The Next American Dream | T2 + Back Alley Blog

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January 11th, 2011
by Nicole Melton
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Hello Emmy. You’re Pretty.

T2 + Back Alley Films' Really Pretty Emmy
Sometimes you work really hard on something and know you’ve done a great job and it ends there. No accolades. No tickertape parades down Main Street, sometimes not even a “Thanks, that was really awesome.” It happens.

Other times, you work your tail off and put your heart, soul, blood sweat and tears into a project and it consumes you. Instead of weeks, it takes months. Instead of months, it takes years. It becomes you. You eat, sleep and breathe the work and at times it seems as though it might never end. And it’s wonderful. And horrible. Yet more wonderful than anything else.

That’s what happened to the T2 + Back Alley Films team and “The Next American Dream” documentary, which made its debut earlier this year on KCPT-TV, the Kansas City, Missouri PBS affiliate. In fact, back in February of this year, my very first blog post ever was about this project and how documentaries fuel my creative passion in an insane way.

This film was a co-production of T2 + Back Alley Films and documentarians, Aimee Larrabee and John Altman of Inland Sea Productions. More than 8.9 million viewers nationwide have viewed the film on PBS and since it was made available by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) to its members last November. And the rest of the story ….

We. Won. An. Emmy.

Wow! What an indescribable feeling and something that all of us who worked on the documentary regularly pull out and revel in, all over again.

For those of you who’ve not seen “The Next American Dream,” the documentary focuses on Kansas City’s efforts to revitalize its downtown and explore the renewed demand for walkable urbanism in American Cities following the cultural shift to drivable suburban living personified following WWII. Big words for people moving out of cities and flocking to suburbs during one part in American history, and then the renewed interest in returning to urban areas and living in cities again.

The project couldn’t have happened without our fearless leader Teri Rogers, T2 + Back Alley Films’ CEO and the film’s executive producer, and her commitment to the undertaking and dedication to making it happen. In a recent press interview, she described the opportunity as “a unique and incredible opportunity, given Kansas City’s accelerated timeline to revitalize, to not only explore something that is currently a national topic, but to document and record the whole process – from start to finish – right in our own backyard. And what an honor for our city.”

Also along on our seven-year journey was the Kansas City Area Development Council. KCADC used it as a powerful marketing tool to upgrade our city’s image. The film has since been used as a teaching tool for architects, urban planners and city leaders across the nation. And without KCPT, our film’s national presenting station, it wouldn’t have aired in major cities like L.A., Chicago, Miami and Boston.

Me, I’m still dancing to the song: We Won An Emmmmy, We Won an Emmmmy.

I never tire of it. Nor do any of the very talented people who were a part of the making of “The Next American Dream.” And even though it’s great to do really awesome work that may or may not get any recognition, it’s super duper beyond the light fantastic to win an Emmy. Woo hooooooo.

And so, we share our joy with you. In this blog post. And we thank you for reading it – and allowing us, just for a moment or two, to smile and dance and revel in not only a job well done, but something that we manage to nab some pretty amazing recognition for. And man, does it feel great.

If you’ve not yet had the chance to see “The Next American Dream,” we hope that sometime you will. We promise you’ll enjoy it.

March 3rd, 2010
by Michael Ong
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Let me edutaine you…

Fun infographic!
Well-designed edutainment
with facts and figures.

– Michael Ong

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Footnote: Jesse Thomas did a fantastic animation on Vimeo, comprised of a series of fun factoids on the state of the Internet. All fascinating contents aside, the presentation of the facts are witty and entertaining. I’m a big advocate for camouflaging complicated and voluminous information and making it fun and entertaining. This piece reminds me of the motion graphic we worked on for the documentary, “The Next American Dream”, which has 226 airings on 90 PBS stations in 59 markets in 22 states so far. As the Art Director for this project, the challenge I posed for the motion design team was this: “How could we translate a long and confusing statement into something as simple as it can be? And most importantly, it has to be entertaining.” I’m proud to say that we successfully made the otherwise arduous textbook facts into a living-room friendly material. If you have the opportunity, watch The Next American Dream sometime – I’d love to know how you think we did. (How many times did I say entertaining?)

February 11th, 2010
by Nicole Melton
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Five Years, Baby!!

So, five years is a long time, right? The world changes from minute to minute–so FIVE years–a lot happens and changes in that time. Well, five years ago T2 in partnership with Inland Sea Productions and the Kansas City Area Development Council started work on the “The Next American Dream”–a documentary on the revitalization of downtowns all across the nation. Kansas City was a natural fit for the documentary for a number of reasons. First, and most obvious – we live here! Duh!! Why would we shoot a doc on another city’s revitalization? We don’t live there and couldn’t watch the progress. Additionally, some folks had told KC officials that we were doing the rebuild the right way…and apparently doing it ahead of schedule. So…. off we went. Camera in hand. Again…and again….and again….and again….for like–4 years. It was like Groundhog Day, only we knew that we would ALWAYS have six more weeks of shooting and interviews. :)

Then, before we knew it, years 4 and 5 were upon us. We were in post and knocking out really fantastic story. T2 editor, Cara Myers, is a champ. Plugging away day after day–digging through literally YEARS of footage and interviews. Writers Aimee Larrabee and Larry Garrett helped to keep Cara sane while she was in the editorial suite. I have to admit, I often wondered if they drugged her….oops, I digress. T2 graphics, headed up by Michael Ong, brought the color and elevated entertainment value with the motion graphics. I loved being in meetings with Michael discussing the graphic look for the doc. I finally understood that when an artist would show Michael an idea he had for the documentary graphics–the sometimes response from Michael being “Interesting.”—actually means: “Whoa Nelley, that is kinda ugly and why don’t you give it one more shot.” Michael knew the look and feel of this documentary from day one. He stayed true to his vision–and we are all grateful for that amazing vision!

Premiere time. We finished the doc and it was time for the premiere–Oct. 7, 2009 at the new Power and Light AMC theater. We were all excited…but nervous that all of the folks were going to be looking at our newborn baby for the first time. Would they think its cute? :) They did and it has been a success ever since. Yes, it has been shown in over 40% of the United States and 32% of the top 50 markets–yes, all that is true. Now for the mushy stuff– it being shown in all of the markets in the world won’t touch the immense pride, joy and pure satisfaction I have for being apart of this documentary. A true labor of love. For me, it truly was a dream come true. I am looking for the next doc for us to sink our T2 teeth into–but nothing will match the passion of our first– “The Next American Dream.”