Hello and a warm welcome to this BFI course - How to Make a Short Film. In this activity, you'll meet your tutors and find out more about what you'll be learning over the next four weeks from Tom Barrance, course leader.

We begin by looking at the building blocks of film and how you can create a narrative by using the continuity system.

Next we explore how shot size, camera angle, composition and light can help tell your story. You'll then be asked to use what you've learnt to examine a short film clip.

In this activity you'll focus on getting ready to film a shot. We'll look at what you need to do in advance and how to get the exposure and focus right. You'll then share three shots with other learners on the course.

Here you'll take a short quiz to check what you've learnt so far, then we draw together some thoughts about this week and look ahead to Week 2.

Welcome back to How to Make a Short Film. This week we will look at what makes film such a unique medium by examining sequences, sound, movement and time.

In this activity you'll learn about basic camera movements, the significance of screen direction, how to show a journey in separate shots, and how film can depict the passing of time. You can also practice the techniques.

Next we turn to sound and how to best use it to tell your story. We'll learn about the different types of sound used in filmmaking and the best techniques for recording it well. You'll also put into practice what you've learnt.

Take our short quiz which helps test your learning from this week and let us know how you're finding the course so far.

In this activity, we explain the filmmaking task, provide some tips and ideas for making short films, and look at story structures. We also provide a handy timeline of tasks to tick off to help plan your filming.

How do you plan your story? In this section we help you plot your film, and give plenty of examples of how to script and storyboard.

Next you'll move on to filming the shots you need for your film. This stage includes organising your shoot, preparing with your actors, and filming.

Editing can appear complicated so where do you start? In this activity we help guide you with an editing workflow, advice on editing programs, and how to work through and evaluate your clips.

This activity takes you step-by-step through the editing process from rough cut to adjusting colour and adding text. You'll also be provided with external links to relevant tutorials in case you want to explore in greater depth.

In this final activity we help you make any final improvements to your short film. We then consider where and how best to share your work with others.

What have we learnt this week and over the duration of the course? And where do you go next for more filmmaking resources, to become part of a filmmaking community, and to share and show your film?