Perhaps the best, as the commentary of the Beastie Boys Video Anthology consists of “Ralph Spalding" calling Adam Berstein of the telephone, source of information regarding Mr. Bernstein’s work with the Beastie Boys is found in an article by Jim Farber, which ran in the August 10th, 1989 issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Coincidentally, this is the same issue that features the Rolling Stone editors’ review of Paul’s Boutique in which the album was given four stars, which equated to “excellent” rating!  The article mentions that Adam Bernstein created the music video for Hey Ladies for around $70,000. This was noteworthy, because prior to this; the music videos in his portfolio were done on a lower budget e.g. Public Enemy’s music video for “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos.” From the tone of the article, it sounded like upside of doing the early lower budget music videos was that, as the director, there was more creative control. To use the quote which ran in the magazine; “..in the range of $20,000 to $50,000 you are given a lot of leeway, but once you get between $70,000-$100,000, you have to contend with a lot more input.” Just imagine working in the shadow of fellow director Nathanial Hornblower, who was likely lurking on the set of the “Hey Ladies” music video.

In addition to having worked with the Beastie Boys for music video direction, Adam has also worked with Bruce Springsteen and They Might Be Giants. In fact, some of his very first creations were music videos for They Might Be Giants that were done on shoestring budgets of around $1500.00. Music videos though do not pay the rent for Mr. Bernstein. Instead, he has been very busy over the last few years directing television shows as well as writing and directing movies.