Producing Success & Providing Opportunity
If you’ve ever watched a sporting event, you’ve seen this countless times before. A player makes their game-defining moment, and it’s instantly relived in slow motion, either live on the jumbotron or alongside the TV broadcast. It’s such a seamless part of the game that you’ve probably never stopped to wonder who is orchestrating this experience. While it takes an entire production team to create these moments, it also takes someone like Brian Scheffler ’09 to pursue a vision and lay the groundwork that makes it all possible.
Today, Scheffler’s production company, RemSho, provides a wide range of services for everything from ESPN broadcasts to Bradley University’s commencement ceremonies. “I’ve always had the idea of starting my own business in the back of my head,” Scheffler said. “I never could have imagined it would still be here 15 years later!”
His interest in TV production began at Limestone high school where Scheffler had his first digital media class. He put these skills to the test with a part-time job at WTVP, a local PBS station. He recalled how this opportunity brought his future into focus: “They let me experience all sides of production at WTVP, and that really solidified everything for me.” After graduating, Scheffler had his sights set on Bradley to continue his education, and the Television Arts program was the perfect fit.
“Dave Lennie was very instrumental in my growth at Bradley,” Scheffler said. “He recognized I was a technical person, and he gave me opportunities to lead other students.” One of the most valuable opportunities for him was with BUTV, the student produced TV news program. Here, Scheffler got his first taste of real production leadership. “I had a director type of role,” he said. “I trained volunteer students from outside of our program while still leading others from my class in the show’s production.”
Scheffler took confidence from these opportunities and used it to fuel his journey after graduation. “I took a gamble and bought a bunch of old, used equipment before having a client lined up,” he chuckled, “but I found someone wanting to do high school sports for central Illinois and I offered to provide services for one game a week.” This gamble paid off thanks to Scheffler’s breadth of production experience, and he was able to start growing what would become RemSho.
From one high school football game a week to now several hundred sporting events per year, Scheffler has taken every opportunity available to continue expanding RemSho’s production capabilities. “It’s been a stepping-stone progression,” he said. “We went from high school sports to covering Bradley basketball games, and now onto producing ESPN-level events.” And the future only holds more potential as RemSho continues to expand beyond these traditional sports productions. “I’m always looking for other fun things to do, like the air shows we have covered before. Non-sporting events offer fun new challenges that my crew and I enjoy.”
Throughout this whole journey, Scheffler has always found time to reconnect with Bradley in many ways beyond his production work with athletics. He has provided students with experience through internships at RemSho and even returned to campus as a speaker for the Charley Steiner Symposium. Scheffler continues to take these opportunities in order to show students that there is just as much success waiting for them behind the lights and cameras as there are in front of them. “I always tell students to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there, and I am more than happy to be the one offering these opportunities to them!”