Clive wrote Holiday Romance six years ago, based on a story he was told. Someone had their keys lifted from their jacket and when they went away they were burgled. Clive reversed the idea - what if the keys had been planted? It was a set up. In a flowing pitch, Clive described his story; "a surreal comedy, a guy burgles a woman's house when she goes on holiday and gets more than he bargained for when he's trapped inside".

Clive wrote the story in a day, and got feedback from different sources. He circulated the script and he doesn't know how but the director JJ Keith got it, liked it. JJ showed his friend Alex Jovy. "It was a real nice script, I thought I'll produce" said Alex. All three met and got on well. Clive liked the style of JJ's film Ill. So he wrote a shooting script for JJ, "there were no real changes" said Alex.

Every Monday Clive is in the dole queue at an office in north London.

Clive is a new screenwriter, but not so young, screenwriter. Seven years ago he did an MA in screenwriting at the London Institute. He has written for the Bill and Bugs, and teaches at the Screenwriters' Workshop. But making money has been getting harder and harder. He'd just decided with his girlfriend Amanda to give up being a full time writer, and go back into computing to earn regular money.

"Raising money was a nightmare" said Alex, "no-one would give us any. I tried three lottery projects and never got them". So he backed his judgment and put his life savings into making it, "I still haven't recovered the money till today". The film was shot on 12,000 pounds and Alex called in lots of favours. Jane Balfour agreed to distribute - a big plus - and Holiday Romance was screened in the London Film Festival, on Virgin flights, and won best short at the Hollywood Film Festival.

So what's the secret to making a great short film? Clive says "the script is really important - you can't tell any story in 15 minutes, you have to have the right story". You can't make a great film out of a bad script. Most short films are "rubbish, indulgences - the film has to have something to say. The script should communicate what you think it does". If it doesn't it's your problem - not the audience's...