Gil Bettman

In 1995, Gil was hired by Dean Bob Bassett as a full time professor to teach directing and screenwriting in the film department at Chapman University. Since then, he has helped his visionary dean build the little-known film department into one the preeminent filmschools in the world – The Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Bettman is now one of the mainstays of Chapman’s world-class directing department along with internationally acclaimed directors John Badham and Martha Coolidge and industry stalwarts Jeff McCracken and Andy Lane.

Following the publication of his book, First Time Director, in 2003, Bettman was invited to teach a seminar in mise-en-scene, or visual design, at the Hamburg Media School. For this seminar he crafted a unique, easy-to-grasp approach to the visual side of directing which enables the student to quickly master the tricky art of shooting with a moving camera. The success of Gil’s approach to teaching directing the camera resulted in his being asked to give his seminar at other leading filmschools in Europe, Asia and Africa. 

Since then he has taught at eighteen top schools in fourteen countries, among them The Danish Film School; The Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm; UIAH in Helsinki; The Northern Film School in Leeds, UK; FAMU in Prague; The Institute of Film, Television and Radio, Ostankino, in Moscow; AFDA in Johannesburg; Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore; The Harbin Institute of Technology in China; and The University of Hawaii.