Cornwall's media industry speaks out
Read on for local media practitioners' thoughts on how to grow a sustainable media industry in Cornwall.Earlier this year, Cornwall Media Focus' forum at Tremough was attended by over 70 local media freelancers and businesses. After a presentation on the new Cornwall Film project (see FAQs on Cornwall Film’s website for a summary of this event) participants discussed the main barriers to developing a sustainable media industry in Cornwall and how we might all work towards overcoming these.
Core areas that arose most often in discussion were:
• The need for producers
• The need to network
• The need to collaborate, professionalise, and work together to raise our profiles
• The need for support and information to help access markets and explore alternative distribution routes
• The need to support and nurture new talent
What are the perceived barriers to sustainability?
A lack of sources of funding – including match funding for those hoping to apply to the new Cornwall Film project. There is competition for the limited funds that are available. This is a national problem, but can be particularly hard when companies in Cornwall aren’t taken seriously because they aren’t based in London.
It can be hard to work at such a distance from the centre of the industry. Although we develop great talent at the colleges here, we still suffer from a brain drain due to a lack of viable work opportunities in media – film-makers and new talent has to leave to find work. There isn’t significant capacity to keep them here. The loss of trade unions also makes crew and freelancers more vulnerable generally – being a member of a union is often seen as a disadvantage in film.
Although there are more opportunities with satellite, cable and digital channels, commissioning of regional productions at BBC/ITV level is dropping. Regional BBC/ITV are busy cutting staff, thus increasing local freelance pool, while making even fewer local commissions.
It has been hard to find good technicians in Cornwall other than by word of mouth contact. There is a hidden resource of technicians in Cornwall that don’t yet engage with the local sector – they live here but work elsewhere.
A lack of direct and personal relationships with commissioners makes it hard to get Cornish projects out to their potential audiences. A lack of information and knowledge about the possible markets is a contributing factor. There is a lack of knowledge about legal and insurance issues, which means that companies can sometimes get ripped off and not have the capacity to fight back.
Media practitioners in Cornwall tend to be one man bands and can lack producer knowhow and business development skills. There aren’t enough producers or line producers in Cornwall. There is a lot of low budget production in Cornwall, but people need to be properly paid.
It’s difficult to find a bridge from work experience into professional employment. There are also difficulties in moving from small level production to intermediate level - you need to develop a track record of handling £0.5 million projects before any funders will trust you with that level of project – a catch 22 situation.
The current strength of the pound means that it costs too much to come to UK, let alone Cornwall. The external perception (particularly in terms of available accommodation) is that it’s expensive to shoot in the region. Producers don’t think there are enough experienced local crew, so bring in lots of crew from elsewhere, increasing their costs. There is a negative perception of the media industry in Cornwall after the closure of the South West Film Studios – the sector feels undermined. In addition, there is a sense that Cornwall is seen as the home of pasties and tourism not business.
What are the possible routes to overcoming these barriers?
We need to use Cornwall Media Focus to get access to commissioners – encouraging them to come to Cornwall and explain what they are looking for. And to organisations like the UK Film Council. We should ensure that networking sessions are followed up by notes, contact details, and potentially second visits from guest speakers.
We should use Cornwall Media Focus to share information about national and international markets; to create opportunities to network together and collaborate. There is a need for centralisation of information on funding and sources of possible match funding for the Cornwall Film project, contacts, networks and what commissioners are looking for. The Cornwall Film and Cornwall Media Focus websites could be used to distribute this kind of information.
We should ensure that companies know about and use information resources like the channels’ websites and events pitched by broadcasters at producers. Cornwall Media Focus could organise surgeries to give free legal advice.
We want to work together to find new routes to distributing our work in addition to the traditional channels. The Cornwall Film Festival could become more of a marketplace to showcase and market Cornish work. Could Cornwall Film support Cornwall in general having more of a presence at trade fairs and markets? We need to market ourselves better and more coherently.
It might be helpful to define the strengths specific to Cornwall – can we find a key focus like Bristol has wildlife programming? We need to look at what our strengths are and how we can best work together to sell this. What is unique about Cornwall and the Cornish identity and how can we explore this further?
We need to work towards changing perceptions about Cornwall. Could Cornwall Film or another organisation take a role in actively promoting the work of Cornish film-makers – finding high level advocates to promote our industry. Could Cornwall Film act as an ‘agent’ for Cornish work, or find someone else to do this – would mentors potentially fit this role? Might practitioners come together to open a London office to raise the profile of Cornwall as a media centre? And to pro-actively promote the region’s strengths – such as its locations. Is there any way of exploring a Cornwall Film bus to London – or lobbying to improve the transport infrastructure?
We need to find ways to exploit the digital market. For example, developing audiences in new ways and exploring a new platform for Cornish work on the internet – recent work on Cornwallweb.tv was described as a possible model for this.
To turn the studios into a good news story, could the industry as a whole find a way to make use of the studios collectively? Look at how successful Zentropa became with their studio complex in Denmark.
We need to collaborate. To look for production partners with the relevant experience in order to make stronger projects, and to consider making joint applications to the fund. It might be possible to exchange skills – e.g. someone with AVID experience could train another practitioner on this in return for skills they may have. South West Screen should be encouraged in forging greater links with Cornwall.
We need to professionalise. To take the business side of working in media more seriously. To raise the quality of work, we could explore ways of giving informed critiques on each other’s work. To make improvements in terms of production skills and craft, eg composition of shots, we need to create more work opportunities and on the job training; and increase access to industry quality equipment. It is hoped that Cornwall Film’s production fund will incentivise inward investors to use local crew in a range of roles, Heads of Department as well as entry level roles.
Training in Business Skills would also be useful – advice on getting a loan, setting up a Limited Company, mentoring – Business Link was suggested as another source of this type of support. Generally, the areas in which Cornish freelancers and businesses need more skills are in business development, finance, marketing and distribution. To develop a sustainable industry, we need to develop a more entrepreneurial culture and to think commercially.
We need to find a balance between creativity and business. The fact that many businesses are artist-led can be a strength as well as a barrier – it means there are great creative ideas with a commercial value, particularly at the cutting edge of new media. Practitioners with these strengths need to be paired with companies with business expertise, or to learn this for themselves.
Cornwall Film may be able to offer mentoring opportunities to aid the acquisition of these skills. However, there was also a fear that any Executive Producer or funder might take too much creative and editorial control.
Cornwall Film should create opportunities for new talent that will keep them in the region. Scottish Screen’s Tartan Shorts was highlighted as an example of a region’s successful talent development scheme – short films are perceived as a good way to develop talent. Cornwall Film needs to create opportunities for a diverse range of experienced crew and ensure we aren’t only generating low paid positions and entry roles for runners. We need a TV series in Cornwall so that people can take longer term roles and progress their careers.
Cornwall Film could look at supporting companies to develop a slate of projects rather than just one – although funds are of course limited, this would allow for more long term sustainability. Cornwall Film should also offer funding as ‘first in’ money, in order to allow producers to find further funding from elsewhere.
If you have any thoughts on the above that you would like to share with Cornwall Film and Cornwall Media Focus, then we would like to hear from you. Email Miranda or Pippa at office@cornwallfilm.com
