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 Creatives are flocking to Cornwall; sun, sea and scriptwriters on annual migration have joined many permanent media professionals who having learned their craft elsewhere have returned across the Tamar and set up shop on their own. Today they will be pitching their scripts and projects to another group of media moguls. Channel 4, BBC Films and UK Film Council have all arrived on awayday tickets to hear the pitches - Dragon's Den style - and to watch "Cream of Cornish" - a selection of films recently made in the county.
Once Cornwall was seen as a relaxing holiday spot far removed from the bustle of the capital, a place where stressed-out city high-flyers can dream of a new life of sea and sun. But now digital technology, European investment and a demand for a life-work balance has created a boom in the creative industries.
Home-grown talent schooled in the county's new university, buoyed by returning media executives who have learnt their trade in exile, and those who have simply fallen for the region's laidback charm, have led to a flourishing of film and television production, the county's business leaders claim.
And today the emerging band of Cornish creatives are getting their chance to pitch at the highest level when Channel 4 plays host to the "Cream of Cornish Films". Alongside a showcase of short films made in the county in the past year, budding scriptwriters will present their ideas in a kind of Dragons' Den forum to BBC Films, the UK Film Council and Channel 4.
Pippa Best, project director for Cornwall Film, which was established by the Cornwall Enterprise development agency, said that among television and film executives outside the county there was a growing realisation that there were stories they were missing.
She said: "There's a whole rural perspective that hasn't been exploited. My background is working in screenplay development in London and when I came here it felt as though the stories were very fresh. They weren't things I was getting on my desk every day in Soho."
Full report published in THE INDEPENDENT
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