I am a Video Editor and educator specializing in long-form storytelling, collaborative editing, and clear communication through technology. Through Virtual Vanguard Productions, I produced and directed Cooking in the Dark for Rocky Mountain PBS, a three-season production (39 episodes), using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects as my primary creative tools. This work laid the foundation for my role as an instructor at CU Denver, where I taught a multidisciplinary master’s-level course focused on filmmaking, videography, editing workflows, and real-world production practices. Teaching—whether to students, interns, or creative collaborators—is central to how I edit: translating vision into structure, complexity into clarity, and ideas into engaging narrative. Supporting this creative work is a 30-year career in technology, where I collaborated interdepartmentally across media, government, aerospace, and enterprise environments. This background strengthens my ability to work remotely, maintain structured media libraries, adapt quickly to new tools (including AI-assisted workflows), and communicate effectively within distributed creative teams.

Sam A. McKenzie

I am a Video Editor and educator specializing in long-form storytelling, collaborative editing, and clear communication through technology. Through Virtual Vanguard Productions, I produced and directed Cooking in the Dark for Rocky Mountain PBS, a three-season production (39 episodes), using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects as my primary creative tools. This work laid the foundation for my role as an instructor at CU Denver, where I taught a multidisciplinary master’s-level course focused on filmmaking, videography, editing workflows, and real-world production practices. Teaching—whether to students, interns, or creative collaborators—is central to how I edit: translating vision into structure, complexity into clarity, and ideas into engaging narrative. Supporting this creative work is a 30-year career in technology, where I collaborated interdepartmentally across media, government, aerospace, and enterprise environments. This background strengthens my ability to work remotely, maintain structured media libraries, adapt quickly to new tools (including AI-assisted workflows), and communicate effectively within distributed creative teams.

Available to hire

I am a Video Editor and educator specializing in long-form storytelling, collaborative editing, and clear communication through technology. Through Virtual Vanguard Productions, I produced and directed Cooking in the Dark for Rocky Mountain PBS, a three-season production (39 episodes), using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects as my primary creative tools.

This work laid the foundation for my role as an instructor at CU Denver, where I taught a multidisciplinary master’s-level course focused on filmmaking, videography, editing workflows, and real-world production practices. Teaching—whether to students, interns, or creative collaborators—is central to how I edit: translating vision into structure, complexity into clarity, and ideas into engaging narrative. Supporting this creative work is a 30-year career in technology, where I collaborated interdepartmentally across media, government, aerospace, and enterprise environments. This background strengthens my ability to work remotely, maintain structured media libraries, adapt quickly to new tools (including AI-assisted workflows), and communicate effectively within distributed creative teams.

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Work Experience

Director/Producer at Virtual Vanguard Productions
January 15, 2016 - December 16, 2025
Produced and directed Cooking in the Dark for Rocky Mountain PBS (3 seasons, 39 episodes). Edited all episodes using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, delivered engaging long-form storytelling, created promotional assets, maintained organized media libraries, and taught a multidisciplinary master’s-level course at CU Denver mentoring students and interns
Video Editor at Virtual Vanguard Productions
January 15, 2016 - August 1, 2024
I am a Video Editor and educator specializing in long-form storytelling, collaborative editing, and clear communication through technology. Through Virtual Vanguard Productions, I produced and directed the television series Cooking in the Dark, a successful three-season production (39 episodes) for Rocky Mountain PBS, using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects as my primary creative tools. This work became the foundation for my role as an instructor at CU Denver, where I taught a multidisciplinary master’s-level course focused on filmmaking, videography, editing workflows, and real-world production practices. Teaching—whether to students, interns, or creative collaborators—is central to how I edit: translating vision into structure, complexity into clarity, and ideas into engaging narrative. Supporting this creative work is a 30-year career in technology, where I collaborated interdepartmentally across media, government, aerospace, and enterprise environments. This background strengthens my ability to work remotely, maintain structured media libraries, adapt quickly to new tools (including AI-assisted workflows), and communicate effectively within distributed creative teams
System & Integration Specialist at Various Fortune 500 Companies
January 1, 2000 - August 15, 2024
Sr. UNIX/Linux Systems Specialist Oct 2010 – Jul 2022 ● Administered HP-UX and Linux infrastructure for Colorado state agencies; implemented disaster recovery, monitoring, and automation tools (Python, Perl, Shell). ● Managed enterprise storage arrays and cloud migrations. Raytheon Space & Intelligence, Denver, CO – Sr. Next-Gen Tech Engineer Sept 2020 – Mar 2021 ● Automated classified communications systems for USAF Space Command HQ, improving GPS accuracy from 6m to 1m. ● Led Agile/Scrum, SSL management, and package deployment automation. Virtual Vanguard Productions, Denver, CO – Producer / Director Jan 2016 – Present ● Produced and directed two PBS seasons, overseeing full production lifecycle. ● Taught accredited business courses to graduate students at CU Denver. Other Key Roles: Comcast NBC, Dish Network, Hewlett Packard, Jeppesen Aviation, Johns Manville, Quantum Corp, Dyncorp, Midland System Integrators, Galileo International United Airlines – Sr. Systems, Security, and Automation Specialist (1994–2016) Core Competencies ● OS & Infrastructure: Linux (CentOS, Ubuntu, RHEL), HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, VMware, Xen, AWS, Azure ● Automation & Scripting: Bash, Korn, C-Shell, Python, Perl, Puppet, Chef ● Networking & Security: IDS, SNMP, SSL, LDAP, SMTP, PROXY, DNS, penetration testing ● Monitoring & Tools: Tanium, OpenView, HP SIM, PerfView, PRTG, Solarwinds, Netbackup ● Development & Deployment: GitHub, REST APIs, HTML/CSS/JS, Azure/TFS

Education

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Qualifications

YouTube Channels
January 15, 2016 - August 1, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/@virtualvanguardproductions6355 https://www.youtube.com/@flyinghifilming2089

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment, Education, Government, Professional Services, Software & Internet, Computers & Electronics