December 31, 1990…

That was the day it all began. Jason Santo, age 16 and Roman Berman, age 15 grabbed Roman's parents' video camera and created the 9 minute short film affectionately titled "The Bermanator." Listed on the credits for the movie was Santo's fictitious movie company, MINDSCAPE PICTURES, a name he had been kicking around since he first began making 8mm animated films at 11 years old.

MINDSCAPE PICTURES LLC, is the culmination of early boyhood dreams and unfailing determination on the part of two childhood friends. Over the course of ten years, Berman and Santo, along with many other high school and college friends, would set to task on dozens of short movies ranging from 10 to 60 minutes long.

Jason Santo

Roman Berman

Though the production company names the pair worked under have changed several times, as did the dynamic between the two friends, neither of them ever lost sight of the ultimate goal: to someday start their own professional motion picture production company dedicated to unique storytelling, engaging characters and high quality visuals. On February 1, 2002, Santo and Berman moved ever closer to their goal by starting a professional business named after their first "company," MINDSCAPE PICTURES.

By reading over the "MOVIES" section of this website, one can view a quick history of some of the work Santo and Berman have completed over the years. From Santo's 1996 film school project "Wordbox" to the 35-minute, 2001 short, "His Life," the long, shared history behind MINDSCAPE PICTURES as well as the company's dedication to quality is clearly on display.

Those film school beginnings at Boston's Emerson College lead to 3 Evvy Award nominations for Jason Santo, two for best written production (1994, "Project Honor," 1995, "Frost,") and 1 for best editing. (1996, "Wordbox") As president of the Emerson College Film Arts Society, Santo oversaw four separate groups, including the film production group, Frames Per Second. In 1996, Santo was presented with the Emerson College Organization of the Year award for his leadership of the Film Arts Society. He finished his film school education in 1998 by graduating Magnum Cum Laude from Emerson.

Santo became a name equated with quality during his long partnership with the Boston-based production group, Random Foo Pictures. Beginning in December of 1997, with the support of the dedicated members of Random Foo, Santo would write and direct 27 short movies, act in 34, and edit 16 hours of the Foo produced television show "Fade to Black." In addition to this, Santo oversaw the production group's annual Foo Fest program for two years and put together the program for their special year 2001 Boo Fest Halloween show.

In 2000, Santo's work as a director, editor and actor were acknowledged when REwind Video Magazine awarded him with honors in each category for his work on "Marisa" (director, editor) and on Random Foo Pictures' "The Final Sale" (actor.) "Marisa" would also go on to win Best Actress (Cassie Ross) from Rewind as well as audience favorite at the March 2000 Western Colorado Amateur Film Festival. Since then, Santo has also picked-up honors for his screenplay "Transients," winner of the Camp Rewind 2001 script competition, and his movie "Hell Awaits" won the "Best Horror" category at the 2001 Rewind Video Magazine Awards.

Upon completion of their work on "His Life," Santo and Berman decided it was time to say goodbye to the amateur category of movie making and move into a more professional arena. With MINDSCAPE PICTURES, the pair hopes to parlay past successes into distribution deals with independent video distributors while at the same time creating more in-depth, feature-length narratives.

Regardless of where the road may take them, their promise to "MASTERMIND ENTERTAINMENT" will stay strong.