In the beginning, most of the work was in the corporate communication world. It was challenging and often interesting, and brought Kevin to many places he never would have visited otherwise: the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, the bridge of a nuclear aircraft carrier, a tiny town in Nebraska, and the Network Operations Center for all of North America's phone calls, to name a few.

But over time, the landscape changed. Corporate messages became ever more cloaked in meaningless buzz words. Messages were no longer heartfelt and customer-oriented. The goal seemed, more and more, to hide information rather than spread it. Programs intended for employees went from a spirit of "let's work together and do great things" to "shut up and be glad you have a job." Budgets dropped dramatically and presentations were being made more and more often on someone's cell phone. The luster of corporate communication was gone. Even at its best, the corporate world was a hard place for Kevin to fit in. When one client reviewed a video and complained, "it's like you're telling a story." That was precisely his goal. When there's no story to tell, it's time for a storyteller to move on.

So McLaughlin decided to move on to what he had always really wanted to do - tell stories that are purely stories, not selling or spinning anything. They're told for entertainment, for education, or for bringing diverse viewpoints together, but they're always told with heart and honesty. In the years since making this shift, Kevin has written four feature-length screenplays (including the award-winning Pinch Me!) and numerous short films. He's been involved as a key member of the teams making several feature films, dramatic series like Big Dogs and TV documentary series such as 48 Hours and CBS Sunday Morning at CBS. He spent 5 years as Producer and Director of Riot, a documentary film taking a hard look at the 1967 riots in Newark, New Jersey, and the after-effects that lingered there for decades afterwards.

Renaissance Productions continues to seek both stories to tell, and collaborators to bring those stories to audiences around the world. If you have a story to tell, or just want to get involved in an already developing story, get in touch with us today!

 EDUCATION

One of Kevin’s goals in the Film/TV world is to help educate the newest generation coning up. And sometimes, to help veteran production people hone their craft and learn new techniques. When he recently realized that a lot of people didn’t understand how to make use of multiple cameras in a production, he felt compelled to make a video to help them learn the best way to make the most of the tools at their disposal. Here is the 2-part instructional series, “Working with Multiple Cameras.”