“I’m desktop cinema incarnate,’” quips Graham Robertson, describing his role as writer, director, producer, editor and production designer of the campy feature film “Able Edwards” - whose executive producers include Steven Soderbergh, Jay Hart and David Mazer.

Robertson drew on tabloid rumors to write the “Able Edwards,” the story of scientists who clone a cryogenically-frozen entertainment mogul in an attempt to revive the glory days of an economically-challenged space colony.

Even though the story takes place 200 years from now, the look is pure 40s and “Citizen Kane.”

Only it’s mostly virtual.

Robertson shot the film entirely in mini-DV against a small green screen in the corner of a warehouse, but composited the live action with digital sets on the Mac - ably demonstrating that it’s possible to create a film of epic proportions on an ultra-low budget. $23 in Late Fees

Robertson expresses a certain pride that he and coproducer Scott Bailey managed to shoot the entire feature in 15 days on a budget of $30,000.

“We had no sets,” says Robertson who, ironically, has dressed sets for hundred-million-dollar films such as “Pirates of the Carribean,” “Swordfish” and a new sci-fi epic, “Serenity.” Bailey was lead set dresser for “L.A. Confidential,” “Pleasantville,” “Fight Club” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Lacking a large bankroll, Robertson hung out at the downtown branch of the Los Angeles County library, sorting through walls of architecture books for images he could scan and manipulate in Photoshop.

“Twenty-three dollars in late fees and a month later,” Robertson says, “we had our sets.” A Windup Rocket

Once he had scanned images from different books, Robertson used Photoshop to create original images for the film’s retro-futuristic environment.

“We shot the film in a little tiny room, but I wanted it to have a great, grand feeling and I knew we could fake a lot of that with virtual sets.”

First, he converted the scanned images to black and white - not only to establish the retro sci-fi atmosphere, but also to eliminate potential problems of color consistency and spill from the green screen.

Then he assembled bits and pieces of the scanned images - in one case, a jungle, ancient ruins, a restroom sign and a vintage windup toy rocket - to create a series of digital sets.

“We shot the film in a little tiny room,” Robertson says, “but I wanted it to have a great, grand feeling and I knew we could fake a lot of that with virtual sets.”

And a little help from his friends. Modeling the World

When the script called for 3D models of a spaceship and space station, Robertson turned to graduates of Pasadena’s Art Center.

Bailey’s brother created the model for the Fantastic Wonderland amusement park. An architect friend in Korea designed the virtual atrium. A friend of a friend created the film’s animated fireball sequence.

“They all thought the film was cool and interesting,” Robertson says, “and they wanted to contribute to it, so it worked out. When everyone was done creating their models, they just emailed the 3D files to me over iChat. It’s a really handy way to transfer big files.”

Closer to home, Robertson’s girlfriend, who worked as a technical director on “South Park” and teaches Maya at the Art Center, rendered the raw 3D files in QuickTime so they could be imported into Final Cut Pro.

And whenever the script called for crowd scenes, Robertson says, “we called everyone we knew.”