Channel B4 is a production entity supporting Jonathon Stearns' award-winning original work and collaborations, and producing work-for-hire video and multimedia content for clients.       

Since 2001, CB4 has produced documentaries, ads, music videos, video design for live performance, 2.5D animation, immersive video, motion graphics/design, live streaming, instructional design. Original and commissioned work.

Award-winning original work includes immersive haunted house experience Fearhouse, radio play/animated web series The Shortest Distance, short films Cascade, SCAN, horror screenplays, web serial Ann Magnuson's Dream Puppet Theater, web site eddicted.

Channel B4 is in production on an animated feature film, The Star , based on an H.G. Wells short story, co-directed by Stacy Stearns and Jonathon Stearns.

Jonathon Stearns BIO

Stearns is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, musician and educator.

Stearns graduated from the SUNY Purchase Film school. He worked at Broadway scene shop Showtech and recieved extensive training in set construction. He also worked at night club 7 Willow Street designing and creating scenic installations and lighting for live music. After graduating, he lived in NYC and worked as the house lighting designer for the famed Bottom Line Theater-Cabaret where he lit concerts for Taj Majal, Donal Fagan, Jeff Buckley and many others. He was also part of the original Shooting Gallery team.

He moved to Los Angeles in the early 90s and worked in SFX and set construction for Cinnabar, Jet Sets and others, and as a staff video editor for non-profit EZTV. He also moonlighted as a screenwriter/script polisher.

He soon started art directing music videos and commericals for top production companies Propaganda Films, DNA, HSI, Satellite - with artists including Mariah Carey, The Cure, Beck, Primal Scream and multiple titles for Death Row Records artists including Snoop Dogg, RZA, Nate Dogg.

He regularly performed/recorded in the LA music scene on trumpet and piano with artists including The Geraldine Fibbers, Ann Magnuson, Possum Dixon, Rickie Lee Jones, The Abe Lincoln Story, Velouria, Liquor Cabinet, The 99th Fuck You, Leather Hyman, The Rex Dakota All Stars, and many others. His own psychedlic instrumental band Tesch performed at both South by Southwest and North by Northwest music festivals and recorded/released a full length record and an EP.

In the mid 90s Stearns began to direct, and made music videos for local bands Lutefisk (Bongload records) and The Geraldine Fibbers (Virgin) which were both featured on the popular MTV show 120 Minutes. He was offered representation as a director with commercial production company Original Film, and later 1171 Productions, making music videos for Velocity Girl, Phunk Junkeez, Throneberry, and others.

In the late 90s, Stearns took a staff position as a director/editor with digital publisher Quickband Networks serving as a main content contributor for multiple releases of Circuit and Short Cinema Journal - "magazines on DVD". Short form documentaries included artists Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Moby, Cake, Ween , Mark Mothersbaugh, a tour of Liberace's Las Vegas mansion guided by a Liberace Impersonator and more. Distributed through Warner Home Video.

After the dot-com crash in the early '00s and the advent of YouTube, Quickband was folded, and Stearns formed micro production company Channel B4, originally located at the Mack Sennett studio in Siver Lake, CA. CB4 produced original and work-for-hire content. Clients included Hollywood Records, Harley-Davidson Apparel, Deloitte, Boyd Communications, CalArts, and an animated music video for Rickie Lee Jones.

Original work includes live radio play farce The Shortest Distance, (written and produced by Stearns), performed in a Hollywood theater with a large cast and live music ensemble. The audio recording was later re-vamped as an animated web serial. Stearns also created the award-winning experimental short film SCAN.

In the '10s he formed allstar band The Silver Palm Trio, which performed 30s and 40s songs in Los Angeles and recorded an EP.

In the late '10s Stearns created a sizeable body of work for CalArts for marketing and recruitment, and briefly served as the Director of AV for animal rights org PETA. During the pandemic he took a remote position as a media content creator for energy company TRC.

Stearns became interested in education and was hired at USC in 2022 as an adjunct professor, teaching digital media production at the Annenberg School. He soon advanced to part-time and currently teaches several classes. In 2023 he took a position as the Senior Media specialist at Southwestern Law School, creating trsining snd marketing content. He continues to do projects with Channel B4.

Production of a long form animation project The Star - based on and HG Wells short story started in the mid 00s continues as a legacy work, with release targeted for early 2027.