Frequent collaborators
John Hubbell
EXECUTIVE EDITORIAL & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
John Hubbell is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer/producer of American documentary film and media. He created the California Story Company as a collaborative incubator for work with leading visual journalists, interactive designers and principled clients.
John plans, writes and supervises production. He also works independently as a writer and journalist for major publications, as well as a speechwriter, story editor and consultant, helping clients with in-house teams find and shape storylines and edits.
A Northern California native, John served previously as an editor and reporter on the national, foreign and political staffs of The Associated Press, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Asia edition of The New York Times. He has reported and produced work across the United States, the Middle East, Europe and Asia, created master narratives for highly honored museums and led teams on challenging storytelling missions around the world.
John holds a bachelor of science in journalism from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and a master’s degree in folklore/American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as a member of the advisory board of Cal Poly’s Journalism Department and is a member of The Video Consortium, a worldwide community of leading nonfiction video creators.
Lance Murphey
CINEMATOGRAPHER/EDITOR/CO-PRODUCER
Lance is a leading, two-time Emmy Award-winning photojournalist and filmmaker. His work draws on 20 years of experience — much of it as a staff photographer at The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal — and has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor. He has twice been honored as the Scripps Howard Photographer of the Year, and has been recognized by the Best of Photojournalism, the National Press Photographers Association and the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar. Based in Boulder, Lance is a 1988 graduate of the University of Colorado.
Jonathan Kirkscey
COMPOSER
As an arranger and performer, Jonathan has collaborated with a wide range of artists, from Cat Power and Al Green to Smokey Robinson and Johnny Mathis. He scored the acclaimed 2018 documentary on Mister Rogers, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” and received the International Documentary Association’s award for best original music for his work on “Best of Enemies,” centered on the titanic televised clash between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley. He is based in Memphis, Tenn.
Emil Friis
COMPOSER
Emil is a virtuosic singer-songwriter and composer whose work has been widely featured in the United States and Europe. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, he has scored many of the Danish
Broadcasting Corp.’s prestigious documentary projects. His music has been featured in productions by CBS, Warner Bros., Canal+, Discovery Networks and more.
Animadocs
Animadocs creates a diverse variety of media content: story-driven feature films, TV and online series, independent and commissioned shorts, educational videos, viral human rights campaigns, installation art and more. Founded by Maria Stanisheva in 2016, the expertise of Animadocs spans across all stages of animation and documentary production to deliver powerful and visually unique content.
Unified Field
Unified Field creates content-rich, experiential and interactive media for next-generation digital branding, media environments and exhibits in public spaces. Our New York-based collaborator works with major museums, Fortune 500 corporations and cultural institutions to position them for the future by forging new ground in the application of new media technologies. Their work has been recognized by awards from the American Alliance of Museums, SEGD, TEA, and Communication Arts, among others.