Chase Smith: In the Eyes of the Ambitious

4 min readDec 3, 2014

Chase Smith: In the Eyes of the Ambitious

By Chris Conley

Standing in a black hoodie, the large man waits for the call to action. He is well built and has an eye for detail and won’t settle for less than perfection. Making movies is his passion and you can see it through his every emotion whether through excitement, anger, or stress.

Chase Smith is a 34-year-old entrepreneur who decided filmmaking was a passion at a young age.

“I had to make movies,” Smith says. His company Spirit World Productions has now made five feature length films. “The passion to create stories and see them come to life is what drives me.”

Growing up in Snellville, Georgia, Smith’s love for film started early. He wrote a letter to himself in the 3rd grade outlining the goals that he’d like to have accomplished when he read it in the future.

“I said I wanted to play football in college and the NFL, go to the University of Georgia, coach football, teach, and write movies that I could make,” Chase said. “ In some way or another, except the NFL, I have done all of those things.”

Chase didn’t go to film school. Instead he was a personal trainer and power lifter after college. Chase later became a teacher and coach at Brookwood High School where they went undefeated and won a championship in his first year. Smith’s endeavors outside of the film world caused him to realize film is something he couldn’t shake.

When Chase makes a film he is the writer, director, camera operator, set dresser, editor, and sometimes actor all at once. A majority of these skills are self taught and developed through lots of practice.

“It’s really quite amazing to watch him work.” said actress Robyn Hensley, “To say he does the jobs of fifteen people all at the same time probably doesn’t even cover everything he actually does.”

Chase has always viewed his ambition as a key to his success in the film world. When he first set out to make films he and his crew of Spirit World Productions did so with little to no funds and they set their goals high. Smith has channeled his ambition to make his films look “big budget on no budget.”

Chase’s drive and expectations are so high that anything less than what’s expected can cause his tempter to swell. He is even known to have brief outbursts of controlled frustration to refocus his team.

“I have never met someone that will put more blood sweat and tears into projects then him”, said Lance Paul one of Chase’s business partners who has witnessed Chase buckle down in a tough situation.

Actors that work on Smith’s projects admire his dedication to the art of film.

“Chase always pushes himself to be the best he can,” said Zoe Myers, and actress who was involved in Chases projects Perdition and Realm of Souls, “It seems like he is always working on the next project before he’s barely finished his current one.”

In the very short existence of his company, they have already accomplished a impressive list of achievements including worldwide distribution of 3 out of his 5 feature length films and a 48 Hour film festival first place win.

“We aren’t too proud to think we can’t get better,” Chase said. “We get better each time and top ourselves.”.

“He is to able create smart, interesting, and unique scripts faster than anyone I have ever known, and he is able to convey his vision in a way that inspires confidence and creates excitement in everyone we work with” said Edward Boss, Chase’s long time partner in Spirit World Films.

Chase admits he would like to see the works of his company one day reach Netflix or Redbox and with the kind of success Spirit World has had as of late this doesn’t seem to far out of the question in the near future.

Spirit World is currently in postproduction on two films titled “Buried Cain” and “Creature Feature” and looks to add those two titles to its list of successfully distributed films. Chase plans to attend the well-known American Film Market in Los Angeles to get their films more exposure.

“It is our goal to expand out of our current office and warehouse space to our own local, full service studio right here in Atlanta within the next two years.” said Smith

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Written by Chris Conley