Nathan Stubbs

LITE targets film industry

by Nathan Stubbs

Local officials recently returned from a marketing mission to the Cannes Film Festival in South France bullish on the potential partnerships between film studios and the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise, Lafayette’s 3-D visualization center. LITE’s Executive Director, Carolina Cruz-Neira, and its Public Affairs Manager, Erin Fitzgerald, were part of a local contingent at Cannes to network and promote the region to filmmakers.

"LITE technologies are a perfect fit for the film industry,” Cruz-Neira says in a statement released yesterday.  “Attending Cannes allowed us to show filmmakers how LITE capabilities can help them reduce risks and costs and allow them to finish their films on time and on budget.” The trip comes on the heels of the recent completion of the first film shooting at the center. Earlier this month, Active Entertainment’s local production company, Bullet Films, shot scenes from its upcoming sci-fi project Judgement Day using sets created by LITE’s visualization theatre. LITE officials say the project has helped them develop a model for future film industry clients.

Fitzgerald adds that she was impressed by a speech given by James Cameron at Cannes, in which the Titanic director called 3-D the future of the film industry, adding he would never shoot another film in any other format. “That’s a pretty strong statement from one of the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood,” Fitzgerald says. “It also says a lot about the potential for LITE 3-D technologies and computing capabilities to become a valuable resource for the film industry."

Opened in 2006, LITE is a nonprofit partnership involving the state, UL-Lafayette and the Lafayette Economic Development Authority. The center provides advanced 3-D data imaging services, ranging from 3-D seismic to emergency planning simulations, to both public research partners and private sector clients.