Harnessing the Power of Virtual Production for Indie Filmmakers
About this Video
Sundance Institute's Story Forum: Exploring Art and Innovation is a space to learn, collaborate, and join the conversation; inviting thoughtful dialogue about the artist-first tools and technologies supporting visual storytelling today.
Virtual production (VP) offers filmmakers a new avenue to achieve high production value on a smaller budget. In this immersive introduction to the technology, viewers receive a virtual tour of Studio Ulster, one of Europe’s most ambitious VP studios located in Belfast, Ireland. Representatives from Studio Ulster discuss the benefits, logistical issues, and challenges unique to VP. Viewers also hear from independent producer Jamie Harvey on his honest experiences working with VP. This session offers an informed, on-the-ground exploration of VP for independent filmmakers curious of the new technologies, including: LED volumes, real-time engines, camera tracking, in-camera VFX (ICVFX), and motion (or emotion) capture (MOCAP).
Featuring: Alyssa Boyle (Head of Commercial Operations, Studio Ulster) and Declan Keeney, PhD, FRSA, SFHEA (Co-Founder and CEO, Studio Ulster)
Moderated by Niamh Gormley (Community Leader, Sundance Collab) Community Leaders are a group of trusted volunteers who offer their time and talents to support fellow Sundance Collab members on their creative path through the platform.
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Alyssa Boyle
Head of Commercial Operations, Studio Ulster
Alyssa is the Head of Commercial Operations at Studio Ulster, a £72 million next-generation virtual production studio. Managing Business Development, Client Services, and Marketing for the studio, Alyssa brings technical sales and content development expertise.
Prior to joining the team in Belfast, she had been leading commercial teams at innovative media startups across the US, Ireland & the UK for 12 years including WPP (AKQA Leap), News Corp (Storyful, Unruly), and Paramount Global (Vh1).
Declan Keeney
Co-Founder and CEO, Studio Ulster
Professor Declan Keeney, PhD, FRSA, SFHEA, is Co-Founder & CEO of Studio Ulster Ltd, a £72m next-generation virtual production studio and creative tech company based at Belfast Harbour Studios, a pillar innovation project of the Belfast Region City Deal.
Declan is a global leader in real-time screen technologies and holds a Chair in Screen Technologies & Innovation at Ulster University. He is Director of the CoSTAR Screen Lab, overseeing £12m in R&D investment. A board member of the British Film Institute and Northern Ireland Governor, he has secured over £91.5m in R&D&I investment funding, co-leads several major UKRI-funded national initiatives in virtual production, and founded the Ulster Screen Academy — home to the UK and Ireland’s first university-based VP studio.
Jamie Harvey
Producer
Jamie is a former journalist turned film producer. Beginning his career in radio, he could have been heard delivering the sports news on both the BBC and numerous commercial radio stations, before moving into television for ITV News and Channel 4 news.
After moving into the world of narrative features, the first film he produced was EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED TO TELL MY DAUGHTER ABOUT MEN, an amalgamation of 16 shorts, all directed by a different female director. He also Produced MY HOUSE for Finite Films, and Co-Produced, COTTONTAIL and FIREBRAND for Magnolia Mae (which both released globally in 2024), DADDY’S HEAD and ODYSSEY for Stigma Films. As well as LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris, and ETERNAL RETURN with Kit Harrington and Naomi Scott.
He completed principle photography on APART FROM HER in late 2024, and FRANK AND PERCY in late 2025, and is currently shooting NO WAY OFF on the Studio Ulster Virtual Production stage.
Niamh Gormley
Moderator | Community Leader, Sundance Collab
Niamh Gormley is a Sundance Collab Community Leader, award-winning Northern Irish screenwriter, co-founder of Lír Pictures and member of the Writers Guild of Ireland.
Her work includes Boa Island, a supernatural epic family drama set in Northern Ireland’s Lakelands, Dippers, a bilingual Irish-English murder mystery series, and Luscus, an adaptation of poet Maureen Boyle’s award-winning memoir. Her 1920s period TV drama Bridget in Manhattan, developed through Sundance Collab’s Outline-to-Pilot programme, is a multi-award-winning script with numerous international Best TV Pilot Screenplay awards.
Niamh has been a Sundance Collab Community Leader since July 2025 and is passionate about introducing filmmakers to new technologies and using emerging AI technologies to amplify untold stories and bring them from page to screen.