This is the first of a new series on the Gelatin blog — The Onset. Short interviews with the people who actually make production sets work: digital techs, photographers, producers and everyone around them, like the rental companies who keep a van full of gear running.
We're starting with someone who sees the industry from a slightly different angle than most.
Gareth Hall runs Palma Equipment Rental — photo, video, stylist, production and events equipment, plus van hire and full-service delivery across Mallorca. Rental is its own niche within the niche. Gareth's route there went through set building, lighting, and film work in South Africa before he ended up opening rental operations in Mallorca, Ibiza and Paris, eventually landing as co-owner of his own boutique company in Palma. It's a business built on the same practical, on-set knowledge as any digital tech's — just applied to keeping a van full of gear running instead of a single camera.
1. How did you get to where you are? Rental is its own niche within a niche.
Operating a photographic rental business is really a by-product of my true passion, which is film, and a desire to learn everything about it.
I started out as a PA in studios in London, then moved through set building and into lighting. I worked with some really knowledgeable people and was surrounded daily by master photographers and their assistants. I grilled everyone for knowledge. After that I worked in film in South Africa. At some point, after returning to London, I realised I'd accumulated enough practical knowledge that I actually had the answers to a lot of the questions photographers were asking.
I was then given the opportunity to open new rental companies in Mallorca, Ibiza and Paris, and eventually found myself becoming the co-owner of my own boutique rental company in Palma.
The business grew organically from there. I'd already spent years around photography and film production, so I understood both the creative side of a shoot and the practical problems happening behind the scenes.
Equipment rental sits somewhere between technical knowledge, logistics and problem-solving. You need to understand what the photographer is trying to achieve, but you also need to know whether everything will fit in the van, survive a day on location and come back working.
It's a niche business, but being specialised is precisely what makes it work.
2. Where do you see the industry going? (Photography)
AI will undoubtedly change certain areas of commercial photography, particularly straightforward product, catalogue and e-commerce work. But I think talent and human collaboration will continue to dominate the more creative areas of editorial and campaign photography.
I suspect some of the biggest changes will happen on the post-production side rather than on set. Cameras are already incredibly capable. We’ve just witnesses the LED lighting revolution. The interesting question is what happens to the image after it's been captured, and how much of that process will become automated or AI-assisted.
3. An on-set (or on-the-job) anecdote worth sharing.
I once destroyed an entire studio — and the restaurant underneath it — with a faulty shower set.
A Friday night, and I’d built a working shower for a shoot and something failed spectacularly. Water went through the studio floor and straight into the packed restaurant below. It was one of those moments…
The upside was that the insurance paid out and the studio ended up replacing the entire complex with beautiful solid wood floors.
4. What's changed drastically since you started?
Analogue to digital. Without question.
I started when photography was still a physical process. Tethering completely changed the rhythm of a shoot and the role of the photographer within that structure.
5. What's your kit like — or since you're rental, maybe more what does a typical rental list look like these days?
These days it's usually a mixture of flash and COB LED lighting.
Profoto flash is still very much part of the photographic world, but powerful LEDs have completely changed what people can do, particularly when productions are shooting stills and motion alongside each other.
6. What do you wish photographers or production clients understood about what you actually do?
We see thousands of productions over the years, so we get a very broad overview of how different photographers and productions solve the same problems.
That knowledge can be just as useful as the equipment.
We can often help somebody achieve the same result in a simpler way, bring a list back in line with a budget, suggest an alternative piece of equipment or connect people with the right local creatives and crew.
I think that's a resource younger producers in particular could lean on much more if they understood how rental companies work. You don't necessarily need to arrive with a perfect equipment list.
7. What's in the van that has nothing to do with cameras?
An unreasonable number of ratchet straps.
8. What's your favourite piece of kit — the thing you genuinely can't do without?
The JBL Boombox. The most important thing on any set is the vibe.
