Dodge College of Film and Media Arts

Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
Established 1996
Dean Robert Bassett
Academic staff
39 full-time, 70+ adjunct
Students 1500 (approx.)
Undergraduates 250 (per year)
Postgraduates 150 (per year)
Website

Dodge College of Film and Media Arts is one of seven schools constituting Chapman University, located in Orange, California, 40 miles south of Los Angeles. The school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, with programs in film production, screenwriting, creative producing, news and documentary, public relations and advertising, digital arts, film studies, television writing and producing, and screen acting.

Dodge College has approximately 1,500 students: 1,000 in the undergraduate program, and 450 in the graduate program.

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:

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:


Programs

Undergraduate

Film

Media Arts

Graduate Conservatory

Joint degrees

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."[1]

The Professional Certificate Program in Screenwriting is a one-year online screenwriting workshop that allows students from all over the world the advantage of working closely with a produced screenwriter, in a real-time, collaborative workshop format. In doing so, students will also gain a greater understanding of the building blocks on which all film and TV writing are based - fresh, inventive concepts, compelling characters, escalating conflict, dialogue with subtext and dramatic structure.

Faculty

The combined filmography of the full-time faculty teaching at Dodge College includes more than 300 feature films and includes:

Adjunct faculty include:

Conferences and festivals

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:

The 14th annual Women in Focus Conference was held on April 12, 2013 at Dodge College's Folino Theater inside Marion Knott Studios.

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:

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.

Cecil Awards

The student-produced awards show commemorating the best work of the year, held annually before the official commencement ceremony. The red carpet entrance is held outside Marion Knott Studios, and the awards ceremony inside the Folino Theater.

UFVA Conference

Dodge College has hosted the University Film and Video Association (UFVA) Conference twice (1996, 2006), and is scheduled to host the conference in 2013.[2]

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

Notable alumni

Chapman Filmed Entertainment

In March 2011, Dean Robert Bassett created Chapman Filmed Entertainment,[4] 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).

References

  1. "Summer Film Academy for High School Students", Dodge College Website, July 3, 2013
  2. “Past Conferences”, UFVA Website, 7/3/2013
  3. "Emmys.com/The Amazing Race".
  4. Rachel Abrams, "Chapman U Debuts Feature Film Label", Variety, March 30, 2011

External links

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