Meet Austin Berndt | Video Editor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Austin Berndt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Austin, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I was born and raised right here in Southern California. My parent’s plan was for my father to work, while my mom raised me and my older sister until we were both in school, and then she’d return to work so they could earn a duel income. This plan changed once our school district was abusive towards my sister. My parents decided to pull her out of school, and cancel my enrollment. Instead of a public education, my mom homeschooled my sister and I. This meant my father had to work a lot harder to provide for our family. Although this family dynamic was not what my parents had planned, I believe it was instrumental in my path towards a creative oriented career.

Being raised in a homeschooling environment gave me the freedom to explore the many different interests I had. I was never really pigeonholed into learning a set curriculum. This allowed me to follow any interest I had, in as much detail, and spend as much time as I desired to. While I may have learned varying subjects later than my peers in public school, the subjects stuck with me more. In order for me to explore the many interests I had, I would have to learn the subjects related to each interest. For example, at one point I was incredibly interested in robotics and wanted to learn how to build them. Which meant I had to learn mathematics, and physics. Since this was an interest of mine, I never felt “forced” to learn about math, and physics. And since my mom wasn’t always available to teach me every moment I had an idea/question, I had to become a self learner. This allowed me to absorb the information on a deeper and more personal level. This focused passion to learn one subject led me to win a robotics competition at the collegiate level when I was about 12 years old. I believe this ability of being a self learner through my homeschooling experiences is what drives my successes today.

When I was 14 years old, my mom encouraged me to start taking college courses to explore my interests at a higher level. Since I was still young, and had never been in a classroom setting, I decided to take a class in Radio & Television Production, as it was more hands on learning, rather than learning from a textbook. Before this class, I had always had an interest in video production as a hobby with my friends, but never considered it a career path. Over the next 8 years, I explored different career paths through community college courses. I studied engineering, business, geology, psychology, and communications, but throughout that I almost always had at least one film class each semester. Although I hesitated a lot in pursue a creative career, I eventually started getting asked to film my friends weddings, small commercials, music videos, etc. Eventually I started to burn out from college, and decided the best path forward was to get my Bachelor’s degree in film, as it’s what I was most passionate about, and knew I wouldn’t completely burn myself out.

Up to the point when I transferred to Cal State University Long Beach, my dad had been working to build a career in municipal water distribution. I didn’t get to spend as much time with him during that time, as he was always working late, and going to bed early. But, he always supported every venture I took. He always ingrained a great sense of work ethic into me, but was always sure to remind me to take time for myself and enjoy the things that mattered most to me. It may have taken him awhile to see the value in the creative careers my sister and I took, but he never discouraged it.

The support structure from my parents was invaluable to who I am today. My mom gave me the gift of freedom by staying home every day to educate and raise my sister and I. While my dad worked towards providing us with as much financial freedom as he could, while still supporting us, and giving us a great understanding of a good work ethic.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Art for me is the perfect outlet for all of my passions in life. I spent an excessive amount of time in Community College exploring different career paths, and every single one of them was something I could see myself succeeding in, and being passionate about. But, the reason I chose a career in film, is because I am able to incorporate the passion I still have for those other fields.

I use my passion for engineering to help when I’m working on a set. When I worked as a grip, I may not have been as experienced as others, but my knowledge in engineering allowed me to succeed. I understood the physical forces on equipment, which allowed me to make everything as safe as possible. Often times on set you need to quickly make something you don’t have, with the equipment you do have, there are countless times where I’ve saved a shot by quickly designing something on set.

My passion for psychology, and communications helps me when I’m directing a film, and need to work with actors to get the best performance out of them. The knowledge I learned about personality types helps me understand what drives people. My experience in communications then allows me to articulate that in a way they’ll understand.

I use my business education when it comes to working freelance, and need to negotiate rates. This will also help if I venture into creating my own production company in the future.

All of these fields of knowledge, along with the many others not only help with the production itself, but also with having a deeper knowledge about the subjects in the film. Working with Sparkhouse, we do business with a lot of different industries creating videos for them. Often times my wide range of knowledge in many different industries, helps me understand how to present their business from their perspective, without having to ask a ton of questions.

I have always had a passion for film, and for helping others bring their films to life. I have worked with many different people over the last 10+ years, mostly in a support role. Although I enjoy working as a director, I feel my best work comes from helping people bring their ideas to fruition. I truly believe having that mindset led me to where I am today working for Sparkhouse. I always want to bring our client’s and our creative team’s ideas to life in the best way possible. While the work can be incredibly draining, it’s also incredibly rewarding when everyone is excited with the final product.

Another aspect about my work that has helped me succeed, is the ability to take critiques very well. Many people I have worked with get very discouraged when you provide less than positive critique for their work, and they take it personally. For me, I see it as a collaborative effort, and everyone sees things in different ways than I do. No one is ever trying to hurt your feelings with their critique, they just see things that they think can make your work even better. I view a negative critique as flattery, because if the person didn’t care, they’d say nothing and let you fail.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My favorite spots in LA are pretty much all food spots, because I love me some good eats.

First on the list is ramen from Daikokuya Little Tokyo. I discovered this place one day while filming a friend’s street magic act in Little Tokyo, and he insisted we go there. Best ramen I’ve ever had. And while you wait for a table, you can explore the rest of Little Tokyo, and even get desert afterwards.

Then I’d have to go up to the Perch for a swanky rooftop bar and dining experience with a great view, and great live music.

Gotta see a show at the Pantages Theater. And then maybe stop by Carney’s nearby after the show.

Then you got to get cultured at LACMA, and take some cliche photos with the light post display.

I mean there’s an endless amount of things to do in LA, and it’s just all about what the vibe of the day is.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
While there are many people that were incredibly influential in the path I have taken in life, there are four people that standout the most. I’ll lump the first three together, as I already talked a lot about them. My mom (Roseanna Berndt), dad (Alan Berndt), and my sister (Megan Berndt). These three people were always there for me. My dad has always been one of my biggest supporters, always encouraging me to do my best, and never being disappointed when I failed. My sister got her degree in theater, working towards a career in acting. Anytime I needed an actor, or bounce ideas for a film off of someone, she would always be there to help. My mom raised, educated, and always spent countless hours researching the best of anything I needed.

One of the greatest pieces of research my mom did, was find the film professor that was most influential in my career as a filmmaker. His name is Ian Holmes, and he was the head of Cypress Community College’s film department. I enrolled in one of his classes every semester for about 4 years. His teaching style was never to spend a ton of time going into the intricacies of production. Instead, he taught us how to identify what makes a film great from a visual/auditory perspective. In addition to that, he taught us how to be self learners in film, which is exactly how I enjoy learning. He gave us the basic knowledge we needed, then encouraged us to experiment, and learn by doing. He also worked incredibly hard to improve the film department as a whole, and every year would pay out of his own pocket to produce a film festival where friends and families can come watch your work, and often times win an award for their hard work. The level of passion he presented to us, is what grew my passion for film even more. Thank you, Ian Holmes.

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