A movie production company based at Chapman University has produced its first full-length feature film and plans to make three more in the next 12 months in an effort to provide profit for investors and proverbial real-world experience for film school alumni and current students.
Chapman Filmed Entertainment LLC’s first effort—“The Barber,” which has a budget of about $1 million and stars Scott Glenn and Stephen Tobolowsky—was being marketed to theaters and other outlets last week at the Toronto International Film Festival by Los Angeles-based distributor the Little Film Co.
“These are not student films, these are not art house films,” said Bob Bassett, Chief Executive of Chapman Filmed Entertainment and Dean of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman.
Chapman Filmed Entertainment has three equity investors behind the movie whom Bassett declined to name, including one from Orange County.
“These are high-net-wealth people who if they lost their money it would not be a hardship,” he said.
Bassett likened the Chapman-based company to a hedge fund: Some movies might not make money, but the goal is to be profitable overall.
The jury is still out on “The Barber,” which isn’t expected to be released for some months.
The movie was written, produced and directed by Chapman film school graduates.
“It’s for alumni who have graduated and have five weeks to make a film,” Bassett said. “It’s meant to accelerate the careers of our alumni while also being commercially viable.”
Current students also worked on the film.
Actor Glenn worked for well below his usual payday and has pledged to support the film through personal appearances and other efforts, Bassett said.
Bassett was in Toronto with Little Film Co. President Robbie Little to sell “The Barber” for limited release in theaters and to other “windows”—outlets that show films, including foreign countries, cable TV companies that sell video-on-demand, and subscription services such as Netflix.
“We’re seeking theatrical release in a few cities,” Bassett said.
He said foreign markets such as Germany tend to like thrillers, which “The Barber” is.
The movie wasn’t finished in time to submit for exhibition at the Toronto festival, which is one of the movie industry’s largest events.
The duo will head to the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea next month, when the film will show for the first time.
It’s the largest film festival in Asia.
“It shows movies from all over the world, and they’re going to fly the director there,” Bassett said. “It’s every film student’s dream.”
The company will decide on other festivals after Bassett gets a chance to gauge the response in Busan, he said.
Bassett said the movie will be at the American Film Market in Santa Monica in November, an eight-day event for independent film producers, distributors and buyers.
“It’s the biggest film market in the world,” he said.
Out of Dodge
Bassett said it would be several months at least before “The Barber” is in theaters.
He said Chapman University hasn’t invested in Chapman Filmed Entertainment or the company’s first film.
Actors and staff were paid, Bassett said.
“They didn’t get paid much, but they got paid.”
The movie was made as any other feature film, he said, with unions representing cast members and crew, shooting only a certain number of hours per day, and so on.
Producer Travis Knox, director Basel Owies, and screenwriter Max Enscoe are Chapman graduates.
Knox has worked in Hollywood for about two decades, with stints on films such as “The Bucket List.”
He is vice president of production at Chapman Filmed Entertainment.
“The idea for this one was to show we could do it because it’s very difficult to make a feature film,” Bassett said. “We’re delighted we got the picture finished, and we have a good quality movie.”
Industry trade publication the Hollywood Reporter last month ranked Dodge College of Film and Media Arts the seventh best film school in the country of 25.
In California, the University of Southern California, the University of California-Los Angeles, the American Film Institute and California Institute of the Arts ranked ahead of Chapman’s film school.
Chapman ranked higher than other film programs in California, including Stanford University, Loyola Marymount University, California State University-Northridge, and San Francisco State University.
Bassett said he did not know of any other schools or related companies making commercial feature films.
Chapman raised $52 million to build the Dodge film school’s Marion Knott Studios, which opened in 2006.
The school this semester opened an $11 million Digital Media Arts Center with 18,000 square feet of animation facilities, classrooms and faculty offices.
