By Monica Pryts
LOS ANGELES, HERMITAGE — Hermitage native Michael Speck is living out his dream in Los Angeles, working in the entertainment industry.
“I knew I wanted to get out here and get in this business,” Speck said from his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills.
A 1994 graduate of Hickory High School, Speck, 33, has been working his way through the world of television since moving out west in the summer of 2005.
He’s now a post-production coordinator for the new CBS sitcom “Accidentally on Purpose,” featuring former “Dharma & Greg” star Jenna Elfman.
It’s a long way from his childhood and teen years, when Speck and his friends made goofy home movies to make people laugh, with skits about “Star Wars” and “Transformers” modeled after “Saturday Night Live.”
“Back then we were just having fun. I never thought of it as a career,” said Speck, son of Pat and Ron Speck of Hermitage.
It wasn’t long before he realized he wanted to get seriously involved in the entertainment business. Speck completed a film workshop in 2001 in California and in 2004, earned a communications degree from Clarion University.
Between those years, he worked in the video department of Giant Eagle, Hermitage, probably the first job he had that was related to entertainment. He enjoyed talking to customers about his favorite movies and recommending the best titles.
During his time at Clarion, Speck had an internship working with Kevan Yenerall, one of his professors who ran for state senator at the time. Speck helped with his campaign and made a commercial for him that ran on local television.
He also made some short films, including “Psycho Chicken” and its sequel, all the while planning to move to Los Angeles after graduating from Clarion.
Along the way, Speck spent a lot of time learning different computer software programs for video editing, motion graphics and special effects. He’s self-taught and considers video editing his strong point.
“In every project I try to learn something new,” he said.
Summer 2005 came, and Speck made the move from Hermitage to California with a solo, cross-country road trip that lasted five or six days.
“It gives you a lot of time to think,” he said of the drive.
He was working for Target at the time and was able to transfer to a new store the company was opening in the Northridge area of Los Angeles. He also found a pretty decent apartment with good roommates.
“I actually had a good experience,” Speck said of his start in a new place.
In 2006, an acquaintance of his girlfriend Jamie Small was looking for a post-production assistant for two shows on the CW network, “Girlfriends” and “The Game.”
Speck landed the job, which mostly involved delivering different cuts of the shows to everyone involved with its production, getting lunch and running errands.
“That involves a lot of driving,” he said.
The shows had successful runs, but “Girlfriends” was canceled during the 2007-08 writers’ strike and “The Game” was canceled earlier this year.
This spring Speck got a call from a former CW co-worker looking for a post-production assistant for “Accidentally on Purpose,” and he was hired.
Speck was promoted his first day of work to post-production manager, a position that has him more involved with behind-the-scenes duties.
He helps with music, sound effects and is in charge of making sure everything gets to where it needs to go, which means running fewer errands.
The show debuted Sept. 21 and has been getting great reviews, Speck said. His family and friends are also excited, telling everyone to watch the show on Monday nights and look for his name in the credits.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said of seeing his name on television.
He is waiting to hear if CBS picks up the sitcom for a full season and in the meantime is having fun working with a great cast and crew and filming before a live audience.
“There’s just a different energy in the place,” he said of how everything comes alive when the audience arrives.
The show centers on Ms. Elfman, whose character is a newspaper movie critic who breaks up with her boyfriend and gets pregnant after a fling with a younger man.
It also stars Grant Show, who acted on the original “Melrose Place,” and Ashley Jensen, who had a regular role on ABC’s “Ugly Betty” before leaving last season.
Many of the scenes for “Accidentally on Purpose” take place in a newsroom full of televisions and computers, and part of Speck’s job is creating realistic content for those screens, like Internet pages and news footage.
He’s created a logo and headlines for the show’s newspaper and uses his own video camera to film traffic and weather scenes for the “live news feed” on the televisions.
“It’s necessary for the set and the story. I enjoy doing that,” Speck said.
He also plans to use a photo of his sister Melissa’s dog on one of the computers, a shot that has yet to show up during a scene. Speck said he has a lot of freedom with what images he can use and has already incorporated a photo of ducks he took while on vacation last year.
His schedule is typically Monday through Friday, but he doesn’t have set hours. Fridays are long days, when the show is shot before an audience.
Speck considers himself lucky in his experience so far in Los Angeles. He’s heard horror stories about actors who get at each other’s throats when they’re not filming, but everyone involved with “Accidentally on Purpose” is like one big family, he said.
He’s also created some animated logos that run after a show’s credits roll. His last project was for Tom Werner, the head of Werner Entertainment who helped develop “The Cosby Show.”
Werner is now executive producer of the ABC sitcom “Hank” starring Kelsey Grammer. He needed a logo for his company, and Speck’s former colleagues working with Werner gave him a call.
“He’s pretty big time,” Speck said of making a logo for Werner.
Speck would eventually love to get into directing or producing movies or television, and the work he’s had so far is a good start. He said he looks to J.J. Abrams, creator of ABC’s “Lost” and the most recent “Star Trek” movie for inspiration.
“Whatever comes my way, I’ll do it,” he said.
