Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, recognized as one of the premier film schools in the United States, announced that four-time Academy Award® winner (Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi) and six-time nominated visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund will join the faculty as the Pankey Distinguished Artist. As an artist in residence, Edlund will share the creative thinking and processes behind some of the most significant developments in visual effects over the last three decades.
Richard Edlund
He will also co-teach the Digital Arts Industry Insiders course with Chapman professor and animation and visual effects program director Bill Kroyer. Edlund and Kroyer are both members of the Borad of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Considered the “father of the new age” of visual effects for his industry-changing work on the first Star Wars in 1977, Edlund has supervised VFX work on dozens of films including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ghostbusters, 2010, Die Hard, Ghost, and Multiplicity.
Every semester, Dodge College hosts expert filmmakers to meet with and counsel selected scholars, as part of its Pankey Distinguished Artist program. The popular program includes regular, bi-weekly meetings with filmmakers in a one-on-one setting to mentor scholars through the creative development of a specific project throughout the semester. In addition, Edlund will interact with the larger Dodge community at weekly dinners open to students as well as examining various types of visual effects challenges each week in Professor Bill Kroyer’s Digital Arts Industry Insiders class. This 16-week class will cover the history of visual effects from Star Wars to this year’s Academy Award-nominated VFX films. In addition to insightful clips and informative behind-the-scenes “making of” material, Edlund will host industry guests who are the top names in the VFX industry.
“Not only will our students gain invaluable insight and perspective on how effects are used to tell a story,” says Kroyer, “they will also receive an essential primer on how they may use visual effects in their productions from a true master of the craft.”
With film clips, “making of” materials, and guest speakers, the class will tackle separate visual effects topics each week, such as in-camera effects, animated characters, compositing, and “famous fixes” of bad effects.
Past Filmmakers-in-Residence at Chapman have included Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs; award-winning director, writer and producer Michael Apted (Up series, Gorillas in the Midst, Coal Miner’s Daughter, The World is Not Enough); Rob Cohen, the renowned filmmaker behind such blockbuster hits as The Fast and the Furious, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and xXx; Academy Award®-winning producer Cathy Schulman (Crash, The Illusionist, Salvation Boulevard); Academy Award®-nominated producer JoAnne Sellar (There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights, Magnolia), award-winning director Donald Petrie (Miss Congeniality, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Grumpy Old Men, Mystic Pizza); Hollywood producer Cathleen Summers (The Sandlot, Stakeout, Another Stakeout); director and producer Betty Thomas (Dr. Doolittle, Private Parts, Brady Bunch Movie, I Spy); screenwriter and producer Leslie Dixon (Mrs. Doubtfire, Hairspray, Limitless); director and producer Jonathan Sanger (Vanilla Sky, The Elephant Man, The Producers); director Sheldon Epps (Friends, Frasier), producer Michael Phillips (Taxi Driver, Close Encounters of the Third Kind); director Martha Coolidge (Real Genius, Rambling Rose, Valley Girl); and film and TV producer Gary Foster (Daredevil, Sleepless in Seattle, Ghost Rider).
About the Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
Recognized as one of the top ten film schools in the world and ranked #7 by The Hollywood Reporter among American film schools, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University offers students an array of undergraduate, graduate, and joint-program degrees that address the rapidly changing entertainment business including what it takes to pitch, produce, finance, market and distribute content. Open to students 24/7, Dodge College is housed on the film school campus comprised of the Digital Media Arts Center, Chapman Studios West, and the heart of the film school, the 76,000-square-foot Marion Knott Studios built from the ground up to replicate a working studio. Dodge College students have garnered numerous awards including Student Academy and College Television Awards. Notable alumni include Matt and Ross Duffer ’07 (Netflix series Stranger Things) and Justin Simien (feature film/Netflix series Dear White People). With an award-winning full-time faculty with a combined filmography of more than 500 feature films, Dodge College is where students learn the entertainment business from the inside out.
About Chapman University
As an academically distinguished center of learning, Chapman University attracts extraordinary students and faculty from around the globe. Its ten schools and colleges foster a vibrant intellectual community, and provide extensive opportunities for students to learn, grow and discover alongside remarkable faculty. The University is home to some 8,000 students pursuing bachelor, master and doctoral degrees, and is alma mater to more than 40,000 alumni found throughout the United States and the world. Now celebrating its 156th year, Chapman is known for its distinguishing strengths in leadership and civic engagement, in the arts and entertainment disciplines, and in specialized sectors of technology and science. The University is comprised of its main campus in Orange, California, and the Rinker Health Science campus for graduate health science programs in Irvine, California. Visit us at www.chapman.edu.
Follow us on Facebook at: Chapman University Facebook
On Twitter and Instagram at: @ChapmanU
On YouTube at: Chapman University YouTube Channel
###
