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Biola University is one year into building a new $74 million studio facility for its fast-growing Snyder School of Cinema & Media Arts, which now houses the second largest undergraduate program on campus.
“It was designed to accommodate the growth that already is happening within the Snyder School,” founding Dean Tom Halleen told the Business Journal.
La Mirada-based Biola, which stands for Bible Institute of Los Angeles, is making a major push into the entertainment industry. Its cinema and media arts school, which Biola started in 2018, has grown 51% in the last five years to almost 450 students.
A big supporter is Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson, owner and president of Irvine-based In-N-Out Burger Inc., ranked No. 3 on our largest OC Restaurant Chains list (see page 25). In 2023, she made the largest donation in Biola’s history to help build the studio in honor of her grandmother Esther Snyder, who co-founded the famous restaurant chain in 1948 with her husband Harry.
“Like Biola University, faith was central to my grandmother’s identity,” Snyder-Ellingson said in a statement to the Business Journal. “She also deeply valued excellence, family and helping children thrive—principles that remain woven into the fabric of In-N-Out today.
With Biola’s strong commitment to biblical values and its dedication to equipping the best and brightest minds, I know she would be honored to have her name be associated with the Snyder School of Cinema & Media Arts.”
The gift also created a new scholarship dubbed the In-N-Out Burger Scholars Fund for foster and at-risk youth.
“As Biola’s fastest growing school, this incredible gift will dramatically improve our School of Cinema & Media Arts’ already strong academic program for students, as well as help accommodate our significant enrollment growth,” Halleen said at the time.
A Grandmother’s Influence
Esther Snyder was a “dear friend to Biola and believed deeply in the value of Christian higher education,” said a spokesperson from the Biola Office of the president.
“Before she passed away in 2006, Esther would often anonymously deposit money into Biola students’ accounts to help them pay for their education,” they said.
“Lynsi’s own life journey, being very open about her personal challenges and how her Christian faith helped her grow, paved the way for her own connection to Biola, especially our Center for Marriage and Relationships, for which she spoke at a number of events and on podcasts. She has spoken in Biola classes on business principles and on relationships to encourage our students in their relationship to God and with one another.”
In 2019, Lynsi Snyder spoke at Biola’s Spring Commencement, where she provided In-N-Out gift cards tucked in every graduating student’s diploma cover.
700 Productions a Year
Halleen, who was previously the executive vice president of programming strategy, acquisitions and scheduling at AMC Networks, agreed to become dean when university President Barry Corey convinced him to join Biola in 2019. At AMC, Halleen was part of the team that built the network into a leader in cable television with Emmy Award-winning shows like “Breaking Bad,” “Mad Men” and “The Walking Dead.”
“Tom Halleen is one of the best casting decisions I’ve ever made,” Corey said in March at the building’s final beam ceremony.
The Snyder School facility will span 45,463 square feet across three floors and include a new 3,000-square-foot soundstage, a 285-seat theater, suites for color grading and audio mixing, stages for scoring and recording, a game design lab and multiple other spaces for students to occupy.
“This building allows us to expand, and we designed this to house the entire production workflow for students, from ideation to pre-production, then production through postproduction all the way through final presentation inside our theater,” Halleen said.
Biola has so far raised $54 million via school donors for the new facility, which broke ground last September and is scheduled to open in 2026; the school declined to reveal the amount donated by Snyder.
“There’s something to be said about a campus that’s growing, that’s building, that’s advancing and constructing,” Corey said. “We are a university on the move.”
The new school building is in addition to Biola’s existing 10,000-square-foot production center that holds more than $3 million worth of film equipment that students can access while attending school.
Halleen noted it will help support its “four screen” program which focuses on content from film and television to computer streaming, gaming and social media.
“(This) includes the movie screen, which is a 50-foot experience, the television screen, which is a 10-foot experience, a computer screen which is a two-foot experience, and your device’s screen which is a one-foot experience,” Halleen told the Business Journal.
“Content may be shared across all those screens, like a movie may travel between them, but each screen requires its own content as well, and I want students to be prepared for whatever screen they’re called to tell their stories.”
The dean expects over 700 productions to be completed this year.
The Rankings
Halleen noted that being the founding dean of the Snyder School reminds him of his 17 years at AMC, the latter part of his 30-year career in the entertainment industry.
“I was part of the team that built the AMC network,” he said. “It was when basic cable was taking off. We were getting more people into an episode of ‘The Walking Dead’ than were watching the NFL.”
Biola is also where Halleen’s son attended school. The program was rated one of the top film schools in North America by Variety magazine, along with Chapman University’s.
“We already have hundreds and hundreds of alumni inside the industry making a difference,” Halleen said. “This building will allow us the opportunity to send thousands.”
Alumni of the Cinema & Media Arts program have gone on to work at studios such as Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)—home to the “Star Wars” franchise—as filmmakers and executives at Marvel Studios and as writers for television series such as “Being Mary Jane” and “White Collar.”
“At the end of the day, as excited as we are about this amazing and spectacular new building, it is just a structure,” Halleen said at the March event. “We recognize that what matters most is No. 1, what goes inside that building—the amazing faculty and staff I have the privilege of working alongside every single day.
“And No. 2, what also matters is what comes out from the building and that’s our amazing students—out from Biola and into the world.”