One of those enjoying the spring sunshine on the Croisette this year is Paisley’s popcorn producer, 35 year-old David Paul Baker, who quit the life of a bit-part actor in London to return to Scotland and found Lone Wolf productions.

Baker, whom we know well at Netribution, has added his comments on Britain’s film establishment to the debate currently heating up in Scotland.

With his sister and his mum on board the company and after getting through a lot of credit cards, Baker finally won the backing of Metrodome for his film, Pasty Faces, that debut production will receive a celebrity premiere in Glasgow next month before hitting the multiplexes of the nation on the 8^th of June.

Baker has won the backing of Metrodome again, and also of Angad Paul, the millionaire financier behind Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, for a second film, Artful Dodgers, which he will shoot in Glasgow rather than LA and Vegas, where Pasty Faces was filmed.

In Cannes, the Bakers planned to join up with Paul to dip their toes in the world of the film glitterati. "We went before, in 1998, when we were trying to find funding for Pasty Faces," says Baker, "But we didn’t really get to live the high life. Rather than playing with the stars, we had to travel there in a train carriage full of gypsies and sleep in a tent in a park. On the last night we got into the Austin Powers Shag Party, but we were so skint we couldn’t even afford a drink. Hopefully, we’ll be able to have a little more fun this time."

In some ways the story of Pasty Faces is a metaphor for the way Scotland’s film industry can sometimes be seen from abroad. The central characters - a couple of struggling Scottish actors - travel to the States to make it big in the movies.

"Sadly, they don’t really find their feet," says Baker. "Instead of being taken seriously, they’re forced to wear orange wigs and work in films like Braveheart 2. The Hollywood big-shots have this clichéd view of Scotland and so the poor boys have to get involved in a heist on a Las Vegas casino instead."

But while Lone Wolf Productions is firmly rooted in a solid Scottish location, Pasty Faces received little interest from the Scottish film community. Baker says they were put off by the film’s lack of "artistic credibility".

Sidelined by Scottish Screen and the Glasgow Film Fund, Baker had to look for funding elsewhere. "Pasty Faces is an unashamed popcorn flick," he continues, "so the establishment saw it as a waste of time. There is a lot of snobbery in Scottish film-making. For years, the Scots were dismissed as a bunch of rowdy drunks and so, now we’re making films that win awards, we’ve become obsessed with being cultural and artistic. Sadly, films that bring in awards are not necessarily those that bring in the profits. Consequently, many of the films invested in by the so-called establishment end up making a loss.

"The film industry in this country is extremely self-destructive," he adds. "I went round Scotland’s investment houses and none of them would give me a penny because none of them believe that a Scottish film can make money." But Baker was determined that his would. While his mum manned the phones and his sister raised funds, he spent two months working out a business plan for his film.

Drawing inspiration from Gary Oldman - who did Lost in Space to finance Nil By Mouth - and Steve Buscemi - who starred in mainstream flicks from Armageddon to Con Air to fund personal projects such as Trees Lounge - Baker sold Pasty Faces not as an arthouse film, but as a low-budget popcorn movie that would make a bottom line profit.

Baker is modest about his achievements so far, but warns that film makers need to find their own voices rather than following others.

"One young film-maker showed me a script he had written and it was really solid," he says. "But he was having trouble getting the funding from the establishment sources, so he’d rewritten it, trying to copy Lynne Ramsay. It just didn’t have his voice in it anymore. Young film-makers like that need to say to hell with sounding like the names that always get funding in Scotland, they need to start approaching businessmen and guys down the street with ideas that will sell.

"In 1988, there were only two films in production in the whole of the UK. Unless we stop going on about Trainspotting and start making a financially viable industry, that situation could happen again."

Scotland’s second city will play a starring role in Baker’s latest film due to start shooting later in the year. Baker promises that Artful Dodgers will be more than just another Scottish film about Scotland.

"Scottish films are too often about Scottish issues," he says. "They’re about the Highlands, or urban decay in Edinburgh and Glasgow. I wanted to get away from that. Artful Dodgers is set in Glasgow, but it is a Glasgow that doesn’t carry any of the baggage. There won’t be heaps of tartan and sweeping shots of the Highlands. I’m even working on developing unique accents for the characters that will prevent the audience from pigeon-holing them."

Pasty Faces is released in Scotland on 8 June.