User:Abamedia/sandbox

Introduction
Since 1978, the media production companies of [www.abamedia.com Abamedia] Founder, President and CEO J. Mitchell Johnson, have produced award-winning documentaries, docudrama and independent feature film productions for the global marketplace. In addition, Abamedia has broken historic ground in Web-based media enterprises with the creation of the popular RussianArchives.com, as well as investments into advanced cloud-based media-sharing technologies.

In recent years, Abamedia has established presences in San Francisco, California, Austin, and in the Russian Federation. While the company’s administrative headquarters and image licensing business remains in Texas, it uses an expanding US-Russian platform to better access the global media market and clients that include leading cultural institutions, businesses and media companies.

Abamedia's network of specialists, consultants and advisors are situated around the world. This human capital helps provide the expertise, experience and insights required to successfully produce the most challenging of media projects — an Abamedia trademark.

J. Mitchell Johnson, Abamedia Founder, President and CEO
As a producer, director, writer and consultant on international media projects, J. Mitchell Johnson has been responsible for creating high-quality film and video programming, broadcast on major networks worldwide. Winning numerous top producing and directing awards at US and European film festivals, his career is highlighted by ground-breaking work and alliances forged with the Russian television and film industry and their film, photo, television and radio repositories. In addition, Johnson is the driving and creative force behind Abamedia’s independent film, new media, ancillary products, archival image distribution, and proprietary, media sharing innovations.

“We have all witnessed a vast, fast-moving and transformational wave of technological and cultural change redefine the media industry in recent years. Despite the fact that Internet media distribution solves one of the biggest historical challenges facing independent filmmakers, it is also true that the more things change, the more they remain the same. The audience demands and appreciates, high-caliber storytelling that reflects the best of our culture’s historical and cultural achievement. At the same time, Internet media based media business models don’t fully satisfy. Thus there remains the need to transform old models and make them new. Abamedia’s goal has always been to search for and hopefully discover emerging borders between old and new media, and to fully engage and participate in this paradoxical new world of technological potential and media business models. The emphasis on creating quality projects remains at the heart of the Abamedia mission.”

-- J. Mitchell Johnson

Johnson received a Masters degree in Cinema from the University of Southern California (USC), where he developed a keen interest in education and documentaries working at USC’s Annenberg School of Communications. After several years under the mentorship of the legendary documentary filmmaker Charles Guggenheim, in Washington, D.C., Johnson returned to Texas to found Fort Worth Productions, which became well-known in the field of fine arts documentaries for A&E and PBS prime-time presentations. 1981 saw the founding of both J. MItchell Johnson Productions Inc. and Abamedia LP.

In 1986, he acquired the moving image license to Fodors, the premier name in travel, and founded TravelWorld Video, LP to finance, produce, and market cultural documentaries for travelers. After producing fourteen Fodor’s films that were distributed for TV and home video sales throughout the world, the Fodor’s project was sold to Random House and Johnson turned his attentions to new horizons.

Through a USAID Internews grant, in 1997, Johnson formed the Archive Media Project, L.P. with leaders in the Russian film and scientific community, to provide international access to the formerly closed image archives of the Russian Republic. This resulted in the public-private initiative, RussianArchives.com (RAO) that highlights images from the Russian State Film and Photo Archives at Krasnogorsk, as well as other Russian-based image archives. Archive projects have included development of the RAO website itself, the digital catalogue of 45,000 films from Soviet times, and the creation of an international image licensing system which allows expedited access to rarely seen or heard audiovisual materials. Fifteen years after its inception, RAO is the leading English language Web site serving producers, educators and others interested in Soviet-era motion picture and photo images.

Abamedia’s unique access to these Russian archival gems helped further elevate the company’s reputation in the television industry. Two of the immediate outcomes were the production of the critically acclaimed four-part series, Red Files, produced for prime-time PBS and distributed worldwide by Buena Vista Television and Home Video, as well as Yanks for Stalin, produced for The History Channel. Red Files won the "Best Limited Series" award from the Los Angeles-based International Documentary Association (IDA). The Red Files PBS website — created by Abamedia and Austin, Texas-based advertising agency GSD&M —remains an accessible resource with extensive images, interview transcripts and educational concepts. In addition, Abamedia orchestrated and oversaw the creation and publication of a companion book, by acclaimed writer George Feiffer, entitled Red Files: Secrets from the Russian Archives; published by TV Books.

Abamedia’s first venture in the independent, feature film market, World Without Waves (2004), was written and directed by Johnson. World Without Waves debuted as an Official Selection at the Moscow International Festival, and went on to win “Best Southwest Film” at the Santa Fe Film Festival.

When not traveling, J. Mitchell Johnson lives in Rostov-on-Don, Russia with his wife, Svetlana, and his two step-children, Dasha (25) and Artum (12). Johnson’s son, Phillip (26), is based in Austin, Texas.

Looking Forward
Currently, Abamedia is in simultaneous production in the USA and Russia on multiple documentaries and media projects as a part of the “Fort Ross Bicentennial Media Project”: showcasing the extraordinary living history of Fort Ross, California — the first Imperial Russian settlement in America. Generous sponsors and clients of this initiative include Viktor Vekselberg’s Links of Time Foundation, the Renova Fort Ross Foundation, and the Fort Ross Conservancy, Inc.

Concurrently, Abamedia has consulted to, and is partnered with, the Computer History Museum (CHM) of Mountain View, California, in the development of new media programming aimed at international media outlets. Our collaboration also includes several, non-broadcast-oriented projects in development, including the first steps towards a planned archive of Soviet Computer Pioneers at the museum. Funded by the Russian Venture Company of Moscow and Boston, the archive will feature still-living participants of Soviet era technology telling their stories on high-definition video for the first-time; to the benefit of future generations of historians, technology buffs and future documentary filmmakers.

The Abamedia Team
The Abamedia team is composed of highly experienced and esteemed advisors, consultants and industry professionals, based around the world, who participatie in varying capacities on specific projects. The following is only a partial and ongoing listing of our colleagues.

Steven Leibman, Senior Consultant
Mr. Leibman provides Abamedia with managerial oversight, funding and distribution strategies, and project development. Mr. Leibman was previously Abamedia's Senior Vice President of Creative Affairs; Vice President of Tom Schulman Productions at Touchstone Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures; independent media consultant (e.g., Universal Studios); independent feature film development consultant; Director of Marketing and Communications for The Los Angeles Theatre Center and Connecticut's Hartford Ballet; and President and COO of The Thinking Cap Company, the pioneering, licensed genre movie merchandise firm, with properties including The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien, Bladerunner, and Star Trek, among others.

Gábor Beszterczey, Ph.D., Consultant, Russian Archives Online
Dr. Beszterczey is an international journalist and producer of over 200 documentaries and series programs for Hungarian and international television, most recently as the western correspondent for Hungarian TV Channel 1. Dr. Beszterczey was the producer/director for over half of the Fodor's films for J. Mitchell Johnson's TravelWorldVideo, LP, and served as international producer for Made in Russia and Yanks for Stalin. He has produced programs internationally for over fifteen years, and is a valuable asset for contacts in the world TV market.

Johnathan Sanders, Ph.D., Senior Editor, Russian Archives Online
Dr. Sanders is one of the West's leading experts on Russian film-based visual culture. He has written two books on the subject — 1917: The Unpublished Revolution (NY: Abbeville Press, 1989); and, with Hedi Hollinger, The Russians Emerge (NY: Abbeville Press, 2002) — as well as motion picture and video materials. Sanders has worked extensively on television news programs, specials, and documentaries, including consulting on the website component of the award-winning Red Files series, produced by Abamedia for PBS. He spent a decade as a Moscow-based CBS news correspondent. and served as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He is also a working still photographer: his pictures illustrate Richard Threlkeld's book, Dispatches From the Former Evil Empire. He is currently director of the project On the Russian Future, and a consultant on international broadcasting and media matters.

Foster Nelson, Acting Chief Financial Officer
Foster Nelson, a graduate of Texas A&M University and a Certified Public Accountant, spent the first five years of his career in public accounting with Arthur Young & Company. From 1970 until 1995 he held various financial and executive positions with various insurance subsidiaries of what is now Citigroup. From 1995 to December 1996, Mr. Nelson was EVP and CFO of Transport Holdings, Inc., a life and health insurance holding company that spun off from Travelers Group (now Citigroup) in 1995. Mr. Nelson has been an investor in and consultant to Abamedia since 1996.

Bruce Maggin, Advisor, New Media
Bruce Maggin has been in the forefront of creating a succession of new businesses that have increased consumer entertainment and information alternatives. During his career, he has held senior management positions in virtually every segment of the media and communications industries.

Prior to forming The H.A.M. Media Group, Mr. Maggin headed the ABC Multimedia Group, one of the five divisions of ABC, Inc. In that role he was responsible for centralizing and expanding ABC's activities to address the impact of the digital world. Among the businesses created by the Multimedia Group were ventures that develop and produce content for interactive software, on-line and internet services, location based entertainment, and video-on-demand. Mr. Maggin was also responsible for the company's home video business, new media sales, and spearheading ABC's technology investments.

He had previously been head of the Development/Operations unit of Capital Cities/ABC Video Enterprises where he oversaw all of the company's start-up and venture business activities. These included electronic data delivery technologies, interactive broadcast services, pay-per-view, and place based media. Mr. Maggin was also responsible for several international consultancies.

Mr. Maggin joined ABC originally in 1970 as part of the company's corporate planning department. He left ABC to work as a merger and acquisition consultant for a major Wall Street bank and subsequently became Vice President of Ziff Corporation, the parent company of Ziff-Davis Publishing and Broadcasting. He returned to ABC in 1982.

Mr. Maggin has been a member of the Board of Directors of several companies including cable networks, Lifetime and ESPN, and the software companies Creative Wonders and O.T. Sports. He is currently a Director of Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (NYSE: PVH) and Control Commerce, as well as Chief Executive of atTV Media. A member of the New York State Bar, he received a BA degree from Lafayette College and JD and MBA degrees from Cornell University.

John T. Healy, Advisory Partner, Program Development
John T. Healy has established a reputation as one of the broadcasting industry's leading international executives. Under Mr. Healy's guidance, Capital Cities/ABC created a series of important and lucrative relationships around the globe that positioned the company as the premiere television distribution organization in the world. The success of Mr. Healy's international activities is the culmination of a long and meaningful career with ABC.

During his tenure as President, ABC International Operations and Executive Vice President, ABC Cable & International, Mr. Healy was responsible for ABC's investment activities in programming, production, distribution, and broadcasting around the world. Among the investments for which Mr. Healy was responsible were Tele-Munchen and RTL2 in Germany, Tesauro in Spain, Hamster Productions in France, TVA in Brazil, as well as SBS in Scandinavia. Mr. Healy was also responsible for ABC's interests in Asia including the creation of children's programming services in both China and India.

Mr. Healy joined ABC in 1970 after assignments with both General Foods and Lehigh Valley Industries. Initially a member of ABC's corporate planning department, Mr. Healy became Vice President of ABC's Leisure Group which oversaw most of the company's non-broadcasting activities. In 1979, Mr. Healy facilitated the creation of ABC Video Enterprises, the unit that became the company's vehicle for new media investments.

As Executive Vice President of Video Enterprises, Mr. Healy was also instrumental in the creation and success of ABC's cable ventures. He was a member of the Boards of Directors of cable networks, Arts & Entertainment, Lifetime, and ESPN from their inception. He is currently on the Advisory Board of Envest, a Latin American fund, a Director of Microcast, as well as Chairman of the Management Committee and a Director of StoryFirst Communications. Mr. Healy is also a Director of the International Council, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Community
In tandem with his dynamic business pursuits, Abamedia Founder, President and CEO J. Mitchell Johnson has been a community leader in a wide variety of positions.

Current
President, Lone Star Film Society

Board member of The Russian American Center, San Francisco, CA

Culture Sub-Committee member of the US-Russia Joint Presidential Commission – Washington-Moscow

Past
Chairman of the Media Panel for the Texas Committee for the Arts

President, Texas Independent Producers Association

Chairman, Education and Technology Panel, US-Russia Exchange Symposium of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia

Board Member and City Committee Chairman, Fort Worth Sister Cities International

Board member of the Mental Health Association of Tarrant County