Working hypotheses...

I watched Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy on TG4 last night. It's one of the most Irish of films in front of the camera, and perhaps only slightly less so (at HOD level) behind the camera.

From time to time I paused the credits as they rolled, noting the Irish crew members established by then in their careers. Then there were the once familiar names that have become less familiar, and those others that have in the intervening years risen to the top of their particular craft. I have to say there were few enough of the latter.

It occurred to me then that there's a very basic but useful piece of research to be done by going through the credits for features and major TV drama produced in Ireland from 1993 to, say, 2003, and doing a 'where are they now?' exercise.

How many are still working in the business in Ireland? How many are still working in the business but not in, or only occasionally in Ireland? How many are no longer working in the business, and why?

It would give us a reasonable overview of the reality of career development in the 'industry', and the levels of attrition due to the freelance/temporary nature of the employment.

I think the methodology would be no less credible than that used in other employment research in the sector. There have been few longitudinal studies, that I am aware of, and survey focus has usually been quite diffuse.

It might confirm what one hears anecdotally, that for all the funding that has been poured into sector since 1993 - somewhat over €1.3bn - it would seem that comparatively few permanent jobs or upper-grade crew careers have been established here in Ireland.

For example, it seems true that there are more Irish DOPs now than ever there used to be, but how many working days are there for DOPs in Ireland each year, and how many of the jobs are filled by non-Irish DOPs since non-Irish directors filming projects part-financed in Ireland often, if not always, use their regular DOP.

Irish DOPs very often work, or may be based outside Ireland - like Brendan Galvin (Immortals), Seamus McGarvey (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and Robbie Ryan (Wuthering Heights)*, or James Mather who's co-directing Lock Out for Luc Besson's Europa Corp.

So, the amount of work in Ireland in any given year, and the arc of individual careers do not necessarily correlate. And if one were to look at other heads of department the picture might not appear quite so positive.

To reiterate the questions I posed earlier - of the Irish crew members working in Ireland between 1993 and 2003, how many are still working in the business in Ireland? How many are still working in the business but not in, or only occasionally in Ireland? And how many are no longer working in the business, and why?

The answers might give us a more realistic basis for discussions about employment in the sector on programmes like this one (about 20 minutes in) back in February.

*Edit - I should have noted that Wuthering Heights was offered a €330,000 production loan by the IFB under the Fiction Creative Co-production heading on November 24, 2009. The film was shot in Yorkshire. The Irish co-producer is Fantastic Films.