Training to become a fairly major player in the film industry doesn't usually begin with a 20-year career at the Manitoba Hydro generating station, but for 52-year-old Dave Mahoney, his life story might be perfect for the big screen itself one day.

Mahoney, a lifelong Brandonite, has been spending the vast majority of his time in Winnipeg for the past 14 or 15 years since he became immersed in the thriving Manitoba film industry. As one of only three film production managers in the province, Mahoney has been responsible for 30 or 40 films and has worked alongside (or above) some of the biggest names in show business.

Asked to 'drop a few names,' Mahoney — back in Brandon for a week or so with his family over the Christmas holidays — says he has been proud to work with the likes of Diane Keating, Margo Kidder, Joyce DeWitt, Ann Margret, Shirley Douglas, Keifer Sutherland, James Brolin, Christopher Plummer, George Lopez, Dan Ackroyd, Robert Wagner, Randy Quaid, Brian Dennehy and Ed Asner. And more.

"I can't say I talk to them regularly, but they're all good friends," he said.

Until the mid-90s, Mahoney was an engineer at the Manitoba Hydro generating station east of the city. He said he had a real interest in video and film and when video exploded into mainstream society in the 80s, Mahoney became more involved. "One thing led to another and in 1987, I spent my first day on a film set. I was still working at Hydro at the time." The hobby was transforming into a career.

His big break came in 1992, when For the Moment, a feature film starring Russell Crowe, was shot in and around Brandon. The producer was Kim Johnston, a friend of Mahoney's. "He took a huge gamble on me — huge," said Mahoney. "But he wanted someone (as production manager) who knew the city. He knew I had the goods to deliver."

A production manager, says Mahoney, gets the film made. A producer hires the production manager. "We're the producer's foreman, so to speak," said Mahoney. "We're the guy with the blueprints under his arm. We spend the producer's money as wisely as possible and produce the film for him." In Mahoney's case, as much as $14 million for a single movie. "I'm often pushing a half a million dollars in payroll every six days."

For the Moment was a $3.5 million production and while Mahoney "had shot films, I'd never done a feature film. But Kim knew I was an up-and-comer in the industry. For the Moment was the pivotal film for me. For the next four years, I had the drive in me to go into it full-time."

The drive. Literally. Every Sunday night, Mahoney gives a goodbye kiss to Janice, his wife of 30 years, and hits the highway to Winnipeg, returning most Friday nights, except when production pressures call for weekend work.

"Manitoba has been a film hotspot for 10 years or so," said Mahoney. Hollywood has fallen in love with tax credits offered by the Manitoba government "and it's been a real catalyst for producers," he said.

So what exactly does a line producer, or production manager like Mahoney do?

While the producer usually hires the actors, the production manager deals with agents and unions to handle the negotiations. In Mahoney's case, he deals with five major unions, sets up the accounting for the movie, hires dozens of specialists, establishes a schedule and "delivers the film on time." The only thing he doesn't do is the editing. He has anywhere from 20 to 30 departments — special effects, props, etc. — answering to him.

He said he is "paid well" for his tasks and usually receives the first of the rolling credits at the back end of the film.

"We're guns for hire," he said. "We interview for producers. I might do two to three films a year, and work seven to nine months."

The three to five months every year when he's not actually managing a film production is time to "rest and recuperate," he said. "The days are pretty long — 13- or 14 hour-days are not unusual. It's a pretty gruelling profession, a lot of stress, long hours."

In 1996, once he had given up his 20-year career at Manitoba Hydro and become a full-time production manager, Mahoney's first major film was The Avro Arrow. "It was a big gamble," he said. "My (twin) girls (Erin, now a Brandon police officer, and Kayla Irwin, who has made Dave and Janice grandparents) were nine years old. But I knew I could do it."

One of his most recent films was the life story of Don Cherry — called 'Keep Your Head Up, Kid' — some of which was filmed last summer at the Keystone Centre. It will be a two-part mini series for CBC to be shown on back-to-back Sundays sometime in the next couple of months.

One of his most memorable moments came during the shooting of a 2003 movie On Thin Ice, starring Diane Keaton, who was executive producer and main actress in the film. "I was signing her cheques, a kid from Green Acres in Brandon," he says with a touch of astonishment in his voice. "In her role as an actress, she actually phoned me and asked my permission to go to New York for the weekend. That was a pretty incredible moment for me. She understood the film hierarchy, the protocol . . . that she would give me the respect. For me, it was a huge insurance thing. I had to notify my broker, and ultimately, I said, 'Diane, you don't have to ask me' and she said, 'Yes, I do.' "

During the making of a disaster movie, Mahoney said "one day I realized I had way too much control of the city of Winnipeg. I had closed off 12 square blocks of The Exchange district." He had rented a jet aircraft engine and placed it on a pedestal to create hurricane winds. Staff had placed a Suzuki Samurai and a mound of garbage in front of the jet engine and when the director yelled 'action,' the off-road vehicle was blown 75 feet into the air and the trash flew in hurricane-like force to distant points. "I had supper with (then mayor) Glen Murray a week later and he said they were still picking up my trash at McPhillips and Inkster."

Power? How about having a bigwig at the Winnipeg Airport ask Mahoney if he would like to have all Air Canada arrivals diverted to the WestJet area so filming of the Avro Arrow could carry on uninterrupted?

What a life it has been, says Mahoney. Doing what he loves. Getting paid well to do it. Hobnobbing with the stars. He still shakes his head sometimes at the unlikelihood of a student from Green Acres, McLaren, Harrison (High) and Crocus Plains in Brandon making sure that Russell Crowe is comfortable in a home on McDonald Avenue or that he has written the proper number of zeroes on a payroll cheque to Diane Keaton.

That's stuff of which movies are made.