"At least 90% of Speed-Dating is short-ends from Da Vinci, " says Herbert. "With our budget you have to be creative."

"There was a budget?" asks Don Wycherley, with mock incredulity. He knows all about low-budget filming from Bachelor's Walk, but still couldn't resist playing an engagingly tough cop in Herbert's romantic comedy.

"It was so low-budget we didn't think we'd be able to afford a cast, " says Hugh O'Conor, around whom the plot revolves in his role as a despondent rich boy who tries speed-dating when his girlfriend (Flora Montgomery) dumps him.

True to guerrilla film-making principles, Herbert shot first and looked for funding afterwards. The Irish Film Board liked what they saw and provided support for post-production. Brendan McCaul offered distribution through Buena Vista. Last week, Speed-Dating rewarded them by winning the Jury Award for Best Feature Film at the Malibu International Film Festival.

What's interesting about Speed-Dating . . . apart from the fact that it cost less that the ice in a Tom Hanks cocktail in The Da Vinci Code . . . is that although it was shot in Dublin, it looks as if it could be set anywhere.

Unlike most Irish films, it doesn't play on its Irishness. "I don't think there's any reason why an Irish romantic comedy should be waving the flag, " say Herbert. "We disguised the Irish locations and made them non-specific, because the whole speed-dating thing is universal. We wanted to give it a universal feel."

So much so that Emma Choy, a nurse who helps O'Conor to find himself when he gets mugged and loses his memory, was asked not to hide her Australian accent. "I've been working in England so long, I had almost to relearn my Australian accent, " she says. "I found myself ringing up my brother about how to say some words."

O'Conor, a son of pianist John O'Conor and still only 31, but with 20 years of filming behind him . . . he made his debut in 1986 in Cal with Liam Neeson, then yet to become a star . . . feels that working with low budgets pushes film-makers to be inventive.

"You have to think laterally, " Herbert agrees.

"Every day something is likely to go wrong that on a bigger budget you could buy your way out of. You have to constantly think of another way of doing it."

'Speed-dating' opened last Friday