Click the links below to read each Masterclass. Each month, we'll bring you a step-by-step guide to every aspect of short filmmaking.

MASTERCLASS ONE:
WHAT MAKES A GOOD SHORT?

MASTERCLASS TWO:
CAN YOU MAKE A SHORT FOR £100?

MASTERCLASS THREE:
THE SHOOT

MASTERCLASS FOUR:
PROMOTING YOUR SHORT

AFTER DARK MASTERCLASS TWO:
CAN YOU MAKE A SHORT FOR £100?

Dawn Sharpless:

Well you can make a short for under a £100 if you are not paying any of your cast and crew and for your post-production facilities. I would agree that some of the higher quality shorts not shot on film look fantastic but that is clearly down to the talented director and DOP. Look at the work of Esther Rots – stunning, beautiful films shot on DV and Marianela Maldonado. I'm finding it harder and harder to tell the difference between film and DV, especially if they are screened digitally. Sometimes Most of the time I see films shot on 35mm and I think, why did they bother, the story didn't really justify the cost.

Onedotzero:
There are hundreds, probably thousands of lone individual Do It Yourself filmmakers out there making animated films in their bedrooms, 'Garage Kubricks'. Richard Fenwick is a brilliant example. He moved from broadcast design to filmmaking with music videos, but is devoting his spare time to his RND or 'Random Project'. He is in the process of making 100 short films about how man interacts with the modern world. One short is about in-flight safety announcements; another is on multi channel TV. Some of them are made very cheaply, but it's an incredibly strong idea because he is saying something about the way we all live, in a variety of visual styles.

Firstlight:
If your budget is £100, that's what you spend, the choices are made for you. Everyone works for free, you shoot on DV, on locations that are free and edit on a laptop. Make the budget work for you, take you camera places where a bigger crew can't go, don't bother with well-known faces, and use fresh actors who no one has seen before. Every time you think about spending money, hesitate. Buy a cheapo camcorder light, put it in a shoe box with some trace over the top and surrounded in tin foil and you've got a soft light that's portable. As for fundraising, go through the process of applying but don't expect organisations to back you and don't use it as an excuse to prevaricate. Apply, then get on with it anyway. Be inventive. We heard of someone letterboxing every house in a well off area of town, and out of thousands, one person came through. Nurture relationships with businessmen or personalities who might help you. Also remember, no matter how cheap your film is, if you want it to end up on TV, get your legals sorted: location agreements, actors agreements, crew agreements, music clearance. No one will screen your film if they think they or you will get sued. Lastly, Just because it's DV, it doesn't mean you can be careless about your image, you may have to spend exactly the same time setting up a shot as if you were shooting 35mm.

Intrepido:
You can, provided you have people who can help you for free and have access to a digital camera and a computer for the editing. It's important you are upfront with people from the start; that everyone is working for free and it's not about making money. Know what everyone's expectations are - if they don't tally with yours, then it's probably best to 'let them go' and instead choose collaborators that are as enthusiastic as you are about the project but also have some experience of filmmaking. Be inspired and inspire! On this budget, you can afford to be as original and free as you can be. You should try and push yourself to make something that you haven't tried before and that allows you to put new ideas to the test. You might also find that the film you end up with is not the film you had in mind, because films change in the edit. It might be funnier or darker than you initially thought. If it's not quite right, you can probably afford to go out and do it (hopefully not all!) again.