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John Brenkus

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John Brenkus is an American producer, director, and television personality. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of BASE Productions,[1] a production company that specializes in creating reality television programs for channels such as Spike, National Geographic and ESPN. His company's most popular programs include Fight Science and Sport Science, the latter of which he hosts. He also currently hosts his own podcast, The Brink of Midnight.[2]

Early Life

Brenkus grew up in Vienna, Virginia, where he played a variety of youth sports including football, basketball, baseball, and track from the time he was young. He has stated in interviews that sports and science are his "two greatest passions".[3] He attended the University of Virginia and majored in Rhetoric Communication Studies.[4]

Founding BASE Productions

During the early years of his career, Brenkus produced numerous short films and music video projects before launching full-time into film and television writing, production and direction.[5]

Brenkus serves as the co-CEO of BASE Productions alongside Michael Stern, as well as the host of Sport Science. As a producer of reality, documentary, and unscripted infotainment programming, BASE Productions uses a trademark motion-capture and CGI technology. The company has produced programming for a variety of channels, such as A&E, Animal Planet, the Discovery Channel networks, Fox Sports Net, G4, ESPN, HBO, MTV, National Geographic Channel and Spike TV. BASE Productions is located in Los Angeles and Washington DC.

Sport Science/ESPN

Sport Science is filmed inside a Los Angeles airport hangar or on location using a mobile laboratory. Each episode of series 1 focused on testing certain aspects of athletics (such as human flight and reaction time), while series 2 either poses more questions from previous episodes, or tries to re-analyze sporting moments — like 2015's [6] — or trials and tribulations, puts a human against animals or machines, or even checking against other sports or challenging the odds with data gathered using motion sensors and accelerometers. Professional athletes are prominently featured. Brenkus makes a point of bringing them into the lab and [7], often testing the limits of the human body. Brenkus also participated in experiments himself in cases where an "average Joe" was required.

Sport Science was nominated for 4 Sports Emmy Awards in 2008 for Series 1, winning for Outstanding Graphic Design.[8] Series 2 received even more accolades in 2009, being nominated for 5 Emmys and receiving 2 awards - again for Outstanding Graphic Design and also for Outstanding New Approaches in Sports Programming.[9]

Other Projects

In 2010, Brenkus wrote the New York Times bestselling novel[10] The Perfection Point. The book details Brenkus's analysis of a wide variety of athletes to provide an in-depth look at the absolute limits of human performance. Brenkus finds the "perfection point" (the highest point physiologically possible for a human to attain based on physics and applied mathematics) for many aspects of human athleticism, focusing on the speeds, heights, distances, and times that humans will get closer to but never exceed. Combining scientific methodology with the fundamentals of each sport, Brenkus uncovers a variety of so-called perfection points, including the fastest mile and the heaviest bench press.

In May 2017, Brenkus launched The Brink of Midnight podcast. The podcast consists of discussions with professional athletes and other celebrities about what they consider to be the most important moments of their career, which Brenkus refers to as "Brink of Midnight moments." Notable guests of the podcast include Ray Lewis, Sharon Stone, Tony Hale, Haley Joel Osment, Bill Engvall, Larry Fitzgerald, Rob Riggle, Santonio Holmes, Marshawn Lynch, and Randy Couture.[11]

The Brink of Midnight is also a band Brenkus created with his wife, Lizzie. They wrote a Christmas song that went viral, raised money for unite4:Good, and is still played on Sirius XM. This star-studded music video includes: Larry Fitzgerald, Kevin Love, Vernon Davis, Robert Griffin III, Ray Lewis, Jerry Rice, Trent Dilfer, Jeremy Lin.

References

  1. ^ https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=116725905%7Ctitle=Bloomberg
  2. ^ "iTunes". Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  3. ^ http://theamemagazine.com/magazine/2017/05/29/interview-with-john-brenkus-of-espns-sport-science/
  4. ^ http://www.techtimes.com/articles/101592/20151102/interview-espn-sport-science-host-john-brenkus.htm
  5. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/14/AR2011011405348.html?sid=ST2011012100168
  6. ^ "'deflategate"". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help); Text "https://www.espnfrontrow.com/2015/01/deflategate-gets-sport-science-treatment/" ignored (help)
  7. ^ ""analyzing their abilities" http://www.espn.com/espn/sportscience/index?topId=13887622". {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  8. ^ "Emmy Online". Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  9. ^ "Emmy Online" (PDF). Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  10. ^ "New York Times". Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  11. ^ "iTunes". Retrieved 15 June 2017.