New Renaissance Pictures
| Company type | Independent company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film, television, online content production and distribution |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | La Habra, California , United States |
| Products | Films, television series, web serials, multimedia projects |
New Renaissance Pictures is a U.S.-based independent company specializing in the production and distribution of film, television, and online content, established in 2005. The company has played a significant role in developing innovative new media initiatives such as WebSerials.com and the multimedia project The Black Dawn.
History
Starting as one of the earliest online platforms distributing short films, by 2006 New Renaissance Pictures had expanded into producing and distributing critically acclaimed films. These included Be the Man, which won Best African-American Film at the DGA Student Film Awards; Wednesday, recipient of the Jimmy Stewart Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival; and A Shopping Cart Named Desire, honored at the Cinematic Film2Music Competition during Sundance. That same year, the company introduced HD download options for select titles. After Be the Man, New Renaissance partnered again with writer/director Matthew Jones to create Choices, a drama centered on a teenager confronting an unexpected pregnancy.
The company's debut feature-length film, The Deserted, was completed in 2006, followed by two serialized web-based features: Project X and Cataclysmo and the Time Boys. These productions laid the groundwork for WebSerials.com, a division under Sikora Media Group dedicated to serialized online entertainment. Praised by YouTube as showcasing "some of the best dramas available on the web," WebSerials.com emerged as a leading destination for widely viewed web series, spawning sequels and additional serialized content.
In 2009, New Renaissance finalized production on The Black Dawn, an ambitious post-apocalyptic science fiction narrative spanning multiple platforms—feature film, television series, web serial, short film, comic book, and videoblogs—delivering an interactive storytelling experience across varied media formats.
That year, New Renaissance also sponsored the first-ever Film Music Guild Conference, an event designed to connect filmmakers with composers to encourage creative collaboration. Distinguished attendees included Pixar director Pete Docter and editor/composer John Ottman.
August 2010 saw the debut of Best Laid Plans, an unscripted web sitcom fully improvised by its ensemble cast.
In 2016, New Renaissance produced Manifest Destiny: the Lewis & Clark Musical Adventure, a satirical musical comedy directed by Anthony Parisi. This film was adapted from a YouTube series created by Kevin Abrams and Jeremy Hoffman—who returned as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark respectively—and featured Jesse Grotholson portraying Thomas Jefferson alongside Kristen Terry as Sacagawea.