Pasarela: A New Light on Spain’s Rental Market
The Valencia-based lighting and studio rental company, which has worked on productions including ‘Rosa’s Wedding’, ‘Paraíso’ and ‘Vota Juan’, is entering a new stage with the opening of a facility in Madrid. We spoke with Managing Director Jorge Acosta and Roberto Sacristán, who joins Pasarela bringing extensive industry experience, about an expansion strategy aimed at establishing the company as a lighting rental provider with a presence in Spain’s main audiovisual production hubs.
Pasarela has been serving the audiovisual industry from Valencia for more than 30 years. Jorge, when did you take over the company and decide that the time had come to turn a business with a strong regional presence into a company operating nationwide?
Jorge Acosta: “I joined Pasarela’s management team after the closure of RTVV, at a time when the Valencian audiovisual industry was undergoing major change. My first stage focused on redefining the company’s direction. We had a warehouse largely geared towards events, but we also had cinematic lighting equipment, and I saw a clear opportunity there to focus on fiction and commercials.
Opening Pasarela in Madrid is a natural step in that process and reflects our ambition to continue growing.”
What changes for Pasarela now that you have a physical base in Madrid?
Jorge: “Above all, it allows us to be closer to where a significant part of audiovisual production is concentrated and to respond much more quickly to the needs of shoots throughout Spain.”
Roberto, your arrival is closely linked to this new stage. What potential did you see in Pasarela to compete in the national market?
Roberto Sacristán: “More than 25 years running rental companies and serving as president of ALÍA since its foundation have given me a broad perspective on the industry. Once I got to know Jorge’s project in depth, I realised there was a genuine opportunity to build something with national reach.
I saw a company with very solid foundations, investment capacity, ambition and a clear vision for growth, and that is what encouraged me to join.”
Jorge: “I consider myself very fortunate that Roberto has joined the project. He has an enormous knowledge of the business, and his arrival has allowed us to refocus our investment so that we can confidently handle projects of any scale.”
The lighting market has changed enormously. How important is feedback from cinematographers and gaffers when you expand your equipment inventory?
Roberto: “For us, it is essential to maintain constant contact with the people working on set every day. DOPs, gaffers and lighting technicians are the people who best understand the real needs of a shoot.
Their feedback guides our investment decisions and allows us to build an inventory that responds to what productions actually require.
We also believe strongly in staying close to the generations that will shape the future of the industry. That is why we sponsor a student on ECAM’s Master’s Degree in Cinematography.”
Your catalogue combines large traditional lighting fixtures with the latest LED technology. What changes are you seeing in the demands of lighting crews?
Roberto: “The trend is increasingly towards system integration: more advanced wireless control, more agile workflows and more precise lighting management. But one thing does not change: technology must always serve creativity and the needs of the cinematographer and their crew.
Our job is to listen to professionals and bring in the tools that help them work better. All of this also needs to move towards greater energy efficiency and sustainability.”
One of Pasarela’s distinctive features is your 9,000 m² facility in Valencia, which houses a large lighting warehouse as well as studios, production facilities and dubbing, editing and sound services.
Jorge: “I have always imagined Pasarela Valencia as an assembly line. You can walk into the offices at one end of the building and come out with a finished master at the other. In those cases, our role is to support productions at any point in the production process.”
The Valencian Community is trying to attract more shoots. From your perspective, what does the region have going for it as an audiovisual hub, and what is still needed to attract more large-scale productions?
Jorge: “The Valencian Community’s production grants are an interesting tool for attracting shoots. However, the budget available is not very competitive when compared with the tax incentives offered by the Basque Country, Navarre and the Canary Islands.
If those incentives were improved, Ciudad de la Luz in Alicante and Pasarela’s studios in Valencia would have a clear advantage over infrastructure in other regions, and it would be possible to build an ecosystem of technicians and companies, which is essential in order to operate on a large scale.”
“Our intention is to demonstrate, production by production, that Pasarela is a solid and reliable alternative within the Spanish rental market.”
On a major production, the rental price is only one part of the equation. Where do you want Pasarela to position itself in terms of service?
Roberto: “Our guiding principle is to put the production’s peace of mind at the centre of everything we do: availability, preparation, logistics and an immediate capacity to respond.
It is not simply about having the equipment. The crew needs to know that whenever a need or a problem arises during the shoot, Pasarela will respond.”
Spain’s rental market is already occupied by well-established companies. Where do you believe there is room for Pasarela?
Roberto: “We know we are entering a market with established competitors, some of which are backed by investment funds.
Our growth is based on a long-term industrial project founded on investment, in-depth knowledge of the industry, specialisation and a firm commitment to fiction and commercials.
Our intention is to demonstrate, production by production, that Pasarela is a solid and reliable alternative within the Spanish rental market.”
There is also a trend towards companies offering both camera and lighting equipment rental. Have you considered providing this kind of turnkey service to your clients?
Jorge: “Apart from the fact that Pasarela has studios in Valencia and a sound post-production and dubbing department, no. We believe that excellence can only be achieved through specialisation, and we can combine that more effectively through agreements with other suppliers that specialise in specific areas.”
If we speak again in three or four years’ time, what will Pasarela look like?
Roberto: “I am convinced that Pasarela has all the ingredients to become one of Spain’s leading lighting rental companies.
Valencia will remain our home and our starting point, where we have infrastructure that truly sets us apart, but our intention is to continue expanding our presence across the country’s main production hubs, and Madrid has been the first step.
We want to build a nationwide rental company with different bases, capable of supporting productions wherever they shoot and offering the same reliability, specialisation, personal service and responsiveness at every location.”
