Film crew hire/Cornwall/Studios and set builds
Film studios in Cornwall. University studios, small spaces, converted barns, and the stages upcountry.
Screen Cornwall says it plainly: Cornwall has no film studios, and the nearest stages are in Bristol. What the county does have is Falmouth University’s film school studios at Penryn, hired by the half day; a small studio in Newlyn and a photography studio in Truro; and farm buildings and empty industrial units made into sets, as ITV’s Doc Martin did at Roscarrock Farm. Here’s what each offers, what it costs, and when a build goes up to The Bottle Yard instead, with the crew booked by our producers.
Studio 1 · Falmouth University
£750 a day
Green screen room · Falmouth
7.6 × 7.3 m
Newlyn Riverside Studios
5 × 6.3 m
Nearest sound stages
Bristol
On this page
01 Which kind of space
A university studio, a barn, or a room with character?
For product, interviews and keying
A university studio
Falmouth University’s film school studios at Penryn: Studio 1 with three studio cameras and a live gallery, a green screen room with an infinity cove, two more studios, and grading and dubbing suites for the edit.
For builds
A barn or an empty unit
Where Screen Cornwall sends productions that need a set: converted farm buildings, as Roscarrock Farm was for ITV’s Doc Martin, and empty industrial units made into pop-up studios.
For interviews
A room with character
An artist’s studio in St Ives, a workshop in Falmouth, a family home on the south coast: the Cornish rooms we’ve filmed in are below.
Worth asking first
For a one- or two-person interview in Cornwall, a studio is rarely the answer. The client’s own building, or a room with the sea outside the window, says something about where the company is that a green screen can’t. Our guide to filming in Cornwall: locations and permits is the place to start.
02 Falmouth University
Falmouth University’s film school studios
The School of Film & Television at Penryn hires its studios and post suites to outside productions, room only: no technician, and no online storage. 2026 rates, before VAT, checked October 2026.
| Space | What’s there | Half day | Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio 1 | 14 × 8 m on the hire list: three Sony HXC-FB80 studio cameras, a chromatte grey screen, a full lighting rig and a live gallery with a Tricaster | £375 | £750 |
| Studio 2 | 7.5 × 5.7 m: a multipurpose studio, and the support area for Studio 1 | £100 | £200 |
| Studio 3 | 8.5 × 7.5 m: a full lighting rig and daylight shooting | £200 | £400 |
| Green Screen Room | 7.6 × 7.3 m: an infinity cove, a 360-degree subject lighting rig and an Xsens mocap kit | £375 | £750 |
| Voice-over booth | A booth for recording a voice-over | £25 | £50 |
| Edit suites | Avid Media Composer, Adobe Creative Cloud and DaVinci Resolve | £250 | £500 |
| Colour grading suite | One of two, with 4K preview screens | £375 | £750 |
| Dubbing theatre | 25 seats and an Avid S6 desk | £450 | £900 |
Book through the film school with at least 24 hours’ notice. First-time studio users get a safety introduction, your own electrical kit must be PAT tested, and a smoke machine needs the Technical Facilities Manager’s approval first, which may mean a staffing charge. ID, proof of address and your public liability documents come first, and payment is in full.
Falmouth’s Institute of Photography has eight more studios. Studios 1 to 4 are about 8 × 8 m, at £150 a day or £100 for a five-hour half day, with infinity coving in 1 and 2; Studio 5 is 5.8 × 5 m at £90 a day; and Studios 6 to 8, on the Kernick Industrial Estate, run from 6 × 6 m to 22 × 9 m, with a 6 × 9 × 4 m corner cove and a ski-slope cove, from £300 a day with a technician and a roller door, in term time only (2024 list, checked October 2026). Book at least two working days ahead.
For rehearsal or movement work, Falmouth’s AMATA has 11 performance and rehearsal studios and 700 m² of sprung floor, on three working days’ notice.
03 Small studios
Small studios and pop-up spaces
Outside Falmouth, Cornwall’s studios are small, and the bigger sets go into buildings that were something else first. Checked October 2026.
Newlyn · St Peter’s Hall, The Coombe, TR18 5HT
Newlyn Riverside Studios
The Cornish Camera Co.’s studio: a white room with a stone wall, a pine floor and rooflights, 5.03 m wide, 6.3 m long and 4.8 m high, with three 13A double sockets and a 32A socket. Hired by the day, the week or for short projects.
Truro
Cornwall Photo Studios
A fully equipped photography studio in Truro, hired on its own or with its photographer.
Redruth · West Park
Krowji
Cornwall’s largest creative hub: 135 studios and offices across five buildings, let as workspaces to artists and makers, with rooms to hire for meetings and creative workshops. Screen Cornwall’s Film Office is on the same site.
Across the county
Converted barns and empty units
Screen Cornwall’s answer to the studio question: converted farm buildings, as Roscarrock Farm was for ITV’s Doc Martin, and unused industrial buildings made into pop-up studios. Its Film Office keeps a locations database and introduces productions to landowners.
04 Our bookings
Cornish rooms we’ve filmed in
Three rooms from our own Cornish productions, and our own office in Newquay, each labelled with where it was. Here, the location is often the set.
Our work · Porthmeor Studios, St Ives · autumn 2022
Tate St Ives: Barbara Hepworth
Our first Tate commission, a film for Tate Members on Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life, with interviews at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives and drone shots over Goonhilly.
Our work · Engineered Arts, Falmouth · August 2024
Bank for International Settlements × Engineered Arts
A 16-minute interview with Ameca, the humanoid robot, and her makers, filmed at Engineered Arts in Falmouth, with the Head of the BIS Innovation Hub London Centre asking the questions, plus two short cuts for the Innovation Hub’s conference.
Our work · Talland Bay, Hessenford and Lostwithiel · August 2025
Whistlefish’s first TV ad
Shot in a single hero home and on the coast nearby: two professional leads beside real families, a key make-up artist we booked and a chaperone for the children, then Clearcast and delivery to ITV in the West and Sky AdSmart.
Our Newquay office · 2025
A voice-over for Tate St Ives
For Yours To, our 45-second destination film for Tate St Ives, we recorded the voice-over at our Newquay office. When a job needs a booth, Falmouth’s film school hires one at £50 a day.
05 Stages
The nearest stages: The Bottle Yard, Bristol
When a build needs a sound stage, it goes up to Bristol. From The Bottle Yard’s own site, checked October 2026.
The Bottle Yard Studios in Hengrove, south Bristol, calls itself the largest film and TV studio in the South West: 11 BAFTA albert-accredited stages across two sites, about 154,000 sq ft of shooting space, floors of up to 22,000 sq ft and heights of up to 34 ft, a 5,000 sq ft green screen studio and 35,000 sq ft of production offices. TBY1 is the original seven-acre site on Whitchurch Lane; TBY2, a £12m conversion on Hawkfield Way that opened in 2022, adds three soundproofed stages of 7,000 to 20,000 sq ft. It’s a Bristol City Council initiative.
A build there comes with neighbours who make things. The Bottle Yard’s tenants include Set Smith for set building, Bristol Costume Services, Real SFX for special effects, Figure Nine for rope rigging, cable dollies and filming platforms, Grip Services, and Films at 59 for kit.
On a story that’s Cornish on screen and partly on a stage, the location days and the stage days are quoted separately, each with its own travel and hotels. More in our guide to Bristol’s studios.
06 Set builds
Set builds for Cornish shoots
A set build runs in four stages: design, construction, dressing and strike. The art director designs it, set builders and scenic painters make it, the props team dresses it, and the same people take it down and clear the space.
We couldn’t find a scenic workshop in Cornwall with a live site in October 2026. The nearest we could confirm are in Bristol: Set Smith at The Bottle Yard, which takes on all aspects of set building, and Bristol Old Vic’s Scenic Workshop, which fabricates in timber and metal at any scale for outside clients. Builders come down with the build, with the travel and hotels on the quote before anything is booked.
On location, the land sets the rules. On Cornwall Council land, FilmApp’s terms allow no vehicles on the property without specific permission, residents and the parish or town council are told before the licence period starts (five days ahead on FilmApp’s terms, seven on the council’s older code), and emergency vehicle access stays open at all times. On a Site of Special Scientific Interest, anything that could damage the site goes through the landowner to Natural England, which aims to decide within 28 working days and can take up to four months (checked October 2026). On the Lizard for Cohere, nothing could be pegged or driven into the ground, so every gazebo was weighted.
Through us, an art director is £675–878 a day and a set builder £341–512, before the 10% booking fee and 2% insurance. The rest of the art department is on our props and wardrobe guide.
07 Costs
What a studio day includes, and what costs extra
The rate
Falmouth publishes its rates: Studio 1 or the green screen room £750 a day, Studio 3 £400, Studio 2 £200, and the Institute of Photography’s studios from £90 (checked October 2026). The studios in Newlyn and Truro quote on request.
What’s in the day
Falmouth’s film school rooms are room only, with no technician; the Institute of Photography’s Kernick studios come with one. Ask what a quote includes before comparing.
Set-up and strike
Usually extra, and on a build they can be most of the booking. In a barn or an empty unit, the rig and the blackout are part of the build. Ask for build and strike days priced on their own.
Notice
24 hours at Falmouth’s film school, two working days at the Institute of Photography, three at AMATA.
Power
Check it against the lighting plan. Newlyn Riverside Studios lists three 13A doubles and one 32A socket. In a barn, it’s a silent generator if the site allows one, or battery power: our kit guide lists both.
Getting there
Penryn is by Falmouth, Newlyn at the far west end, Truro in the middle. Crew from upcountry need hotels, on the quote before anything is booked: our logistics guide covers the roads, the trains and the hotels.
Insurance
Every studio wants a public liability certificate; Falmouth wants it before you collect. On a crew hire it’s yours, as producer of record; on a full production it’s ours, naming the studio.
Need a studio for a Cornish shoot?
Send the dates, the set-up and how many people. We’ll come back with the right space, in Cornwall or upcountry, the build and the crew, priced line by line. Or call us on 07412 543822.
Quick contact form
08 Questions
Film studios in Cornwall: questions
Are there film studios in Cornwall?
Not sound stages. Screen Cornwall says Cornwall has no film studios, and that the nearest are in Bristol. What the county has: Falmouth University’s film school studios at Penryn, hired by the half day; the Institute of Photography’s eight studios; small studios in Newlyn and Truro; and converted farm buildings and empty industrial units, as Doc Martin used at Roscarrock Farm.
How much does it cost to hire a studio in Cornwall?
Falmouth’s film school charges £375 a half day or £750 a day for Studio 1 or its green screen room, £400 a day for Studio 3 and £200 for Studio 2, room only and before VAT; the Institute of Photography’s studios start at £90 a day (checked October 2026). Newlyn Riverside Studios and Cornwall Photo Studios quote on request.
Where can I find a green screen or infinity cove in Cornwall?
Falmouth’s Green Screen Room at Penryn has an infinity cove, a 360-degree subject lighting rig and an Xsens mocap kit, at £750 a day. The Institute of Photography’s Studios 1 and 2 have infinity coving, and its Kernick studios a corner cove and a ski-slope cove. For a pop-up, The Cornish Camera Co. hires chroma key screens.
Where did Doc Martin film in Cornwall?
Port Isaac was Port Wenn, Doc Martin’s village, for 18 years, and Screen Cornwall says Roscarrock Farm was converted for the show, in place of a studio (checked October 2026).
What’s the nearest sound stage to Cornwall?
The Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol: 11 stages across two sites and about 154,000 sq ft of shooting space, the largest film and TV studio in the South West by its own account, with set builders, costume and special effects among its tenants.
Can you build a set for a Cornish shoot?
Yes, through us: an art director designs it, set builders make it in a workshop or on site, and the same team strikes it. We couldn’t find a scenic workshop in Cornwall, so builders come down from Bristol or London, with the travel on the quote.
Can you book the studio for us?
Yes, on the same quote as the crew. We check what’s free for your dates, and on a crew hire the studio goes on at the same 10% booking fee and 2% insurance as everything else we book. We’re a crew agency with 2,800+ freelance crew on our books across the UK, 30+ of them in Cornwall, so we can scale a crew from one camera operator on a beach to a full unit on a clifftop. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours.
Studio or location for an interview in Cornwall?
Often a location. The client’s own building, an artist’s studio or a house by the sea gives the film a sense of place a green screen can’t, as Engineered Arts did for our Ameca interview in Falmouth. A studio wins for product, keyed work and anything that needs a quiet, controlled room.
Around the crew
More for Cornwall shoots
01
Kit rental
The Cornish Camera Co., Falmouth University’s stores, the crew’s own kit, and what comes down from Bristol.
02
Locations and permits
Cornwall Council, the National Trust, Natural England, the Duchy, the harbours and the drone rules.
04
Props and wardrobe
Falmouth’s wardrobe store, props from upcountry, replica weapons, stylists and HMU.
05
Logistics
The A30, the sleeper, Newquay airport, narrow lanes, tides, weather days and crew hotels.
