Chapman University in Orange routinely lands notables behind Hollywood cameras for its Dodge College of Film and Media Arts … so why stop now?
Among those who have joined for the looming school years are Academy Award-winning producer and Mandalay Pictures president Cathy Schulman (Crash, The Illusionist) and veteran art director and set designer John Chichester (Star Trek Into Darkness, Tropic Thunder).
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Schulman has been named the Fall 2013 Filmmaker-in-Residence, which will have mentoring student filmmakers on a one-on-one basis, interacting with the larger Dodge College community at weekly dinners and participating in Q&A's at screenings of the Filmmaker-in-Residence's films.
“Our students are truly fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from a producer with the incredible experience of Cathy Schulman, a producer whose films break new ground and whose leadership in the industry is an inspiration,” says Dodge College Dean Robert Bassett in a Chapman statement. “As president of Women in Film she is also a powerful role model for our women students.”
She should be a role model for male students also. A Film Independent board member and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences member who has served as a council member of the Producers Guild of America, Schulman became Mandalay's president in January 2007 and sits on the board of Mandalay Vision, the independent financing and production label, where she oversees the division's creative affairs.
Schulman just completed the Mandalay film Horns, directed by Alex Aja, starring Daniel Radcliffe, and based on Joe Hill's bestselling novel. She also recently wrapped Marjane Satrapi's Voices, starring Ryan Reynolds, and is currently producing Dark Places, based on Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and starring Charlize Theron.
Past titles Schulman has played roles in bringing to the screen are: Bernie and The Kids Are All Right. She received the Oscar in 2006 when Lionsgate's Crash was named best picture.
Chichester has joined Dodge College as associate professor and director of Production Design.
“John brings a depth of industry experience and a passion for teaching that will play a key role in the continued development of our production design program in all areas, including art direction, color and set design, costume, and hair and makeup,” says Bassett in the statement. “He will make a qualitative difference in the production of all of our student films.”
Chichester brings more than 25 years of industry experience into the classroom. His list of credits include: Star Trek Into Darkness, Tropic Thunder, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Book of Eli, Cowboys N Aliens, Get Him to the Greek, Spider-Man 2, World Trade Center, Jarhead and Vanilla Sky.
He'll be able to share with students about having worked with production designers like Jan Roelfs, John Myhre and Dennis Gassner, such directors as Oliver Stone and Robert Redford and producers Jerry Bruckheimer, J.J. Abrams, Ben Stiller and Trey Parker. He's also worked with all of the major studios, including Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and DreamWorks Studios.
Currently, he's in post-production for the biopic Nina starring Zoe Saldana and the drama 47 Ronin.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.