Managing the magic of film

Here's the story. Frame one rolls: a Cecil B de Mille type flashing a toothy smile and puffing on a big Cuban cigar walks onto the set. Minions quake. Actors' mouths drop open. The producer has arrived.

"Wrong picture!" cries David McLoughlin. "That's not the reality." OK, frame two comes up - enter a soft-spoken, casually-dressed manager who walks quietly behind the cameras to chat with the crew, check some details and move on.

McLoughlin explains: "You're like a manager. You're responsible for the entire operation. The producer spends his time with the crew, the financiers, the distributors, the sales agents, you have to keep all of those people happy." A film producer has to have good interpersonal skills, he explains.

"It's a combination of persuading on the one hand and motivating on the other. A good producer needs to have a reasonable commercial sense, an instinct that tells you if this is going to make money at the end of the day. You have to have that. If you don't have the confidence that tells you that people will go and see it, financiers won't go for it."

In a matter-of-fact tone, he declares it's a job at the end of the day. "People who work there are not dazzled by the glamour. What excites me is the process, knowing that you're in the middle of a project and you can see the final results at the end of the day."

McLoughlin was always interested in film production - in particular "in the business end and the organisational side of the industry, the co-ordinational side." But, he explains, "producers are not book-keepers. Being able to read budgets and set budgets is important but it's more the feeling of team work, of coming up with an interesting idea, of seeing whether it's feasible and getting around you a very good team bringing the thing to fruition and then seeing the thing on screen."

After school at Blackrock College, he graduated from TCD with an economics degree in 1990. In hindsight, he says, "I would have preferred if I'd learned more about law and more accountancy but it's still a very useful degree to have."

His route into film production was circuitous. "Entry is very undefined, particularly in terms of producers. It's a skill you have to acquire yourself. As the industry has expanded, it has become very obvious that there's a lack of producers."

McLoughlin wrote film reviews for college publications and other magazines. Later he worked on a film set in Canada when he was a student. Then in 1991 he became full-time manager of the Dublin Film Festival. He was there until 1996. "There are parallels between managing a film festival and managing a film - co-ordinating, the operational knowledge and raising finances."

During this period he had his first assignment as a producer, working with director Alan Gilsenan on a small film which was completed earlier this year. All Souls' Day, was screened at the Cork Film Festival earlier this year.

"It was a small but very committed crew. We all just worked for nothing. It's kind of a subversive theme, it's a psychological drama."

Last year he had the opportunity to work as a trainee producer on The Boxer which was being produced by Jim Sheridan and Arthur Lappin's company. "It gave me a lot of freedom to learn and it's very rare that you would be given an opportunity like that, to have access to information like that on such a big operation. You get a good feel for the numbers and the whole event."

After this, McLoughlin worked as assistant director on Dancing at Lughnasa. "As assistant director I had more responsibility . . . and I was more heavily involved in the production of the film. It was a good extension of the training. I was on the set far more than The Boxer."

Although directing was not his ultimate goal, McLoughlin explains that "the reason I wanted to do it was I knew it would be a continuation of the training I was getting. To work on two very big productions is very good. People need to work on the floor of a film and see how it happens and the numbers involved. You get an appreciation of what people do. It's more than book-keeping. You have to be a good motivator."

At the moment, McLoughlin is finishing post-production work on All Souls Day and is also in the process of setting up his own production company.

"It's exciting on the one hand but also a challenge," he says. "I'm becoming my own boss. I have to pay the rent and come up with projects that are viable, that will be capable of raising finance. There are a few projects that I've been told about.

"That's the thing about the film industry. It's unique in that you rarely see them advertise in newspapers. That's why people are daunted by it. It's a mystery, in particular in terms of production. But, if you can get your foot in the door, you're started."