Last week, Stage Fifty, a British sound stage and film production company based in Wokingham in the UK, announced a strategic partnership with Universal Production Services, as part of the company´s planned expansion in Spain.
As part of the expansion, the company is actively seeking locations in the Comunitat Valenciana and the Region of Murcia. In addition, it must be taken into account that Stage Fitty is one of the six offers that have been presented to manage the Ciudad de la Luz studios, located in Alicante.
Through this collaboration, Universal Production Services becomes the exclusive supplier of lighting and equipment for all Stage Fifty studios in the United Kingdom and Europe, as reported by the British corporation in a statement.
Currently, Stage Fifty is exploring growth opportunities in several European locations and is therefore also looking at Spain to carry out its expansion. ” The company seeks new opportunities and structures incentives for its staff in order to attract international productions to the communities of Valencia and Murcia,” according to a statement detailing the expansion plans.
In that expansion plan, Stage Fifty plans to offer strategic European locations faster development opportunities by building additional sound stages and taking the opportunity to attract domestic and international production investments. Its main business unit is essential production services, including lighting, rigging, virtual production and specialised audiovisual installations.
And hence its alliance with Universal Production Services, which allows Stage Fifty to “strengthen its presence and consolidate its position as a leading studio operator in the European film and television industry, where Spain occupies a prominent place, according to the multinational.”
Meanwhile, the Alicante studios of Ciudad de la Luz, opened in 2005 to turn the Valencian Community into an industrial power of the seventh art, closed in 2012 by European order after a complaint of unfair competition from Pinewood, converted into Digital District between 2018 and the present, and reopened after Brussels lifted the sanction in 2022, seek to catch up.
Although they have already hosted the first national and international filming in recent months (before the screenwriters’ strike), the audiovisual complex facilities have hardly hosted any activity for years, and although they have been maintained and conserved by the Society’s budget to Digital Transformation (previously, Thematic Projects), the scenario is now very different. Thus, the Consell is not only looking for a management team to relaunch the studies, but also a maintenance company that has the studies in perfect condition.
The contract, which was tendered for 1.8 million (taxes included) for one year with an option to extend, is entering its final stretch. After organising a visit to the complex with those interested in the bid, last August, the Consell closed the period for receiving offers at the beginning of September. The idea was to open the escrows last month, but the moment was finally postponed until this week, when the first envelope has been opened. In a few days, on November 15, the moment of truth will arrive, when the technical offers of the candidates will be revealed.
To this day, the maintenance of Ciudad de la Luz continues to be carried out by the services company Audeca, from the Elecnor Group, which has been awarded the latest contracts to take charge of the studies. But of course, then it was about ensuring that closed sets did not collapse, and now the objective is different: to have them ready to accommodate the maximum possible activity. As an example, the budget for the 2019 award was just over half a million euro annually, a third of what has been budgeted now.
The maintenance tasks concern “six filming sets, three production support buildings, a warehouse and workshop building, urbanisation and entrances to the audiovisual complex, an access control building, outdoor filming areas (backlot) 1 and 2, a filming and brine pumping pit and two warehouses. All this, on a plot of 80 hectares, according to the file.
It is not the only million-dollar contract that Ciudad de la Luz has put out to tender to be prepared for the long-awaited avalanche of filming: it has also been contracted (last August) to supply one year to Iberdrola Clients, for 3.5 million of euro, based on the Framework Agreement 3/20CC for Centralized Contracting of the Supply of Electric Energy.
The Generalitat continues with the competition to provide the complex with professional management, a five-year contract for which Stage Fifty, as mentioned, are in the running, along with Buftea Studios, Mediapro, Nu Boyana, MBS Group and Secuoya. The resolution should occur in December to put the complex into operation at full capacity.
