Inspired By: This American Life

One thing I love about the television version of This American Life is it's a lot of bang for your buck. They manage to squeeze so many interesting stories into each episode without ever leaving the audience overwhelmed. The series is like the ultimate storytelling mix tape. You depend upon the good taste of the producers as they present these interesting stories in a cinematic format that utilizes top notch visuals and music. It's great stuff. If you haven't caught the show, it's currently available on DVD. Also, of course, the radio show has been going strong for quite some time now. Visit www.thislife.org for more information.

Assembling the narrative structure of Beauty Day will likely be the most challenging task of the filmmaking process. It's always helpful to revisit a show like This American Life to get a sense of the possibilities of storytelling and draw inspiration from what they've done with their TV format and how they take full advantage of the visual/audio real estate. This leads me to a great series of videos features Ira Glass talking about storytelling. An insightful and inspirational tool during this stage of the editing process. Check them out below: