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 This Is Life as an intern during its first season in 2014 and worked up the ranks to Producer and Post Supervisor. By the end of the series in 2022, I produced 13 episodes and posted all 68 episodes.
PRODUCING
As a producer, my role included researching, casting and pitching stories. We gained access to 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 — intimate aspects of their lives that even their 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 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 crafted 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, 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
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I engineered a remote infrastructure in a few days. We also had to pioneer a different way of telling intimate stories — how to film 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 episodes locked, I oversaw color correction, audio mixes, blurs, voice disguises, the editing of bumps and title sequences. By the end of the project, all deliverables were completed as needed.
Ahead of air, I would work alongside CNN’s promotional engine: vetting marketing materials for sensitivities, devising social media strategies across accounts, generating social media assets for Lisa, live-tweeting during broadcast, coordinating Lisa’s press appearances and planning wrap parties.
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” Field Producer
“The Legacy of Vincent Chin” Field Producer
“Interracial Love” Co-Producer
“LA’s Mental Health Crisis” Field Producer
PRODUCING
As a producer, my role included researching, casting and pitching stories. We gained access to 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 — intimate aspects of their lives that even their 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 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 crafted 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, 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
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I engineered a remote infrastructure in a few days. We also had to pioneer a different way of telling intimate stories — how to film 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 episodes locked, I oversaw color correction, audio mixes, blurs, voice disguises, the editing of bumps and title sequences. By the end of the project, all deliverables were completed as needed.
Ahead of air, I would work alongside CNN’s promotional engine: vetting marketing materials for sensitivities, devising social media strategies across accounts, generating social media assets for Lisa, live-tweeting during broadcast, coordinating Lisa’s press appearances and planning wrap parties.
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” Field Producer
“The Legacy of Vincent Chin” Field Producer
“Interracial Love” Co-Producer
“LA’s Mental Health Crisis” Field Producer
Production Company: Part2 Pictures
Executive Producers: Lisa Ling, Amy Bucher, David Shadrack Smith
Co-Executive Producer: Heidi Burke