IT'S film award season, a glitzy rollercoaster ride of anticipation, hype and peer recognition. The recent glamour-fuelled Irish Film & Television Awards gave deserved acknowledgement to many talented craftspeople but also turned the spotlight on the Irish feature-film industry.

Just beyond the posturing of stars and celebrities on the red carpet a different type of show was taking place. One that involved placards and protests from frustrated members of the Film Technicians Association of Ireland. They call it show business - but where has all the business gone?

So where have all the movies gone?

What has happened since the glory days of The Commitments, My Left Foot and Michael Collins.

The Oscar successes of Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan in the early 1990s heralded a new dawn for Irish film. The talent and quality of craftspeople working in the industry was on show to the world, and the period gave a confidence boost to the nation as a whole.

In the mid to late '90s, Mel Gibson's Braveheart and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan sealed the deal on the film industry's claims for Ireland as an ideal location for big-budget features that required high-quality crews and epic backdrops.

In 2006, Martin McDonagh's short film Six Shooter was the first Irish movie to triumph at the Oscars since Neil Jordan's much-deserved best screenplay Oscar for The Crying Game in 1992. You do the math.

And while Oscar success is not a barometer by which we should measure the impact of a film, or indeed an industry, the lack of the much-coveted golden statuette for recent Irish films has become something of an elephant in the room.

The heyday is on hold, and if you don't believe Oscar, a review of boxoffice returns exposes the problem in commercial terms.

In 2006, Irish films took a meagre Euro5m from the country's Euro104m boxoffice bonanza. According to figures compiled by Carlton Screen Advertising, only two Irish releases made it into the top 100 - Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley and Neil Jordan's adaptation of the Patrick McCabe novel Breakfast on Pluto.

And because we have the second-highest level of cinema attendance in Europe, the argument that we are averse to the escapism on offer is a non runner.

The Film Technicians' Association of Ireland (FTAI), a lobbying group which represents approximately 400 technicians working in the industry, says it's time to address the problem.

"When you look behind the gloss it becomes clear that the business really has gone downhill and there is no open debate about the industry here whatsoever, " says John Murphy, spokesperson for the FTAI.

Undoubtedly, an array of different kinds of production, from TV to indigenous films to big-budget imports, is indicative of a healthy film industry and it is the job of the Irish Film Board to develop and support 17the sector. Chief executive of the IFB Simon Perry is aware of the current difficulties, "The industry has become more competitive, and where we are less likely to be able to win is in attracting big Hollywood productions.

But it depends to what extent we want to enter this game at the high end, how many King Arthurs can we really service in a given year."

But American producer Ned Dowd, who was instrumental in bringing such big-budget productions as Veronica Guerin and King Arthur to Ireland, is quick to point out the opportunities that bigger productions create for Irish crews.

"Yes, there must be a balance between indigenous small films and bigger movies, " he says, "but don't forget that it's often the bigger movies that come in and train people here."

While it's difficult to quantify the number of people working in the industry, Ibec's Audiovisual Federation estimates there are approximately 4,300 employees spread across the TV and film sector; the independent film sector alone provided approximately 1,050 full-time equivalent jobs in 2005. And the positive spin-off afforded to the tourism industry is immeasurable.

Film technicians of all trades, which includes lighting, sound, camera and makeup, have the most to lose in the meltdown.

The FTAI claims that the fact that any films are being made here in the last two years at all is only by virtue of ever-decreasing budgets.

"I understand that when you do a budget you have to be competitive, but they are way too tight and it's about time serious questions were asked about the industry, " says John Murphy.

. Five other Irish movie insiders give their verdict on the state of the industry JOHN MURPHY Camera Grip Films includeMichael Collins, Braveheart, In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot THERE has been a huge depletion in work opportunities, it really has all gone downhill. Not too long ago we were able to do the likes of The Commitments, My Left Foot, and other mega pictures such as Braveheart, but they are all gone. One only has to look at the big fuss that was made of PS I Love You - a total of nine days shot here, let's get real.

I'm responsible for the camera, the safety of the camera crew and movement of the camera at all times. So whatever moving shots there are, whether they are from wire rigs, camera cranes or even perched off cliff edges, camera grips set the camera up and get the camera crew to operate them. It's my role to interpret via the cameraman what the director is trying to achieve.

The camera crew always works as a team in getting the focus, zoom or tracking shot recorded at exactly the right time. It really is all about timing and it's a wonderful feeling when the camera operator and the director are in sync.

From the aspect of my role on set, a film I'm particularly proud of is Michael Collins. The main characters, Liam Neeson and Aidan Quinn are two very tall artists, and it was real boys' own adventure in that the action was moving continuously so of course the cameras had to move with it. It was a very satisfying job.

'You need a 12-hour bladder and webbed feet' is the saying that's often quoted in our profession and funnily enough, it's almost true as. Believe me, it's not at all glamorous.

But I long to do what I do and I've always loved my job.

ROS HUBBARD Casting Director Films include Evita, Angela's Ashes, The Commitments, Chocolat and The Lord of the Rings ISET up Hubbard Casting with my husband John 32 years ago. The agent looks after the actor's interests but the casting director works on behalf of producers to find the talent.

Casting is essentially all about gut instinct; you can learn all about contracts and how to proceed with a casting session but you cannot learn taste; it's part of your make up. It really is a God-given craft that is impossible to learn.

What is star quality? It's an individual element that you want to reach out to.

We are drawn to people who have great talent and star quality; essentially we are the moths and they are the flame.

Kate Winslet was 15 and one of many school children that turned up for a particular audition.

After two lines my husband John stopped her and said, "Here's the script, go home we'll get you back in again" - he just instinctively knew he was in the company of a star.

When I was working on the film, War of the Buttons, I went into a pool hall in Cork and briefed them on what I was looking for. I was told "He's not here today, but there is a kid that comes down from Buttevant", so Mary Maguire who works with me went in the next day, took one look at him and brought him to Skibbereen so we could introduce him to the director. As it turned out, he did not get the role but Jonathan Rhys Meyers has never looked back and he really has star quality.

Frankly, I don't understand why Irish actresses have not had the impact in Hollywood their male contemporaries have had. Men do find Irish women very attractive, but your audience involves an awful lot of women;

maybe the spark and personality of the Irish woman does not always come to the screen, and if it does, female buyers are resisting it.

The Irish film industry is great for giving new people a shot at it, but there are some films made here that should not be - they are not ready script wise. You can't control people in art, but there should be more advice and mentoring for young film makers, and they are not getting that here at the moment.

KEVIN BYRNE Special Effects Supervisor Films includeMiddletown, Breakfast On Pluto, Reign Of Fire, Veronica Guerin THE industry has lost some of its top tradespeople because the bottom line is - they cannot earn a living out of it anymore. It is a problem because the more qualified people we lose, the harder it is to train young people starting out in the industry.

I'm one of the directors of Team FX, a special effects company based in Ardmore Studios. In 1990 I was working as a mechanic, and it just so happened that I was asked by another special effects company to repair wind machines on location, which I did, and subsequently never went back to fixing cars.

Every special effect is a new challenge, irrespective of the number of times we have done it before. It could range from making rain, blowing wind or snow to any number of pyrotechnic effects. For the film Reign of Fire, we re-created a 300ft dragon's breath of horizontal fire using liquid propane.

Another one of the more challenging special effects we set up recently was for Breakfast On Pluto, directed by Neil Jordan.

The scene involved the explosion of a car in a small town square, in which there were 1,500 people at the time. Neil Jordan wanted the car to go up in the air, turn around and land on its roof - all happening with cameras as close as 12 feet to the car. So instead of using explosives we used air to blow the car up off the ground and a small amount of pyrotechnics for the effect. It does not sound logical but it's always more technically challenging to do effects without using explosives.

All our effects are well practised and rehearsed so they will work as planned.

But if the budget is not there to do our tests and practice runs then we have to say no. Health and safety is paramount because we don't want to kill someone, it's as simple as that.

DONAL O'FARRELL Stunt Co-ordinator Films includeMurphy's Law, PS I Love You, Becoming Jane, The Tiger's Tail, Inside I'm Dancing STUNT co-ordinators are responsible for organising a range of different scenarios;

anything from fights scenes to driving sequences or, for example, setting somebody on fire.

I'm hired because there is an element of danger in the work, so assessing the risk is essential and it's my job to minimise it as much as possible. Health and safety is the number one priority. If there is any chance that somebody will get hurt, I help come up with another idea or, if necessary, agree a different camera angle with the director.

I started in the business as a stunt performer and it took time to train, establish my reputation, and gather a list of credits to attain the necessary criteria from Equity in order to be a stunt coordinator.

I work on films, TV, theatre productions, a lot of different areas in fact, but I still perform and double for actors; it's all part of the job. Of course in some cases the actor may be quite capable of performing their own stunts, but the insurance company requires a stunt double to reduce the risk to the actor.

As a performer, films like Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan stand out because they gave me an insight into what it must have been like at the time. I was the stunt co-ordinator on the period drama Becoming Jane, which is out later this year, but played a small role as a boxer in the film which certainly was interesting and involved a lot of research.

Each project is unique and all are engrossing. In 25 years I have never thought 'oh, I've done this before'. While I may have performed similar stunts, every scene is different.

It's a great job and like every job it occasionally has its down sides, one of which is that you can have long periods of unemployment, but thankfully there have not been many recently. But it's a competitive business to be in and the old saying 'you're only as good as your last movie' is fairly accurate.

There is a lot more TV being made now which can offer longer contracts to people but not necessarily better rates of pay. Stunts or special effects are often the first departments to suffer when budgets are tight.

LORNA MARIE MUGAN Costume Designer Films includeMiddletown, Man About Dog, Intermission, East Is East ISTUDIED theatre and costume design at the Wimbledon School of Art in London and have been working as a costume designer since 1995. The role is very much a collaboration between the director's vision, what the actor wants to express and the costume designer's expertise in the relevant style. But above all else you need to be a really good people watcher - having a great knowledge of fashion is of no use if you miss the key essence of the character.

Developing the character from script to screen is a process of researching, sketching, accumulating imagery, fabric samples and sharing ideas with the director, the actor, and other key creative people like hair, makeup, production design and the director of photography. It's gathered together and then I strip it all away until I find the bare essentials of the character.

Clothes directly affect people's shape, posture, and mood. And when an actor is completely different from their character it can be really exciting to develop something from nowhere which could be a case of, for example, padding out the body or wearing something tight so they have to walk in a certain way.

But there is no point in being proud of your fabulous costumes if it's not a very interesting story, so a good script and a director that inspires me are the key factors. East Is East is an example where all the ingredients gelled together and it was also a great story.

I am passionate about my work and often have to travel overseas to do it, but I would love to see more films being made here. The most alarming change is the reduction in the number of feature films being made in Ireland;

there was a lot more happening 10 years ago.

I do believe we have some great film makers, in all crafts that are doing it because they love the art of film making, not for the "glamour" of 14-16 hour days in a wardrobe truck parked in a swamp down the country for seven weeks at a time. So it would be a real shame if the industry was not nurtured.

LYNN JOHNSONMake-up artist Films include Apocalypto, King Arthur, Evelyn, The General, Breakfast On Pluto I'VE been working as a make-up artist in film for 17 years. Contrary to what people may think, it's not just a matter of applying make-up before a scene is shot. We meet with the director, costume design and hair team beforehand to decide what the look is going to be, which must be tested before shooting. The story dictates the character's appearance so we break down the script to note changes in make-up. And because scenes are not shot in chronological order, photos and records are taken in order to match the look between different scenes.

You have to be diplomatic; some actors know they look good in a particular way and that's the way they want to look but we have help to make them look the way they should for their character.

Working on Breakfast On Pluto was great because we could completely transform Cillian Murphy. Another project I worked on recently was Apocalypto which was very creative but really hard work - everyday the make-up and hair team started getting the cast ready at 3am so they would be on set for 8am.

Irrespective of how creative the job may be, what makes it are the people that I work with.

There is often great camaraderie on set and people look after each other to keep the spirits up.

Of course there is a perception that it's a glamorous job and you make an absolute fortune which is the not the case at all - there is a lot less money available for budgets nowadays, so the time for pre-production is a lot less, corners are being cut constantly, wages are going down, not up, and people are stressed because of understaffing.

Ultimately, I am always amazed at how make-up can transform someone and for me the best part of my job is that I am constantly learning.

TERI HAYDEN Actors' Agent Represents stars such as Gabriel Byrne and Brendan Gleeson ISET up my agency [The Agency] 26 years ago with enormous encouragement from Gabriel Byrne, who is a client and friend to this day.

One of the most important changes in the business is that in the early days, the studios did not come to Ireland, and unless the actor relocated to England or America, it was difficult to make the break into the international arena.

Nowadays the studios come to us. We deal with Fox, Paramount, HBO. . .

they come here seeking our people. So while we may not have a dynamic industry here, we are working with studios and casting directors and agents all over the world.

Consequently, actors' aspirations are completely different. They come out of college and they want to work in London, New York and Hollywood, and we can fulfil those ambitions.

When I started, there were only two acting agencies in Dublin; now there are at least 20. You can only take on so many people, but of course that changes when someone exceptional comes along.

So yes, as an agent I am always looking out for new talent.

For actors, it's not just about talent, it's also about having the right temperament. For some it is just too difficult to deal with rejection. The agent/actor relationship is about collaboration, and you have to be empathetic to what they are going through.

I know it can be difficult for some actors to get an agent, but this does not mean they cannot get auditioned; as Brendan Gleeson says - don't wait for work to come to you, go and make the work happen.

You need to have that selfbelief.

It can be very difficult for actors to make a living out of the profession. Thirty years ago they were paid more for feature films and television work than today and there is considerably less money to go around now. But having said that, when the breakthrough happens the financial rewards are tremendous.

To be a good agent you have to have tenacity and you have to be persuasive.

My job is to get my actors work, so it's no good being polite and sitting back; you have to go that extra mile. I love what I do. I think there is a cunning rumour always on the go that I am about to retire, but believe me, it's not true.