Someone You Should Know

Brian Wiencek
Video Producer/Director, Media Services

Brian Wiencek, video producer/director in the Division of Media Services, is an NIU alum and joined Northern in 1997. He was part of the team that produced two historical documentaries with Professor Jefferey Chown, including "Barbed Wire Pioneers" and "John Peter Altgeld: The Eagle Remembered."

What are the responsibilities of your position?
I create educational classroom support videos for the different colleges and departments, and help to produce videos for Intercollegiate Athletics and the video scoreboard at Huskie Stadium.

How did you choose your profession?
I just grew up listening to and watching sports on radio and television, and since then I've always wanted to be in the media. I've been lucky enough to try newspaper, radio and television.

What's the best part about your job?
My client list includes a variety of people in just about every area of the university, so I get a chance to meet almost everyone on campus.

What's something unique about your position?
It's never boring. One day, I'll be shooting a video for someone in the College of Education, and the next day, I'll be editing a video for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Then in the evening, I'll be shooting a basketball game. Each day I show up to work is different than the previous.

If you weren't in your current job field, what would you be doing?
I would be a play-by-play radio broadcaster or public address announcer for a professional baseball, football or basketball team.

What are you reading?
I just bought a home, so I read anything dealing with do-it-yourself home improvement.

What music are you listening to?
Frank Sinatra.

What good movies have you seen lately?
The original "Ocean's Eleven" with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., not that George Clooney garbage.

Do you have a favorite TV show?
"Law & Order."

Any words to live by?
"You may have been a headache, but you've never been a bore." The late Cubs announcer Jack Brickhouse said this in regard to radio and television broadcasting in Chicago.