Ellington

Tom Beck has a passion for storytelling. It's one of the factors that drives his work at Spot On Productions, LLC, which he founded with business partner Philip Scarborough in 2011. While Beck, 47, has seen success as a film producer and still photographer, his path to that point was hardly direct.

Beck was born in Jonesboro, Ark., and moved to Jackson with his family in 1982. He graduated from Forest Hill High School in 1985, and then attended the University of Mississippi for two years.

"I had a double major in English and history, and minored in philosophy," he says. "So, naturally, I became a photographer and went into the film and video business."

When he left college in 1987, he began working as a sound engineer, which brought him some interesting job opportunities, including bartending and bouncing.

"I was a bouncer for a long time," Beck says. "I bounced at W.C. Don's (in Jackson, now closed), I bounced at a nightclub in Memphis called The South End, and the last place I bounced was The Groove, which was a nightclub in downtown Jackson on State Street."

In 1991, Beck enrolled at Arkansas State University, hoping to study psychology. But after a year, his part-time jobs pushed him over the financial threshold for his Pell Grant. Without it, he couldn't afford college. He returned to Jackson and worked various jobs until 2000, when his friend, Monte Kraus, who owned Krauscape Films, approached him about writing commercial scripts. Soon after, Beck began producing commercials with the company. Then, in 2002, he decided to pursue professional photography, which he still does in addition to his work with Spot On.

"We are storytellers," Beck says of Spot On. "Even a TV commercial tells a story, so that's what makes it interesting. You're telling a story in 30 seconds. It's almost like a haiku."

One of Spot On's earliest projects was a documentary short for the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation called "Growing Our Own," which screened at the 2014 Madrid International Film Festival. Last year, Beck worked on award-winning public-service announcements for Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and TV ads for the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

Many people also remember last summer's viral hit "#HappyMS," which was a joint project with Beck and producers Scarborough, Thabi Moyo, Nina Parikh and Terry Sullivan. Today, it's had more than 96,000 views on YouTube. At the American Advertising Federation Jackson's 2015 Addy Awards, the video won the Best in Show award and the Mosaic Award, which recognizes diversity in advertising.

"It's nice to have that validation," Beck says. "But when I have a client that says, 'This is better than I ever thought it could be,' and calls me back for another (project), then I've done my job correctly."