Will Speck ’88: Alumni Spotlight

By Aubree Galvin Caunter

It’s a common fantasy: you’re walking down the red carpet, parting a sea of A-list stars, at the Academy Awards. But, for one Reserve graduate, that dream became a reality.
Will Speck ’88 was nominated for an Oscar in 1999 for the short film Culture starring Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Speck co-wrote and co-directed the piece, which was nominated for the Best Live-Action Short Film award.
Speck, now a well-known Hollywood director, says the experience was enlightening. “It was really great, but odd also, because it was a short film so you kind of felt like a sophomore at senior prom.” Though, the then-newcomer did have a chance to rub elbows with the industry’s elite, even if they didn’t know who he was. “The best part was the nominee lunch, where I sat between Steven Spielberg and Gwyneth Paltrow, who had no idea why I was there.”
Speck has since gone on to co-direct, with his business partner Josh Gordon, hundreds of projects, including award-winning commercials and Hollywood films. He is currently in production on The Baster starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman about a 40-year-old woman’s unconventional attempts to become pregnant. The movie began shooting in early April and is due for release in 2010.
It is not the first major studio comedy for the duo. In 2007, the team of Speck/Gordon directed the ice skating movie Blades of Glory for Dreamworks/MTV Films. The film stars Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett and Amy Poehler, and was produced by Ben Stiller, who the team is planning to work with on another project.
“It was an incredible first experience,” says Speck. “I was always a huge Will Ferrell fan and it was great getting to work with him day in and day out.”
Between larger projects, Speck and Gordon have directed hundreds of commercials, which were short-listed at the Cannes Film Festival for three consecutive years from 2003 to 2005. Two campaigns are in the permanent collection of Excellence in Advertising in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
The team also has won numerous awards in the United States and Europe for clients like Levi’s, Coke, Pepsi, Visa, Samsung and Geico, including creating the Cavemen and Gecko campaigns. The Cavemen commercials became so popular that Speck sold the idea to ABC as a television series, which the Speck/Gordon team directed and executive produced.
Speck enjoys the freedom afforded by the commercial format. “It’s great to take on smaller projects. Movies take so long to come together so it’s a great learning curve in the interim,” he says. “I also get to work with amazing crews and try all new genres.”

Speck began his career just after graduating from Reserve. “I spent a winter internship working for a producer and after that I knew that I wanted to work in film,” he says. Speck then began attending New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts film program, where he met Gordon. Together, they wrote and directed their senior thesis film Idyllwild which was a finalist for the 1995 Student Academy Award.
Following their nomination for the Oscar for Culture, the two joined the Directors Guild of America as a directing team through uber-producers Ridley and Tony Scott’s RSA/USA Productions. Tony Scott, in fact, was a signature on their original application for membership in 1998-99.
These days, he is hard at work, living between New York and California for production meetings and giving direction to America’s sweetheart Jennifer Aniston. Although Hollywood is a long way from Hudson, Ohio, Speck looks back on his time at Reserve as a stepping stone to success. “I had a great experience there,” he says. He even credits some of his production habits to the school. “I still dress the same – it’s a little disturbing.”