Frank Scheuring always knew exactly what he wanted out of a career. “I’ve always been doing bands,” he says. “I went in [to Full Sail] thinking I was going to come out of school and go to Nashville to work as an intern in some recording studio.”

But just a few months into the recording arts program, he discovered a new direction. “I went into the audio post production course at Full Sail, which was really cool. I wanted to do that.” And by the time he graduated, Scheuring had landed a job at MVI Post, a facility in the Washington, D.C. area, where Scheuring has family. He was also attracted to MVI for their great work environment and national clientele such as National Geographic, Discovery Channel, TLC, and PBS.

“I went in and talked to the guys at MVI [before I graduated],” Scheuring explains. “They didn’t have any openings, but I really wanted to work there because it was such a great atmosphere. I ended up asking them what I had to do to get a job there and they sent me a list of things I needed to learn. And I looked at the list and thought, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me.’ A lot of it was about video, and I wasn’t in the video program. I was in audio.” So Frank asked around, and used his free time to sit in on some Film classes and learn the ropes of his dream job.

“I called MVI back,” Scheuring remembers, “and said, ‘Alright, I’ve learned as much as I can learn about the things on the list without being on the job.’” His tenacity and desire to learn paid off when MVI brought him on board after graduation.

“I came in and did some dubbing [at first],” he says. “And I would run over to National Geographic every day and drop off and pick up tapes. I moved up from there to kind of quality control, looking through all the shows for errors. Then I started assisting with my boss … until they finally let me loose. I was working on my own a couple of days a week, assisting a couple of days a week, depending on the client. I just started getting all this work, so my boss kind of left the room to me.

Scheuring’s official title now is sound designer, but his duties expand beyond that narrow field. “I do sound design, mixing, and go on shoots for sound recording. And I also supervise the quality control and dubbing department.

“My favorite part of what I’m doing,” Scheuring continues, “is I get to see all this programming I love to watch anyway. I love the style of National Geographic and Discovery. Great stories, images... it’s fun to watch.”

The pace is blinding at times, keeping Scheuring on his toes at all times. “We do a majority of the work for the National Geographic Channel, [recording narration for] pretty much their entire film library. So we’ll have a couple of days a week where we’re recording narrations all day. In fact, I did three full show narrations on Friday, and then the tease and bump narrations for commercials and stuff on another four shows on Friday. This morning I mixed one of them. Yesterday I mixed one of them. And this afternoon I’m mixing another.”

MVI’s business has thrived, and Scheuring is confident that he made the right career choice. “We’re in the right place for [postproduction],” Scheuring says. “Discovery is right here, just outside of D.C. in Maryland. You’ve got National Geographic based right here in D.C. And Discovery has 10 or 11 networks now.

“What could be cooler than going and working on the things I love to watch, along with having a family life and a steady job with a great company?” he asks. “It’s a great combo.”