Dr. Christopher C. Odom earned his PhD in Texts & Technology, Digital Media at the University of Central Florida; his MFA in Film and Television from the University of California, Los Angeles; and his BA in Film and Video Production from Georgia State University.
Throughout Dr. Odom’s 30-year career in the entertainment industry, as a filmmaker, Dr. Odom has produced, directed, written, shot, and/or edited +500 short and longform creative projects. In addition, for over a decade as a Course Director at Full Sail University, Dr. Odom has supervised and developed an additional +500 student short scripts and films.
A published author and domestic and international award-winning filmmaker and voiceover talent, Dr. Odom’s work has appeared in major cities worldwide, including Cannes, Berlin, Tel Aviv, New York, and Los Angeles.
A former story analyst for Creative Artists Agency and a member of the Writers Guild of America Independent Writer’s Caucus, Dr. Odom’s directing, producing, writing, cinematography, editing, and on-camera credits include feature films with international distribution through Entertainment One, promos and trailers for the nationally televised ITVS-produced PBS series Independent Lens, and aviation news stories for Airborne-Unlimited on the Aero-News Network.
Dr. Odom recently finished his short documentary film “Justice for George Floyd: The Tipping Point?” about the visual imagery emerging on social media from the Justice for George Floyd Protests, as a social movement. He is currently in postproduction on the feature documentary version of the same film.
Learn more about Dr. Odom’s background on LinkedIn.
PhD, Texts and Technology, Digital Media, 2019 - 2023
University of Central Florida
MFA, Film & Television, 1998 - 2001
University of California, Los Angeles
Professional Certificate, Screenwriting, 1995 - 1996
University of California, Los Angeles
BA, Film & Video Production, 1993 - 1994
Georgia State University
Academic
Featured
Through the lens of the justice for Gorge Floyd protests, my dissertation offers a critique, consultation, creation, and contribution to the visual imagery emerging from the digital activism of social movements. Built upon a foundation of counterpublics, critical race counterstory, counternarratives, the Black public sphere, rhetorical-cultural narrative, rhetorical-cultural memory, visual social semiotics, hashtag activism, and media framing and schemas, I engage in a rhetorical-semiotic-technocultural analysis of the justice for George Floyd protests, as a social movement. I position myself as a visual specialist artist, activist, academic, and advisor for social movements engaged in social justice and social change. I argue that culture, as moderator, traversed the rhetorical-semiotic-technocultural messaging of the visual imagery emerging from the digital imagery of the justice for George Floyd social movement which motivated global citizens to take to the streets to demand social justice and social change. Drawing upon the justice for George Floyd movement, I offer artists, activists, and academics ten activist strategic propositions for the preservation of the cultural narrative, memory, and history of social movements which may utilize visuality to withstand social movement backlash.
This social justice and social change interactivity presentation is an interactive audiovisual rhetorical argument for #BlackLivesMatter that employs digital media elements of both generative and participatory culture art. If only we could walk a single day in another person’s shoes… We are all the sum of each of our own unique experiences and reality is a perception based upon one’s vantage point within one’s immediate cultural narratives and awareness of the context. Just because you may not have personally killed anyone, does not mean killers do not exist. By the same token, stereotypes, hegemonic marginalizing tropes, systemic racism, and systemic injustice exist, whether or not you are an active participant, unwilling beneficiary, or injustice-denier. Systemic racism and injustice are pervasive and permeate throughout society. This social justice and social change interactive experience is designed as an educational learning tool and a visual rhetorical argument for the #BlackLivesMatter social movement.
“Still I Rise: Remix” is a visual, lyrical, digital interactive fight song for civic action for the Black Lives Matter social justice and social change movement. Created during and by the stressors intensified from the global pandemic, this JavaScript interactive poetry remix embraces the digital activism made exponential during the pandemic through the platformization of counternarratives. The remix blends multiple digital mediums with cultural artifacts of the past and present to weave together a rhetorical and semiotic interactive experience that enlightens society and uplifts the human spirit. Through multimodality and intertextuality, “Still I Rise - Remix” exploits the aesthetics of the digital interactive experience through multiple artistic forms of expression, including code, video, audio, and hypertext. This COVID E-Lit interactive exhibition is a multimodal expression and declarative statement for the Black Lives Matter movement which embodies the spirit of change, inclusion, and social justice. “The medium is the message.” Experience “Still I Rise - Remix.”
Through the narrative retelling of the events leading up to and through the Capitol Riot and George Floyd protests, I reveal the point-of-views from polar opposite cultural viewpoints and how the cultural context changes the visual social semiotic meaning of the same imagery through the vantage point of an alternative concept. I do not believe that this visual analysis alone will change what people believe about the Capitol Riot and George Floyd protests, but it is my goal to use the narrative information visualization for this visual analysis, as a tool to broaden the audience’s understanding of why people believe what they believe about the Capitol Riot and George Floyd protests. Perception is reality and everyone’s perceptions are unique; thus, peering into reality is no more distinct or precise than peering through a prism, to see what color is on the other side. Culture and context are the prism, and reality is the rainbow of refracted light on the other side.
This poster paper explores semiotics and rhetoric as narrative in social media visual culture, specifically with issues of identity and social change on social media platforms such as YouTube. Under the umbrella of semiotics, postmodernism, and poststructuralism, the paper builds upon the work of Roland Barthes, Stuart Hall, and Safiya Umoja Noble by expanding the concepts of visual semiotics, visual rhetoric, postcolonialism, critical race theory, and algorithms to examine the narrative of the image.
SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT: A NARRATIVE CASE STUDY examines Spike Lee’s 1986 breakout film. Within the arena of Narrative Studies Criticism, the case study examines the primary character introductions and a determination of the narrative’s fabula and syuzhet.
The thriller is an all-encompassing umbrella genre that corrals all other genres underneath it. It is difficult to determine if a movie is only a thriller. The most popular sub-genres of the thriller include spy, detective, psychological, horror, action, and supernatural thrillers. Thrillers habitually mix the tenants of other genres in a single film as well as the tenants of the sub-genres of the thriller. The main ingredient of a thriller is suspense, excitement, and tension, whereby thrillers set out to evoke an emotional reaction. Thrillers often create an atmosphere of creeping menace and sudden outbursts of violence, crime, and murder. Gunfights and chase scene are common set pieces. One of the main themes of thrillers is the existence of a double world – one civilized and one savage. In Hollywood, the dark corrupt, dangerous, savage world is usually overcome by the status quo, but with lingering side effects. Thrillers also favor, loose, episodic structures with labyrinthine, maze-like plots, filled with myriad twists and tangles. There is a loss of control for both hero and spectator. Both hero and spectator become tangled up and a part of the same mysterious world that they are investigating.
In Henry Jenkins book, ‘Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture,’ Jenkins presents the interesting metaphor of TV fans as textual poachers. In short, textual poaching is the action whereby aficionados become so versed and immersed in a text, that they proclaim themselves legitimate experts of the text and thereby create their own contextual meanings which supercede the meanings of the legitimate critics and original authors of the text. On some levels, the aficionados do possess specific knowledge about their texts, but these aficionados often socialize in isolated subcultures - fan clubs - which propagate mythical contextual meanings regarding the text which thus become fact, being accepted as true by the majority, within their own social circles; circles in which they perceive themselves to be the experts of the contextual meanings of their texts of interest. By this token, the elitism and hubris of the contextual precepts of the aficionados, thereby intrinsically make the aficionados textual poachers, whereas the legitimate critics are careful to delineate.
Stylistically, CITIZEN KANE and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS are similar, but not the same. The majority of the scenes in each film utilize group shots, showing every character in the scene in the frame at the same time emphasizing community. Both films also utilize depth of field, where characters are filmed in large rooms or at great distances apart. In Citizen Kane, the depth of field is more widely used, especially in the group shots. The kicker scene for that is when Charles and Susan are arguing in Xanadu from the two separate ends of the room. Charles seems to be a hundred yards away. This is very spooky because it’s supposed to be their home. Later when they have a picnic, Charles tells Susan to stop shouting at him because they are in a tent and not at home, so he can hear her just fine. That scene, like all the other scenes are a microcosm of the whole film. CITIZEN KANE is about not really knowing who a person really is. Once you figure that out, it’s enjoyable to watch the film over and over again, because each scene, each line of dialog, and each frame constantly rings true of this.
Award-Winning Filmmaker 🏆 Digital Media Researcher 🎓 (DEI) Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Activist ⚖️ Social Media Marketing 📱 Communication, Culture, & Advocacy 🗣️
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Non-Academic: Creative
Critical Reviews
Online
Radio
Award-Winning Filmmaker 🏆 Digital Media Researcher 🎓 (DEI) Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Activist ⚖️ Social Media Marketing 📱 Communication, Culture, & Advocacy 🗣️
Invite Me now for:
💻 Presentations
🗣️ Talks
👨👩👧👦 Panels
Selected IMDB
A cooperative effort of over 100 aviation organizations working with the Aero-News Network.
Travel series that helps viewers plan an adventurous meaningful journey of a lifetime trip to Japan.
A twenty-something singer-songwriter named Chloe moves to Nashville with one goal: to find success, no matter what.
A minister and his family’s faith is ultimately tested during a home invasion.
An alcoholic police detective must overcome his drinking to solve a mysterious murder of a prostitute.
Non-Academic
Award-Winning Filmmaker 🏆 Digital Media Researcher 🎓 (DEI) Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Activist ⚖️ Social Media Marketing 📱 Communication, Culture, & Advocacy 🗣️
Invite Me now for:
💻 Presentations
🗣️ Talks
👨👩👧👦 Panels