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Loyola Receives $700,000 Award to Create Cutting-Edge Filmmaking Facility
NEW ORLEANS – Students in Loyola University’s Digital Filmmaking program will hone their craft using immersive 3-D interactive technology thanks to a grant from Louisiana’s Entertainment Development Fund.
The award, to be paid in equal increments over the next three years, will fund a state-of the-art facility that will help educate and train students to work in the virtual filmmaking sector, said Miles Doleac, chair of the Department of Digital Filmmaking in a press release.
The new, studio-quality production space will include a high-resolution Volume Wall, which uses LED panels, game engines and motion-sensitive cameras to create interactive, virtual worlds such as those seen in Disney and Lucasfilm’s “The Mandalorian.”
“We are building an equipment arsenal that will rival the best programs in the country,” he said, noting that only film schools such as UCLA, USC, NYU and the American Film Institute have the caliber of equipment on par with Loyola’s Digital Filmmaking program. “Our students will literally be working with cameras used in $100 million Hollywood productions.”
Sheryl Kennedy Haydel, dean of the College of Music and Media, said she got the idea for the grant while attending Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser’s annual Grammy party celebrating Louisiana artists in February. She said she learned that a program in Missouri sought and received funding for a Volume Wall from that state, so she thought perhaps Loyola could do the same.
Haydel made a beeline for Chris Stelly, the executive director of Louisiana Entertainment, a division of Louisiana Economic Development, who also attended the Grammy party. Stelly confirmed that Loyola could be eligible for a grant for a Volume Wall from the state, she said. Loyola applied for the grant soon thereafter and received word in May that it had won the award.
“This catapults us into the realm of film programs that are talked about around the country,” Haydel said. “It helps us not to be the best kept secret anymore. Now we have something in our program that is transformative.”
The award is the second that Loyola has received from the Entertainment Development Fund. In 2021, the state awarded Loyola $250,000 to build out its color and sound suites in Monroe Hall.
