Christopher began his filmmaking at an early age by creating super 8 films that starred his brother, Nicolas Cage. He both scripted and scored these very early films. As a teenager, Christopher apprenticed to composer, Carmine Coppola on the film, Apocalypse Now (1979). He went on to study music composition at Redlands University, where he received the prestigious California Arts Council Award for his opera, "Plato's Cave", and for his clarinet quintet, "Reverie". He then began his film studies