About Channel B4 Media
OVERVIEW
Channel B4 Media was formed on Jan 1, 2002 by owner/creative director and multimedia developer Jonathon Stearns. Based in Los Angeles, CB4M creates multimedia content, including video production and post, animation, motion graphics, web design, music/audio production, and more. Offices are located in Silver Lake, CA.
HISTORY
In the months following 9/11, Stearns realized that there was a demand for a small niche multimedia company. Initial clients included Harley-Davidson, Hollywood Records, CalArts, and a range of independents. As the decade progressed, Stearns continually adapted with changes in technology, and has since expanded to a long list of organizations including Boyd Communications, Deloitte, Pytka, e-MDs, Hello! Productions, and many others. The original offices for Channel B4 media (then called Return to Whatever Media) were located in the historic Mack Sennett stages in Silver Lake CA until 2007. After a 2 year exploration/experiment of being based in a rural setting, the offices were relocated to Silver Lake.
STEARNS BIO
Jonathon Stearns is a multimedia developer and film maker. Since 2001, he has worked through Channel B4 Media to develop, author and produce content for the web/mobile devices, live presentation/theater, television, and DVD. Prior to founding CB4M, Stearns was a staff producer-director for Quickband Networks to create original content for the world's first magazines on DVD, Circuit and Short Cinema Journal via Warner Home Video. Prior to Quickband, Stearns was represented by Original Film in Los Angeles as a commercial director, and as a commercial art director for Propaganda Films, Satellite, David Naylor Associates, HSI, and others.
Stearns graduated from the film program at SUNY Purchase in 1989. While in college and later while living in NYC, he created scenic installations and lighting designs for night clubs, and worked as a carpenter-welder for a Broadway scene shop (Showtech). In the late 1980's he was hired as the house lighting designer for the Bottom Line Theater Cabaret, and moonlighted as a contributor at the original Shooting Gallery film studio. Stearns moved to Los Angeles in 1991, and worked as a special effects technician and set builder for Cinnabar and other effects/scenery companies. He then took a full time job as a video editor at EZTV, and created materials ranging from actor's demo reels (including a still fledgling Viggo Mortenson) to a public access TV show.
Trained since youth as a musician (trumpet and piano), Stearns began playing in various local Los Angeles bands, and simultaneously began working in the music video world. Utilizing the skills learned from set construction and effects, he found work as an art director for music videos and commercials, with credits on projects with Beck, Mariah Carey, Hootie and the Blowfish, The Cure, Primal Scream, and many others. He began directing music videos, initially for bands of his friends, including Lutefisk and the Geraldine Fibbers, and was later represented by Original Film.
Stearns meanwhile continued as an active participant in the local music scene, and played /recorded with The Geraldine Fibbers, Possum Dixon, Ann Magnuson, Abe Lincoln Story, Liquor Cabinet, Leather Hyman, Velouria, Flourescein and others. He also formed his own instrumental psychedelic/jazz/rock group Tesch, which recorded an LP and an EP, and aside from performing at local venues such as Spaceland and Silver Lake Lounge was invited to perform at music festivals North by Northwest and South by Southwest, and listed as one of the "Best Unsigned Bands" by the LA Weekly. Stearns continues to create music, both for live performance and as soundtracks for various video and theater projects.
In 1998 Stearns took a full time job as a staff director-editor with Quickband (a now defunct subsidiary of On2) to create original content for the world's first magazines on DVD, Circuit and Short Cinema Journal. Assignments included making a variety of short form documentary content, graphics and experimental work. After the dot-com crash in 2000, Stearns worked as a free-lancer and developed a business plan for a lifestyle-centric DVD title, but the events of September 11 crippled the venture capital market and the project was shelved. He then rented an office space and opened the doors of CB4M.
Stearns is married to dance-theater artist and educator Stacy Dawson Stearns, and they live with their daughter.