Students film a plane crash with models and virtual effects on an LED wall. Using the brain bar, they can control the background animations and adjust the lighting for each shot.

The Blavatnik Family Foundation has made a $25 million lead gift to establish the Blavatnik Center for Virtual Production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA). The donation was announced today by Dean Elizabeth M. Daley.

“We are so grateful for the Blavatnik family’s generosity and for what it will mean for scaling up the virtual production workforce our industry desperately needs,” said Dean Daley. “At USC we understand the importance of state-of-the-art tools in helping to facilitate the masterful storytelling that grounds our curriculum. The Blavatnik Center will be an important workspace as we collaborate on creating the dynamic filmmaking of the future.”

Students at the Blavatnik Center can blend actors and set pieces into virtual scenes to enhance the scale and scope of their stories.

“Virtual production has become an integral part of filmmaking, led by the next generation,” said Len Blavatnik, Founder of the Blavatnik Family Foundation. “I’m proud to support the School and provide young filmmakers with the tools and resources needed to master these emerging technologies and lead the industry’s future.”

The Blavatnik Center for Virtual Production will be a multi-use, state-of-the-art space housing two stages with wraparound LED panel walls, as well as performance capture, camera tracking, and lighting systems. The stages can be operated separately or joined together to from a large production set. The Center will also contain multiple classrooms and labs equipped with computers with real-time 3D design software and digital asset libraries.

The Blavatnik Center for Virtual Production will make possible the expansion of SCA’s already robust virtual production curriculum, including skills building in all aspects of virtual production work flows and tools, and generative AI. Students, faculty, and industry professionals will use the stages to collaborate and explore the future of virtual production.

Since its founding in 1929, a USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) education has always mirrored technological developments in the industry, while maintaining a foundation of compelling storytelling. The School’s philosophy of learning through doing, coupled with mentorship from industry-experienced faculty, is the perfect model for growing the workforce of the set-ready professionals needed to navigate and innovate the growth of virtual production filmmaking.

“Virtual production is the centerpiece of today’s filmmaking processes, and USC has always been the leader in developing the best models for training the industry’s leading filmmakers,” says Dean Elizabeth Daley.

To date, the School of Cinematic Arts has trained more than 400 students and alumni in ICVFX cinematography using an LED volume. The Blavatnik Center for Virtual Production will also be a training facility for SCA alumni and other industry professionals who are interested in expanding their knowledge of virtual production.

The School’s virtual production curriculum is being developed by leading industry professionals, including:

• Habib Zargarpour, who was instrumental in creating the Virtual Production System used by Jon Favreau on The Jungle Book and by Steven Spielberg on Ready Player One, and whose other credits include Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Greyhound, Blade Runner 2049.
• Scott Kroopf, who heads the producing track at the School of Cinematic Arts, and who has produced, executive produced, and supervised more than 70 productions, and run two production companies.
• Ken Williams, the Executive Director and CEO of the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, a technology think tank that brings together the top entertainment, technology and consumer electronics companies to better understand and collaborate on the impact of new technology on all aspects of the entertainment industry.
• Brad Kean, the Director of Creative Technology at the USC School of Cinematic Arts who helps the school stay at the forefront of storytelling tools and techniques.

Students can seamlessly integrate live performance and physical props with the virtual environment to create powerful cinematic moments.

The Center builds on SCA’s reputation as a leading industry partner in researching the latest industry technologies, then training the next innovative users of the groundbreaking tools.

For more information, please visit: scavirtualproduction.org/info