This Is Life With Lisa Ling
DistributionCNN / Max
Air Date
2014-2022
Release
68 x 60 min
68 x 60 min
Roles
Producer,
Post Supervisor
Post Supervisor
Over a nine-year run as CNN’s longest-running & acclaimed original series, journalist Lisa Ling takes viewers inside hidden communities and explores critical issues of our time. From artificial intelligence to psychedelics, MS-13 gang members to those living outside the gender binary, the series is an anthology of America of the last decade.
I started on the first season of This Is Life in 2014 as an intern and worked up the ranks to Producer and Post Supervisor.
By the end of the series in 2022, I had producing credits on 13 episodes and was involved in post on all 68 episodes.
PRODUCING
As a producer, my role included researching, casting and pitching stories. We gained access inside highly restricted worlds and built extraordinary trust with our participants. Take Season 5, when 42-year-old Steve opened up about their gender fluidity and gave us a peek inside their closet, or in Season 8, when Celeste and Harmony shared the sexual abuse and retaliation they suffered while serving in the military — aspects of their lives that even closest family and friends knew little about.
After pre-production, filming would commence. Over nine seasons, I coordinated many shoots, including a men’s retreat in the California Redwoods, a rave in Woodstock, a 17-day transgender beauty pageant across multiple islands in Thailand, and in New York Times Square with the NYPD counterterrorism unit during its busiest day of the year: New Year’s Eve.
POST PRODUCTION
Returning from the field, I would follow the episodes through post. For episodes I produced, alongside our director & editor, we would craft the story — reviewing transcripts, building stringouts, researching archival, pulling music, leading inquiries to government agencies, fact-checking and completing legal reviews.
As Post Supervisor, I would oversee all episodes and post needs for the series, including budgets and schedules, hiring and leading our talented post team of editors, composers, graphic designers etc. I developed plans to retain staff, improved efficiency and secured licensing deals to generate cost savings.
COVID
In 2020 shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic, I engineered a remote infrastructure in a mere few days. We also had to pioneer a different way of telling stories — how to film intimate stories when we could not physically get close to people? We dedicated Season 8 to stories left out of the history books, leaning into archival material and graphics. In the field, we traveled with a medic, experimented with new camera angles (including Zoom) and filmed in open spaces.
DELIVERY
When the episodes locked, I worked with our Executive Producers to oversee color correction, audio mix sessions, blurs and voice disguises, along with the editing of bumps and title sequences. By the end of the project, all network technical and paper deliverables were completed as needed.
As episodes made their way to air, I would also work with CNN’s Marketing team to vet marketing materials and strategize our promotional efforts, including generating social media assets that Lisa would post and live tweeting during broadcast.
Honors
International Documentary Association: Best Episodic Series, Nominee (2015)
Gracie Awards: Outstanding Non-Fiction or Reality Show, Winner (2017)
PRODUCING CREDITS
“Inside Mongol Nation” Associate Producer (Post)
“Chinese In America” Associate Producer
“Gender Fluidity” Associate Producer
“Swingers” Associate Producer (Post)
“Porn Ed” Associate Producer
“Fighting Terror in NYC” Associate Producer
“Lost Boys” Associate Producer
“Prison & Prep School” Co-Producer
“Speaking Out: Sexual Assault in the Military” Co-Producer / Field Producer
“The Conspiracy Effect” Additional Field Producer
“The Legacy of Vincent Chin” Additional Field Producer
“Interracial Love” Co-Producer
“LA’s Mental Health Crisis” Additional Field Producer
PRODUCING
As a producer, my role included researching, casting and pitching stories. We gained access inside highly restricted worlds and built extraordinary trust with our participants. Take Season 5, when 42-year-old Steve opened up about their gender fluidity and gave us a peek inside their closet, or in Season 8, when Celeste and Harmony shared the sexual abuse and retaliation they suffered while serving in the military — aspects of their lives that even closest family and friends knew little about.
After pre-production, filming would commence. Over nine seasons, I coordinated many shoots, including a men’s retreat in the California Redwoods, a rave in Woodstock, a 17-day transgender beauty pageant across multiple islands in Thailand, and in New York Times Square with the NYPD counterterrorism unit during its busiest day of the year: New Year’s Eve.
POST PRODUCTION
Returning from the field, I would follow the episodes through post. For episodes I produced, alongside our director & editor, we would craft the story — reviewing transcripts, building stringouts, researching archival, pulling music, leading inquiries to government agencies, fact-checking and completing legal reviews.
As Post Supervisor, I would oversee all episodes and post needs for the series, including budgets and schedules, hiring and leading our talented post team of editors, composers, graphic designers etc. I developed plans to retain staff, improved efficiency and secured licensing deals to generate cost savings.
COVID
In 2020 shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic, I engineered a remote infrastructure in a mere few days. We also had to pioneer a different way of telling stories — how to film intimate stories when we could not physically get close to people? We dedicated Season 8 to stories left out of the history books, leaning into archival material and graphics. In the field, we traveled with a medic, experimented with new camera angles (including Zoom) and filmed in open spaces.
DELIVERY
When the episodes locked, I worked with our Executive Producers to oversee color correction, audio mix sessions, blurs and voice disguises, along with the editing of bumps and title sequences. By the end of the project, all network technical and paper deliverables were completed as needed.
As episodes made their way to air, I would also work with CNN’s Marketing team to vet marketing materials and strategize our promotional efforts, including generating social media assets that Lisa would post and live tweeting during broadcast.
Honors
International Documentary Association: Best Episodic Series, Nominee (2015)
Gracie Awards: Outstanding Non-Fiction or Reality Show, Winner (2017)
PRODUCING CREDITS
“Inside Mongol Nation” Associate Producer (Post)
“Chinese In America” Associate Producer
“Gender Fluidity” Associate Producer
“Swingers” Associate Producer (Post)
“Porn Ed” Associate Producer
“Fighting Terror in NYC” Associate Producer
“Lost Boys” Associate Producer
“Prison & Prep School” Co-Producer
“Speaking Out: Sexual Assault in the Military” Co-Producer / Field Producer
“The Conspiracy Effect” Additional Field Producer
“The Legacy of Vincent Chin” Additional Field Producer
“Interracial Love” Co-Producer
“LA’s Mental Health Crisis” Additional Field Producer
Production Company: Part2 Pictures
Executive Producers: Lisa Ling, Amy Bucher, David Shadrack Smith
Co-Executive Producer: Heidi Burke