Christopher C. Odom - Influences

Influences

Chris’ father, an avid movie buff, first laid down Chris’ interest in movies. When the family bought their first VCR, they rented every movie with a Black face on it at the video rental store. Chris, who at first was curious with acting, was encouraged to investigate being involved behind-the-scenes in the entertainment industry. His last year of High School, Chris’ older brother, Edward J. Odom IV, brought home a movie called She's Gotta Have It, edited by a young guy his age his brother’s age, Spike Lee Chris was impressed and amazed that a guy that young, who happened to also be African American, had made a movie. That same summer, Chris competed in the Junior NAACP ACT-SO competition in Washington, D.C., as a classical trumpet player, and witnessed a single high school student win an award for being the only person that year to submit a movie for competition. Chris would later go on to idolize Spike Lee, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Robert Townsend, Matty Rich, Allan and Albert Hughes and John Singleton for ushering in a New Black Renaissance in film.

Chris, a student of the arts (singer, actor, writer, dancer, musician) and hungry to apply all of his talents to the filmmaking process, would later become extremely intrigued by Robert Rodriguez, better known for being a “one man crew”. When Chris first moved to Los Angeles, California, he wanted to utilize all of his skills, but he was told that trying to wear many hats couldn’t be done. When Chris learned that Rodriguez was performing in several of the key roles in on a single major Hollywood movie, Chris fast forwarded his career and entered the world of feature filmmaking.

Being a three time film student, Chris is also greatly influenced by Steven Spielberg, Akira Kurosawa, George Lucas, Orson Welles and Peter Greenaway. When Chris first moved to Los Angeles, he was mentored by his father’s Omega Psi Phi fraternity brother Samm-Art Williams, then the Executive Producer of the television series “Martin”. At that time the seed was planted for Chris to solidify his skills and to one day run and own his own studio.