After studying advertising design at Syracuse University and Saint Martin's School of Art and Design[citation needed] in London, Bernard moved to New York and found a job as a "cruise director" on the 1994 Lollapalooza music tour festival.

It was there that he first met and befriended the Beastie Boys, who allowed him to direct the video for their song "Root Down'" in 1995.

[1] This proved to be a jump-off point for his career, leading immediately to his direction of music videos for other bands, including several acts on the Beastie Boys' own Grand Royal record label.

[2] In 1996, he acted as a cinematographer for the film Free Tibet, a documentary about the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco, which was organized by Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch (MCA) in order to raise awareness plight of people in Tibet.

In June 2007, Bernard released Pound, a short, two-minute viral video onto the web to rather successful results.