The informal party they had thrown to get to know their mentors ran till the wee hours of Sunday. By 8am, the first team on the line-up of the Garage Studio talent team has gotten into full gear. There is a concentrated atmosphere of teamwork in the studio. Everyone, from the director to the prompter, is working to meet the challenge of turning out a ten-minute film - called 'One Time' - in record time.

'They were done with setup and had started shooting by 8am' says Debora Neumann, the Berlinale guide, outside the lobby of the third floor of Hau 3, one of the buildings in the Berlinale complex. A series of gangway lights lead into the belly of a small theatre, which has been smartly converted to a strike-and-set studio. A large screen with a projected still image of a busy airport separates the main shooting area from the recording station. Scriptwriter David Bradley Halls dashes off to pick up a script from a bag behind the audio and video consoles. 'This is an exercise in instant filmmaking' he says. 'We got together yesterday, rehearsed, got the set ready and now are recording onto hard drive. We shall edit and mix later in the evening and must be done by 5pm, at the most.' 'Quiet on set' yells a voice, and Halls hurries off. 'Need to run. We are working behind schedule' he says, dashing back on set - in this case, a makeshift departure lounge where two characters stand on cue for yet another take. 'Take fourteen,' the petite continuity person says.

'Sound…camera, action' a lanky fellow called Ted yells. The feedback on the monitors reveals the meat of the film: we see a travelling salesman, Lenny, who sells the future in his suitcase. He meets a willing patron and with a magnifying glass, he offers a 30 minute peep into the future. Over the next three days, three short films will be made in the Garage Studio. Each of the films has just a day to be shot, edited, mixed and released on the Internet. Halls is mindful of this fact. 'We shall be up about time,' he says as he runs off again.

By Shaibu Husseini