Two years later, Chris was part of the Honors Scholar Program at the University of Michigan where he majored in Communications with an emphasis on film. For his Honors thesis, he wrote, produced and directed a feature length vampire script. The project earned him an “A”, but more importantly, when using the film as a resume in L.A. months later, some companies actually offered to buy the film, but had to pass when they learned it was shot on the only format Chris could afford at the time – VHS (which isn’t ‘broadcast quality’ and hence, not marketable).

So right after graduation, Chris moved to L.A. where the tricks of low-budget filmmaking were made evident to him while working at Roger Corman's Concorde Studios in Venice, California. Corman, who has produced and/or directed over 400 films in a career dating over 50 years, mastered the art of getting the most out of every production dollar. Working in that environment helped prepare Chris for the projects he knew he’d be making later on.

Even located in L.A., Chris faced the dilemma of most unknown writers without connections; he couldn't get anyone to take the time to look at his work. Undeterred, he jumped back into production work, first as a production assistant and quickly making the move to art department and props. While working in this capacity on a number of forgettable low- budget films and televisions shows, including "Sweet Valley High" and the short lived Fox program "VR-5".

After returning to Michigan and spending almost a year trying to raise a $500,000 budget for a project of his own, he resigned himself to the fact that the film was too ambitious and the timing just wasn’t right. So Chris headed West once again, settling down this time in Las Vegas. Wanting more free time to write, Chris took a job as a blackjack dealer starting at a small casino downtown and working his way up to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Opting for the ease of a part-time job in Vegas over the 60+ hour work weeks on independent productions, more scripts were completed as well as another re-write and polishing of "Impact" - the second script he ever wrote. Once again facing the difficulty of securing an agent without having any connections, Chris decided "Impact" was ready and capable of being done on a minimal budget.

As is usually the case, the small budget was raised through friends, family and Chris’ credit cards and shot back in Michigan where his connections allowed for a lot of help and favors. Upon conclusion of the filming, Chris returned to Los Angeles where he began the long editing process. After a few days of pick-ups (additional shooting) a few months later, the editing of the film continued. Using an early, unfinished version of the film, a few copies were sent out to film festivals, three of which accepted the piece on the strength of this early rough cut. The rough cut proceeded to win awards at film festivals. Over the space of a year more than a dozen festivals featured the film which won awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Debut Film, Audience Choice Award, Best Actor and Best Debut Film.

Despite all the accolades, “Impact” was unable to secure distribution. When it comes to low-budget films, Chris found, distributors want “name” stars and/or what they call the highly marketable genres – action, sci-fi, horror, and family. So “Impact” was relegated to the proverbial shelf.

Several years later, Chris made the move from casino employee to internet entrepreneur. Partnering with a friend who already had considerable success in domain name brokering and website development, he and his new business partner expanded out into filmmaking as well.

Chris was committed to making sure their first film venture together would be successful, so he crafted a highly marketable script called “The Casino Job.” The tale of five sexy women in Las Vegas who rob a casino was, naturally, an easy sell. Although made with a small budget, it was quickly picked up by international distributor Maverick Entertainment and proceeded to sell more than 100,000 DVDs the first week of release.

With such a great success for such a small budget, Chris now has a handful of other projects in the works so watch for this site to change soon when the newest film is announced in the very near future.