -- will be shooting the film for a week and a half.

Many of scenes involve the main character fishing from a rustbucket boat and the cameras will be filming from another boat nearby to create "a great wavy effect.'' The film will also require a lot of fish which Mr. Greene is buying from a fisherman and will freeze until they are needed on the set.

He said: "I'm very stressed out, but really excited.

"But even if the film turns out to be terrible -- which I don't think it will -- it will still have been a great experience,'' he added.