Chapman Film School Gets Big Boost

A Dana Point businessman and his wife have donated $20 million to Chapman University’s ambitious film and television program, matching the largest gift the Orange university has received.

Chapman’s College of Film and Media Arts will now bear the names of Lawrence and Kristina Dodge.

In his State of the University address Thursday before a packed auditorium, Chapman President James L. Doti called the gift “perhaps the most significant announcement in the 30 years since I’ve been here.”

Lawrence Dodge, 64, is founding chairman of the board, chief executive and majority stockholder of American Sterling Corp., an Irvine company involved in banking, insurance, real estate and technology.

The Dodges’ gift will go toward helping pay for a 4.5-acre complex featuring four soundstages, two back lots, digital postproduction facilities, a 500-seat theater, classrooms and screening rooms. The new facilities are expected to open in 2006.

The Dodges also have an interest in filmmaking: Kristina Dodge, 42, is co-founder of American Sterling Productions, a subsidiary of her husband’s company.

She was executive producer of “The Annihilation of Fish,” a film starring Lynn Redgrave, James Earl Jones and Margot Kidder and directed by Charles Burnett that is looking for a distributor.

Kristina Dodge said she wants to make films that “say something meaningful and have a good message.... It makes me feel good.”

American Sterling Corp. may be better known for its involvement in Republican politics, having given $500,000 to former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s failed run for governor, more than $100,000 to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign and $250,000 to the governor’s attempt to promote a bond and spending-limit initiative.

Chapman hopes its film school will someday take a place alongside those of UCLA, USC, Columbia, New York University and the American Film Institute as the best in the country.

Buttressing its College of Film and Media Arts is a key part of the strategy by the university to boost its national profile. Turning the college of film into a brand name would lift the reputation of the rest of the university, Doti has said.

The film school has shown extraordinary growth, starting as part of the communications department, becoming a separate department a decade ago, a school in 1996 and now a college. With its proximity to the filmmaking capital, Chapman has lured a steady flow of Hollywood insiders to campus, including directors Robert Zemeckis and Paul Mazursky.

Dean Bob Bassett said the college’s students have the highest SAT scores in the university.

The college will include the graduate and undergraduate programs and a new Institute for the Study of Media and the Public Interest, the brainchild of Lawrence Dodge, which will bring in scholars and professionals to discuss issues involving TV and movies.

The Dodges previously have funded student films at Chapman. Their interest in higher education has not been limited to Chapman. The couple have given UC Irvine $1.2 million to endow a chair in integrative biology.

Doti said the college had raised $26.5 million in cash and pledges toward its $31-million goal. Another $15 million in estate gifts have been pledged.