Full Sail Stories

With over 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry and more than a decade at Full Sail University, Digital Cinematography Course Director Dr. Christopher C. Odom, MFA, PhD has had a wide range of experience in the business, and he’s still finding new ways to prosper creatively and professionally in an ever-evolving digital world.

“As an undergraduate, I originally went to [historically black college] Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia,” Christopher says. He later completed his bachelor’s degree at Georgia State University and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television from the University of California, and, in May 2023, he completed his PhD in Texts and Technology, Digital Media at the University of Central Florida.

“[Texts, and Technology, Digital Media is] a school of thought very similar to digital humanities, which looks at the humanities either with digital tools or the digital aspects of emerging technologies and humanities with the goal of solving problems in the areas of social justice and social change,” he explains. “I was interested in social media and I kind of tacked that on to the visual imagery of social movements.

As part of his dissertation, Christopher produced a short documentary film, Justice for George Floyd: The Tipping Point, which has since gone on to multiple screenings on the independent film circuit, picking up awards and honors along the way.

Right before he joined the Full Sail team, Christopher was working as a producer, writer, and editor for the PBS documentary series, Independent Lens.

He’s also won multiple international filmmaking awards, including the Cannes Pan African Film Festival, the North Carolina Film Festival, the Berlin Black Cinema International Film Festival, and many more.

Additionally, he’s been enjoying a career as a voiceover artist and audio producer. Over the years, Christopher has narrated and produced over 40 audiobooks, ranging from nonfiction work like The Power of No to the recently released audiobook version of Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority, which was the basis for the feature film Experimenter, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder.

At Full Sail, Christopher teaches the Electronic Field Production course. “We call it the ‘mini-documentary course,’” he says.

He also regularly teaches sections of Scriptwriting Techniques, Composition and Visual Design, Film Criticism, and more. For each of these courses, Christopher turns his industry experience into a fast-paced, deep dive into the industry.

Much like Full Sail’s other courses, the Electronic Field Production course is a fast-paced, deep dive into the industry.

“My original boss used to tell me that Full Sail is a speeding train, and it never stops, and you've got to learn how to adapt to the Full Sail paradigm or you can get left behind,” Christopher laughs.

“As an educator, I try to have a variety of ways I communicate to the students so I can reach [every] student in a way that will really make them come alive.”