Dodge College of Film and Media Arts

History

The School of Film and Television was created in 1996 with Robert Bassett as the founding dean. The school occupied a building on main campus named for legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, in honor of support by CeCe Presley, DeMille’s granddaughter. Dean Bassett subsequently led a campaign that ultimately raised $52-million to build and equip a new building. A transforming gift of $20-million from Lawrence and Kristina Dodge led to the naming of Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, housed in Marion Knott Studios, named for philanthropist Marion Knott, who made a major gift to the project and has been a long-time supporter of the film program at Chapman.

Facilities

The school is housed within two buildings in Orange, CA.

Marion Knott Studios, a 76,000-square-foot building designed to replicate a working production studio. Open 24/7 to students, Marion Knott Studios includes the following:

2 sound stages (2500 and 5000 sq. ft.)

Cinematography and Directing insert stage

Television and Broadcast Journalism Hi-Def stage and control room

Foley stage

Motion Capture stage

Locker rooms, hair/makeup studio, green room

2 Audition Rooms

Set Design shop

Production Design studio

Production Management Office with Computers, Phones, Fax, Printers, and Meeting Space

2 computer labs

36 individual editing suites

3 mixing studios

Spirit 4K Datacine

500-seat Folino Theater with Kinoton 35mm projectors, Barco 2K digital projector and Dolby Digital surround sound

The Digital Media Arts Center, an 18,000 square-foot building for the Digital Arts program, opened for classes in the fall of 2014. The DMAC is a working, industry-standard studio that rivals those of Pixar, Disney, Microsoft, and Google. It combines “hang-out spaces” that include a coffee bar, relaxed indoor lounge and large patio with picnic tables, with flexible classrooms and laboratories that provide Dodge College students with access to the very latest technology so that they are well-prepared to work as professionals on Hollywood’s most technically sophisticated projects. It includes:

A 32-workstation dual monitor digital arts computer lab with 22”HD cintiq drawing surface and ergotron extension arm.

A 25-workstation digital arts computer lab with 22”HD cintiq drawing surface and ergotron extension arm with 2d animation light-box drawing station.

10 private digital arts suites complete with 42” plasma preview monitor, large-format scanners, and 2d animation down-shooters for traditional hand-drawn animation.

Natural sky-lit art studio, complete with 25 wood-bench stations for still art drawing or painting.

Screening room with tiered seating and a 4k stereoscopic projection system with a Fuse DCP projection system.

Multiple laptop bars and student lounge area, complete with full size couches and recliners.

1,500-square-foot directing stage, complete with 2k projection and ceiling grid lighting.

Complete grab-and-go food service area.

Outdoor patio with tables and seating.

Flexclassroom with transforming tables.

A full 65 blade render farm powered by both Quanta and IBM xeon-based computers. The render farm is located offsite at Marion Knott next door, but is tied into each and every station in the DMAC.

A third building, Chapman Studios West, is under construction, and will open in phases throughout the 2016-2017 academic year.

Film

B.F.A. Creative Producing

B.F.A. Film Production

B.A. Film Studies

B.A. Screenwriting

B.F.A. Screen Acting

B.F.A. Television Writing and Producing

Media Arts

B.A. Public Relations and Advertising

B.F.A. Digital Arts

B.F.A. News and Documentary

Graduate Conservatory

M.A. Film Studies

M.F.A. Film Production

M.F.A. Film and Television Producing

M.F.A. Production Design

M.F.A. Screenwriting

M.B.A./M.F.A. Film and TV Producing

M.F.A. Documentary Filmmaking

Joint degrees

J.D./M.F.A. Film and TV Producing (with Chapman University School of Law)

M.B.A./M.F.A Film and TV Producing (with Argyros School of Business and Economics)

Minors offered in Dodge College include Film Studies, Broadcast Journalism, Television, Advertising, and Public Relations.

The Summer Film Academy offers two-week courses to students entering their junior or senior year in high school, which "serves as an introduction to basic narrative and production techniques in film."

Faculty

The combined filmography of the full-time faculty teaching at Dodge College includes more than 500 feature films and includes:

Scott Arundale, editor (Rambo III, Hairspray)

John Badham, director (Saturday Night Fever, WarGames, Short Circuit)

John Chichester, production designer (Cowboys & Aliens, The Book of Eli, Alien: Resurrection)

Martha Coolidge, director (Rambling Rose, Real Genius, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge)

Bill Dill, cinematographer (Soul Food, American Playhouse)

Johnny E. Jensen, A.S.C cinematographer (Lost in Yonkers, Rambling Rose)

Bill Kroyer, animation director (Tron, FernGully)

Alex Rose, producer (Norma Rae, Overboard, Frankie and Johnny)

Paul Seydor, editor (White Men Can't Jump, Tin Cup, Turner and Hooch)

Dawn Taubin, marketing executive (Harry Potter series, The Matrix, 300, The Dark Knight)

David Ward, writer/director (The Sting, Sleepless in Seattle, Major League)

Adjunct faculty include:

Anne Beatts, writer (Saturday Night Live, Murphy Brown)

Fred Cline, writer/director/storyboard artist (Bebe's Kids, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius)

Peter Debruge, film critic (Variety)

Mary Beth Fielder, director/producer (thirtysomething)

Bill Freiberger, writer/producer (The Simpsons, Drawn Together, The PJs)

Ron Friedman, writer (G.I. Joe, Gilligan's Island, The Transformers)

Christine Fugate, director (The Girl Next Door)

Cyrus Nowrasteh, writer/director (The Path to 9/11)

Jeff Phillips, writer/director (urFRENZ)

Michael Phillips; producer (Taxi Driver, The Sting, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)

Michael Schiffer, producer/screenwriter (Call of Duty, The Peacemaker, Crimson Tide, Lean on Me, Colors, Very Bad Things)

Tony Spiridakis, director (Queens Logic, The Last Word, If Lucy Fell)

Jeff Stanzler, writer/director (Sorry, Haters)

Harry Ufland, producer (The Last Temptation of Christ, Crazy/Beautiful, Snow Falling on Cedars)

Andrew Wagner, director (Starting Out in the Evening, The Talent Given Us)

Women in Focus

An annual conference celebrating the women who have been successful in the often male dominated film business. Dodge College invites women who work in film as panelists, to show clips of their work and discuss the challenges facing women in the industry. Past panels have included female directors, producers, production designers, editors, cinematographers, studio executives and more:

Anne Beatts

Diablo Cody

Gabriella Cristiani

Anne Fletcher

Lesli Linka Glatter

Catherine Hardwicke

Felicia D. Henderson

Nina Jacobson

Michelle Manning

Sally Menke

Nancy Meyers

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Polly Platt

Maya Rudolph

Penelope Spheeris

Laura Ziskin

Busan West Film Festival

Dodge College partners annually with the Busan International Film Festival to present Busan West. Over the course of three days Dodge College hosts a showcase of contemporary and classic feature films and documentaries. The film festival includes Pan-Asian films selected directly from the Busan International Film Festival, the largest Asian film festival in the world which takes place in Busan, South Korea. The program features invited directors representing the films, along with an Opening Night Gala, a Retrospective evening after party and a Closing Night reception, all designed to showcase Pan-Asian culture through food, music, and décor. Q & A sessions led by renowned film scholars guide the audiences in conversation with directors and actors who attend Busan West. Past participants include:

director Kim Jee-woon (The Last Stand, The Good, the Bad, the Weird)

actor Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Last Stand, Terminator, Twins)

writer Andrew Knauer (The Last Stand)

director XU Haofeng (The Sword Identity)

director Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Memories of Murder, Mother)

The 3rd annual Busan West Film Festival was held March 8–10, 2013 at Marion Knott Studios and included the introduction of a new competition - the American-Asian Short Film Competition.

Sikh Arts & Film Festival (SAFF)

The Sikh Film Festival is an annual three-day festival showcasing a diverse assortment of Sikh-centric films, books, art performance pieces and music and is held at Dodge College. The next festival is scheduled for November 22–24, 2013 at Marion Knott Studios.

Leo Freedman Foundation First Cut

Select student films are screened for industry representatives at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) in Los Angeles each fall and in New York each spring. The Leo Freedman Foundation First Cut LA was held at the DGA complex on September 27, 2013 and in New York on March 23, 2013.

UFVA Conference

Dodge College has hosted the University Film and Video Association (UFVA) Conference three times, in 1996, 2006, and 2013.

Filmmaker-in-Residence

Each semester, an industry veteran spends 15 weeks at Dodge College screening films and working individually with 10 selected students. Filmmakers-in-Residence have included directors Jonathan Sanger, Randal Kleiser, Richard Benjamin, Tony Bill, William Friedkin, Harold Becker, Carl Franklin, Martha Coolidge, Arthur Hiller, Mark Rydell, Daniel Petrie Sr., John Badham, Peter Medak, Jocelyn Moorhouse, and Betty Thomas; animation director Bill Kroyer; producers Mace Neufeld, Cathleen Summers and David Foster; production designer Polly Platt; editor Bob Jones; writer/directors David Ward and Leslie Dixon; and television director Sheldon Epps.

International connections

A scholarship program enables students to travel to various countries to create documentaries about NGOs; students have visited Botswana, Cambodia, Cameroon, Ghana and Tanzania

Students participate in an exchange program with the Seoul Institute of the Arts and Dongseo University in Korea, the Graduate Institute of Filmmaking of Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan, and Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore

Chapman is one of 14 U.S. colleges and universities elected to membership in the Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision (CILECT), the preeminent international body of film schools

Chapman offered a B.F.A. degree in Creative Producing in Singapore, in partnership with the School of Film and Media Studies at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, however, that partnership has since ended.

Notable alumni

Jason Michael Brescia, writer/director (The Newest Pledge)

Darren Bunkley, producer (The Amazing Race), winner (64th Primetime Emmy Awards), nominated (65th Primetime Emmy Awards), winner (66th Primetime Emmy Awards)

Mark Hammer, writer (You'll Be The Death of Me)

Andrew Knauer, writer (The Last Stand)

Travis Knox, producer (The Bucket List)

Chris Marrs Piliero, winner, VMA Music Award

Michael Pruss, senior VP of Production for Scott Free Productions

Michael Mohan, director (Save the Date)

Olatunde Osunsanmi, director (The Fourth Kind)

Scott Spear, director (Step Up Revolution)

Ben York Jones, writer (Like Crazy)

Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, creators (Stranger Things)

Harshvardhan Kapoor, actor (Mirzya),(Bhavesh Joshi)

Chapman Filmed Entertainment

In March 2011, Dean Robert Bassett created Chapman Filmed Entertainment, a film production and distribution company. Composed of industry veterans, advisors, and Chapman faculty, Chapman Entertainment will produce five to ten pictures per year in the micro-budget range (budgets range in the $250,000-$625,000 range).