ADAM BERNSTEIN, THE VIDEOGRAPHER WHO HELPED PUT BAR/NONE ON THE MAP

Television and film director Adam Bernstein was instrumental in getting Bar None Records off the ground.

“He got in touch with me when he heard my band Rage to Live on the Luxury Condos compilation put out by Coyote Records," recalls Bar/None owner Glenn Morrow. "He wanted to know if we were interested in making a video. Unbeknownst to both of us, he had already made a video for They Might Be Giants for “Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head.” Rage to Live was the first release on Bar None and the TMBG debut was the second.”

Adam went on to make the break through videos for They Might be Giants that ended up in heavy rotation on MTV (The Buzz Bin). Some of these include: “Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head” (1986,) “Don’t Let’s Start” (1986,) “(She Was A) Hotel Detective” (1986,) “Ana Ng” (1989,) “Birdhouse In Your Soul” (1990,) and “The Statue Got Me High” (1992).

In his early career, Adam worked as an animator with Nickelodeon, where he helped TMBG get a spot on Nick Rocks in 1989.  He later went on to direct music videos for “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot (1992,) “Love Shack” by The B-52’s (1989,) and “Hey Ladies” by the Beastie Boys (1989.)

Bernstein has directed episodes of well known TV shows such as “Scrubs,” “Oz,” “Breaking Bad,” and “30 Rock” – for which he won an Emmy. Other awards he has received include an MTV Award for “Love Shack” and a Peabody Award.

Here are some photos unearthed from the shoot for the video “They’ll Need A Crane..."   For the video shoot,  older musicians from the New York City Musicians Union were hired to fill out the band as TMBG was still a duo at that point, working with backing tracks when they played live. (Blog post by Ashley Fatur)

Here's videographer Adam Bernstein supervising the video shoot for They Might Be Giants' "They'll Need A Crane" video. The following photos were taken during the video's production.

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