Vincibly Yours, a New Media Portfolio

When I set out to start my own business, with naught but a towel and basic Video Editing Skills, I could not have foreseen the journey I would take--the Videos I would make--nor could I have foreseen the Potential and Prowess I would come to possess. From not having a clue how and where to begin to walking in on a conversation that led to my first project, I have come a long way.

But don't take my word for it. Read on, or skip ahead, and see for yourself.


The first video I uploaded onto YouTube was that of my Brother and I coercing my Dog, Rameses, to jump on top of and then into the Trash Can. It was a mean trick. It was child's play.

Back then, I worked for a Tech Firm by the name of Digital Music Group, Incorporated. I was their Video Operations Manager, and I did all sorts of stuff. But I was not yet a Video Editor.

As is wont to happen in the Universe, things changed.

There was a merger, and shortly thereafter, I made the decision to part ways.

With the knowledge and insight of a burgeoning industry tucked gingerly in my pocket, I took perspective on what I could become without a Parent Company to back my name.

I had three main goals in mind:

•First, to create original content, of all types, suitable for the Web and Mobile Handheld Devices.
•Second, to connect and network with others in the content creation field.
•Third, to earn Revenue from my works, collaborative and independent, on or by November 2008.

I have thus far achieved all but the third goal.

My education and experience spans multiple cultures and countries. I have a fevered attitude toward success, and am a stranger to quitting before my work is done. Yet, I alone, without contacts and context, can do nothing.

It is through establishing new contracts and opportunities that my Partners and I will succeed in a Niche Entertainment Business that is fast becoming a Digital Hollywood.

And now, without further ado, I would like to direct your attention to the embedded Portfolio Players (below the break) to view the work I produce for Professional Clients and when at Play.


Vincibly Yours,

Russell Albert Berridge
Mac of All Trades | Almost Awesome Prod.


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From My Personal Collection

And Counting

When I first took to writing, it was not a Skill or a Talent. And I sure as hell didn't think that I'd keep at it as I have all these years. I say this, for it has often been a fault of mine to begin some thing (hobby, activity, project), only to later discard the thing, in favor of some other shiny experience.

Writing taught me Discipline. But it didn't happen over night.

I was steeled by the Pen, and have bled black and blue in more composition books than I can recall. It was with the Keyboard that I fortified the devastating potential of words so casually scrawled on paper scraps, napkins, and in notebooks. But it would be many years before I stumbled upon the inkling that my inkings qualified me for the title of Writer.

Sure, back when I didn't know what I was doing or saying (sometime around the age of 9), I deemed my self a Poet (a wholly different ilk, rest assured). Verily, I did not know then that I had been set on a crooked path of scribbles and, eventually, salvation.

Writing was (and is) my medicine.

One day, I threw caution to the wind and leapt into the wilds of a Journaling Web Site...And I didn't just leap...I took off. I filled electronic page after electronic page with the everything of My Life. Through the medium of Poetry and Prose, I evolved on screen. For better and worse. But mostly for the better. All happening just outside of Real Time. With little to no censorship.

At one point, I had a loyal base of readers and haters, and it was becoming apparent that, like it or not, I was (and am) a Writer.

Then, suddenly, the gift vanished. Or, rather, was tarnished by lackadaise and neglect. And it wasn't so sudden, this disappearing act. It was a process.

I remember when it happened, too. It was sometime after returning from Europa that I just up and threw in my ink- and blood- and tear-stained towel. It wasn't that I had had enough.

It might have been that I'd grown up. It might have been that I was in Love.

For all I know, the "Writer's Block" I experienced was the very sort of plot twist I needed to plant deep the Writerly Seed into my Being. For, in the space between, the Absence was filled with a great deal of Life and its tag-along Lessons.

By not writing, I learned to be the Writer that I am. (Now and evermore.)

And here I am, again, rambling across the 'board with deft strokes and linguistic pokes. Our core predilections (read: talents and attributes) can be sublimated for one's entire Life. But they can, and will, bubble and burst forth from time to time; and when this happens, one either accepts their given duty, or quickly suffocates the awakening with folly and distraction.

The latter course will only delay the liberation that is self-realization. (It can also leave a few nasty scars.)

To write is not a Choice.
It is my Charge.

I will not go gentle into the good night. I will rage, rage until I am made of light.

Uncertain Tea

There are certain teas which cannot be wholly brewed without first being uncertain teas. But the bitterness of the brew stems not from the leaves, but from the seeds (of doubt, cynicism, and even uncertainty itself). Such uncertain teas take root, sprout, and yield their crop just like any other tea. And it is only at the first bitter sip does the grower sense and spit up the error of his ways.

The seeds of my uncertain tea were planted when I decided to leave the Company. It was perhaps not the right season to plant such things, but I could no more bear to be soiled by the toil of a Corporate Life.

And, for a time, it was good. But then I received my Employee Termination and Consultation Agreements.

My decision, it seemed, was no longer so good.

As the Legalese of these Agreements steeped a thick, binding, brambly broth in my cup, I could not help but think, 'I'm screwed'.

Were I to quit my signature (read: sign away my Freedom) on the first draft of those damning documents, it would have been the end of the world as I knew it.

No more Writing! No more prospect of becoming a Tube Mogul! No more Internets! (Not for one whole year!)

Yet, here I am. And with good reason: I uprooted my uncertain tea and made of it a certain tea. I took up my Professional Death Warrant and stated with conviction to the Company my intent: to write, to produce, and to be merry.
And so it was granted: the Agreements were revised to and defined my intentions as non-competition.

No more Doubt! No more Cynicism! No more Uncertainty!

In every one of us lies the power to deny that which might bind us to a fate less deserving....But you must be this power to wield the power.

To that end, I say: 'Where there is uncertain tea, drink and be merry'!

The Farewell Form Letter

Dear Associate,

I never wanted to do this: to say Goodbye. Yet here I am, and here I go: I write to you today to inform you that I am taking my leave of the Company.

This decision is entirely personal. There are a great many obligations to my family and home that I can ill afford to ignore. When I accepted the offer to head the Video Team in New York, I shut out the protests of my sensibilities, and in the same stroke turned away from my responsibilities.
But now they've had their final say.
It was for me as it was for Robinson Crusoe: "...my ill fate pushed me on with an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and though I had several times loud calls from my reason, and my more composed judgment, to go home...I had no power to do it".

I do not want to say Goodbye; but I must.
It's going to be all right. Just breathe.

In the coming weeks, the following will occur as we transition our working relationship:

1) I will personally introduce you to my successor; 2) I will compile a detailed account of the History and Future of your catalogue; and 3) I will make this as seamless and painless a process as possible.

I thank you for the honor and privilege of your partnership as we traversed this Digital Domain.

We are the pioneers of an Undiscovered Country.
Our successes have only just begun.


Humbly and Sincerely Yours,

The Vincible Man

The Intern

One morning, the Intern was buzzing with rumor, "They're having me research DVD Ripping and Video on the Web".
'And'...?
"I think they're going to start distributing Video".
'Ain't that something'.

To the Intern, this was just idle talk.
To me, it was opportunity.

Little did I know it, but fortune was with me that day...the Intern knew very little about the subject he was chasing...I put on one of my hats, and wowed him with the (limited) knowledge I had acquired from "testing the extent of copyright law"...And he became a believer.
In fact, had I not followed my instincts to bull my way in and help him with the project (whether he liked it or not), things would be a lot different.

For one, I would not be here. Not now.
It's true*.
But by being bullish and sincerely interested in his cause, I challenged Fate to a duel, and won the day.

It was the intern who planted the seeds...and it was I that reaped the destiny.

About a week or two after the Intern had made his end-of-Summer presentations, where he shared the collective knowledge of his research, I was pulled aside by the Chief Operating Office...He said, "we are moving you to the Video Team...I want you to think of this as a lateral move". I didn't know what to say. But I said, 'yes. I'll do it'.
In a way, it was sad to leave behind the Audio Duties I'd grown to love....'Goodbye, barcodes, CDs, and ripping machines.! Goodbye, audio delivery system! You've all been too kind'!

My transition to Video was complete by November of 2006.
...It's been one hell of an Adventure...

All because an Intern went "kachoo"!
...
...
*[Don't ponder the meaning of the statement 'I would not be here. Not now.' too intensely. Answers come with time.]

Generation Y Will Not Be Televised

I belong to a generation that is connected, mobile, and electronic. The Earth is Round, but it is also Flat--in the palm of my hand, the world at my command. I stand at the edge of what is more like an abyss than a mere generation gap....On one side of the abyss, there are millions, if not billions, like me--adapted to and integrated with technology.

Resistance is futile.

We can share the programming of our lives with our phones, cameras, and webcams. We can instantly communicate with one another through social networking sites or via txt msgs. We are everywhere, and we don't have to leave our seats to be there.

It is often difficult to fathom that there are those who are not like us. Yet, on the other side of the abyss...there are millions, if not billions, who remain unassimilated by the Ways of Tech....The Gods must be Crazy.

Our world is on-demand and user-generated. We can be Change. But only if we don't do something foolish with the gift the abyss has given us.

You say you want a revolution?
Well, you know, we are already there.

In the Beginning

I didn't apply for the Job directly. It came to me through a Temporary Agency.
They said, "we have an opening at a digital music company...are you interested"?
'Yes, very,' I said.

I wasn't told much about the Job by the Agency. Something about data entry. Something about "ripping" CDs. It sounded too good to be true.

I can still remember the first and only interview. It was two on one in a windowed corner office. I was on an orange--or maybe it was red--couch. And the mild-mannered bald man and the slouched programmer were in black office chairs not so far away from me.
I was asked several questions about my music preferences...what did I think about this or that genre...this or that artist...what made me an ideal candidate...usual and unusual questions...I wasn't exactly run through the ringer.

After the interview came the tour of the office--and at that moment, I knew I had it in the bag.

The next day, a phone call, "Company Z wants you to start tomorrow".
'Ummm, yeah, I'll be there'. I couldn't say no.

My original intent was to work for six months, to earn enough for a semester at a Language School...But, somehow, as if by force other than self-will, I was given a responsibility larger than myself and gave back two years plus to the Company.

I gave heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears. I gave my all.

Then along came a merger...and, well, that's another story for another time. Suffice to say, for now, Change comes in many unexpected forms. First it came as an opportunity. And presently...perhaps as an end.

But not The End.

The Pillars of Education

I have 98.6 degrees. To earn my degrees, I did not give four to eight years to an institution of higher learning. Instead, I gave twenty-seven years to learning and surviving on a hostile, friendly, and paradoxical planet.

So far so good.

I have no (official) papers to state that I'm a Mac of All Trades; I do a lot of things--unofficially. That's just the way of it when Life is the primary school of instruction.

Know that I have been (and will be) many things.
Read to believe.
Let experience lead.
...
...
The "Mac" of All Trades:

It was the Nintendo Entertainment System that turned me into a "Tech Junky". But it was a hand-me-down Kaypro II Computer System that turned me on to the world of Computing. Shortly thereafter, myriad X86s would open their Windows 3.1s, 95s, NTs, 98 SEs, and show their view of the world.
And for a time, it was good.
Then, one day, the Windows closed. I was in the fourth grade; and there, suddenly, was a Performa, with a one-button mouse, and Oregon Trail blazing on the display. But I never made it to Oregon; no, I found something better...the Wide World of the Web.

In that moment, I learned to Think Different.

The years passed, and I studied the arts (drawing, sculpting, photography), examined the physical and the spiritual worlds, and read many, many books (of leisure, science, and history). I took to the writing of poems and prose, in my native English and in the languages of the world (Japanese, Italian, French). I have lived and loved in foreign lands (Japan, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland).

[To witness the rising of the sun in another land is to realise truth beyond words.]
...
...
I am fond of all my degrees, even if they are not hanging with pride on my wall.

I repeat:

Know that I have been (and will be) many things.
Read to believe.
Let experience lead.

What I Done Did

To describe what it is I do, I often have to resort to a lengthy explanation and pop culture references. I can't just say, 'I am the Video Operations Manager for Company X' and expect a wink of understanding and a shift in the conversation. I have to add, 'I manage a team of editors and analysts, and we take pre-produced or un-cut video, perform a digital transfer, edit and digitally master the video, and then create custom or as-is products for distribution within our network of Online and Mobile Retail Outlets'; even then, the response is the same blank stare and a smile that's searching for a reply.
When I resort to, 'we sell music videos and TV shows on iTunes, as well as monetise the videos with advertising on sites like YouTube', then the real smiles and nods of seeing the light come on...and my mission is complete. One more person knows what I do, or did...And there was much rejoicing.

For those whom know not the joys of iTunes and YouTube, I simply have to wing it, and hope for the best. I say, 'we acquire the rights to digitally sell and advertise against music videos, classic television (Gumby, My Favorite Martian, I Spy), and even a magic series by Criss Angel...We do not have physical distribution rights; there are no DVDs made. It's all done digitally--straight to your phone, computer, or other portable electronic device'.
And I always add, 'it's an interesting space to be in, because part of the experience is learning how to monetise all these videos. Because, in truth, not even "the big names" (NBC, MTV, CBS) are making the returns they'd hoped for...Not yet, anyway'.

To describe what it is I do, it is probably best if I say, 'I'm an amusement park technician; I run the roller coaster'. I'll say, 'yeah, I just pull the crank and listen to the screams. It's terribly satisfying'.

And that will be that.

First and Last

Today is beginning of the last day of my formal employment. Willingly, I am choosing to live in the uncertainty of unemployment. For now, I'd rather maintain my Home and Sanity than hustle and bustle in a big City.
Originally, I had every intention of "staying in the business" and forging a name for the Company and my self.

But things don't always pan out as planned.

It all happened at such an unwitting pace, that I cannot help but reflect on the possible grand implications of my minor decision to decline the job offer I'd once accepted.
What was it that changed within my heart? My mind?
Was it as simple as fear? (Of moving to another city...Of leaving friends and family...?)
Or is it some complex microcosm of reasons that can only be understood by the macrocosm of cause and effect?

Choice as chaos.
Splendid.

Like the spin and chase of the sun and the moon, always preceding or succeeding one another, so are the events of life bound and wound together.
The events of my life are no different.
I am always spinning with decisions and chasing opportunities...But until I succeed in the goals I've set out to achieve, I will always be preceding my self with more and more busyness...and there will be no peace--no true advancement.
Leading a team of editors and analysts through the mirk of the Internet Video Industry is not for me. (At least, not while under the wings of a Company.)

Busyness does not make happiness. And, perhaps that is what it boils down to: I was not happy with my choice.
I have too much to do as it is! So to keep going...to take on more by staying with the Company...This choice made me unhappy. It had to change.

And so it did.
And so did I.