Cinema & New Media Arts Director Joshua Sikora Launches New Online Series

Cinema & New Media Arts | On Sep 20, 2013

In addition to heading up the Cinema & New Media Arts program at HBU, Joshua Sikora also runs an independent film company, New Renaissance Pictures, which has been the driving force behind a number of cutting edge web productions over the last decade. This month, New Renaissance Pictures is premiering an anthology of short films in a new series co-created and executive produced by Sikora.

The series, entitled The Seventh Spectrum, imagines a universe made up of different “spectrums” of reality. The short films within the series chronicle mysterious events that occur when elements or creatures from other spectrums of reality intrude on our normal world. As an anthology, each film explores this concept from a different angle and the stories come to life through a variety of tones and genres. Some of the stories are light and full of humor, while others venture into darker, more suspenseful territory.

In addition to developing the concept for the series, Sikora serves as executive producer on each of the films in the anthology. In this role, he helped oversee the scripts and production of each film, as well as orchestrating subtle connections between the various stories. While each entry in the series is designed to stand alone, viewers will also be able to track certain characters, places, and objects that appear across multiple films.

These connections help build the mythology behind the series, but also serve as a creative spark for the filmmakers. As the world of The Seventh Spectrum grows, the filmmakers have found more and more to be inspired by. Later entries in the series spin out of interesting groundwork laid in the early stories and with every new film, more of the world is fleshed out and developed. “Our goal is for The Seventh Spectrum to be an ever-expanding online world that grows organically thanks to the collective creativity of our incredible filmmakers,” explains Sikora.

As the series continues, Sikora plans to involve HBU Cinema & New Media Arts students in future Seventh Spectrum productions. The possibility even exists for advanced students to eventually produce their own short films for the series and see their work distributed worldwide through online networks like Hulu. “The beauty of the anthology format is that we can incorporate a lot of different voices into this world,” Sikora explains. “I’d love to see our students joining in that process.”

The series is premiering with two short films and the first season will continue throughout the rest of 2013. The Seventh Spectrum can be watched on Hulu or at http://seventhspectrum.com