Topside ProMedia is located in a 120-year old brick Victorian home in the historic Park Avenue neighborhood of Tacoma, WA. Our name derives from the home of the first person ever to make travel motion pictures, the godfather of documentary filmmaking, Burton Holmes.

My name is John M. Robertson, and I am the founder of Topside ProMedia. Very early in my career, I worked at Burton Holmes Travelogues for several years before it closed its doors for the last time in the 1980s. While there, I was trained by some of the greatest documentary filmmakers Hollywood has ever produced, several of whom were in fact trained by Holmes himself. I was many times privileged to visit the Burton Holmes Estate in the heights of the Hollywood Hills. In Holmes’ time, grand houses had names, not just street address numbers – Holmes named his estate “Topside” for its altitude and its commanding views of all of Hollywood. I have branded my company in honor of that unique and elegant place; I learned much from the Burton Holmes team and my ambition is to live up to Holmes’ legacy.

We were originally Topside Marketing LLC, founded as a full-service marketing consultancy, in 1997. Video production was always a part of that, as it’s the trade I was raised in – my family business, so to speak. As the business landscape changed and video became more and more important, both online and off, I realized I needed to return to my roots, and so began doing business as Topside ProMedia, a marketing services business focused primarily on video production and the integration of video content with our clients’ websites, social media channels, crowdfunding and more. We offer website upgrades to make our clients’ sites contemporary and compatible with the video content we create, but only rarely act as primary developer for new sites.

More of our work can be seen online at our VIMEO.com portfolio site and at our YouTube Channel.