2. You need to have a really good story, but how can you tell if you’ve got one? The answer is, start telling it to people, and particularly to people who are members of the core audience. Once you reach the point when you almost dread anyone asking you the question, "So what’s this film going to be about?" because you know that you’re likely to end up talking about it for hours, you know that you’ve got something with at least the potential to keep an audience’s collective bum on its seat from start to finish.

3. Make sure the story is feasible, that it can be made using a couple of three-chip DV cameras, a gun mic and with virtually no lights; and that you will be able to, with effort, find all the locations, extras and so on. Make use of the local press and radio to put the project on the map.

4. Accept the fact that, if you have ‘no budget’ then you have to fit everything around people’s availability. If someone has to pick their kid up from school then you have to work out what you can get done that day and not over-run on your schedule. And if one of your main actors gets a couple of week’s work on a TV soap, wish them luck.

5. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. It’s your job to organise the shoots around everyone’s availability, which means lots and lots of phone-calls and e-mails, arranging (and often providing) transport, catering, props and so on, co-ordinating everything on the day and making sure that you get the planned pages in the can, so you’re the one person who won’t get a break at all. I was doing this all the time while we were shooting Bad Lad. And I was also playing "Barry Lick". Fortunately me and Michael have worked from the project’s inception as a producer/director team, and one which is based on an enormous amount of mutual respect and trust (do you really want to work with anyone on any other basis?) and (honest) there’s never been a cross or heated word between us.

6. Money has to be what you ultimately want to make, so there’s no point in starting anything unless you’ve got an idea about the market and how it’s likely to develop. If you’ve got a really sound project then there are a lot of up-and-coming actors, camera and sound people who will not only come on board, but who will stick with it if they know that they’re in for a share of any profits. And, what’s more, if you do manage to bring it off on ‘no-budget’, you end up with a film which doesn’t owe anyone any money (OK so you, as the producer, did pay for the tapes, effects, and whatever else couldn’t be deferred, so no one’s going to be pissed off if you claw that pack at the start) so you’re in profit from your very first sale onwards. So, actually, your biggest headache is in working out, and then setting in contractual stone, what sort of a percentage everyone’s going to be on. We still haven’t worked that out yet, and we probably won’t be able to until completion. (As a personal note I get fed up with reading postings on things like ‘Shooting People’ which promise no pay, just a DVD copy and something for the show reel. Either these people are trying to embark on a project with no commercial potential-which is just plain daft- and they want others to assist them in their own personal ego-trip, or they intend to keep all the returns for themselves, which is ethically unjustifiable.

7. Don’t form a committee and don’t waste people’s time with meetings. Whose film is it? It’s yours! And by that I mean it’s the producer’s, the director’s and the writer’s. These are the only people who need to have meetings, although a lot of the time it’s probably best just to use e-mail. But you must get it all worked out before you start involving anyone else.

8. You have no money, so what’s available to you is local talent. But don’t be parochial about this, local means within easy travelling distance. As far as the talent goes you’re looking for people with some experience in front of the camera. A lot of people in amateur dramatics don’t have this, so it’s not their fault if they are overly theatrical. But it doesn’t take long to find people in such circles who have been extras and played a few bit parts, and these people have friends. Besides that it’s all down to using the local media and the Internet.

9. Good manners cost nothing, but they do open doors. So don’t be a prima donna, you can’t afford it.

10. Positive breeds positive, negative breeds negative, and, as my mother used to say, there’s no such word as "can’t".