AMC's critically acclaimed Revolutionary War drama TURN: Washington's Spies transports viewers back to the cities, villages, plantations and battlefields of colonial America. Ensuring that all those locations, their buildings and geographic features are historically accurate, that the ships, flags and musket shots are correctly represented, is the result of careful research and clever work on the part of the show's production team and visual effects artists from FuseFX.
Having just completed production of its third season, TURN was developed by Craig Silverstein, is executive produced by Silverstein, Barry Josephson and Michael Taylor, and is based on Alexander Rose's book Washingtons Spies: The Story of Americas First Spy Ring. It centers on an unlikely group of espionage agents based in the small town of Setauket, New York, who help turn the tide of the war.
The show is shot on location, using Williamsburg, Virginia as a stand-in for Philadelphia and Petersburg, Virginia for New York. Setauket scenes are shot on a location-built set. Much of the work for the visual effects team centers on adding details in the form of set extensions, matte paintings, water and other elements to make the real-world locations conform to the historic sites.
Our job is to create things that are either too expensive or too large to build, explains Production Visual Effects Supervisor Terry Windell. We aim for feature quality in the visual effects, but we are working with deadlines and budgets that are not what you get on a feature, so we have to be very efficient and smart.
FuseFX's work for TURN involves close collaboration with production staff, including Windell, the executive producers, the show's directors, Production Designer Caroline Hanania, Cinematographer Martin V. Rush and Co-Executive Producer/Unit Production Manager Henry Bronchtein. Hanania's set designs and drawings, for example, serve as the starting point for set extensions and matte paintings.
In crafting its contributions to these historical illusions, FuseFX relies on Caroline Hanania's extensive research and conducts additional research of its own. Many of our building references come from photos of Dutch buildings that used to be in New York, recalls FuseFX VFX Supervisor Jon Massey. Since nearly all of those are gone, we look at European buildings from that same time period, for instance from the Dutch Quarter of Potsdam, Germany.
The matte paintings used to turn Williamsburg into colonial Philadelphia and Petersburg into New York also feature digital representations of iconic structures such as Independence Hall and Trinity Church. Additionally, the VFX crew is responsible for removing any modern elements, wires and telephone poles, captured in the production footage, and for adding musket smoke and blood wounds that production is not able to capture.
Careful research also goes into the creation of CG ships. The HMS Victory, Admiral Nelson's flagship, which dates from the same era, still exists in England and there is a lot of good reference related to it, notes Massey. That has been very valuable to us. He adds that the attention to detail extends to the flags flown by the ships. The flag used by the British Navy in North America at that time was the Red Ensign, where the Union Jack appears in an upper corner against a red field. It was the precursor to the flag of the United States.
The VFX team has adopted an almost fanatical devotion to historical accuracy. A mistake will be noticed, Massey observes. There are websites dedicated to research on the show and a lot of history buffs who watch it. Production invests considerable effort into getting the details right and we try to hold up our end as well.
One of the biggest challenges for the VFX team is water. The real-world Setauket is a harbor town on the Atlantic, but the set representing it is inland. Waterfront views therefore need to be added to most exteriors. Convincing CG water effects can be time-consuming to produce, but FuseFX has developed a hybrid approach where CG and practical elements are combined.
Ten years ago, you couldn't have done CG water for an episodic television show, but our technology has come a long way, explains Massey. Now you can get 80 percent of the way there using the existing software tools we have at FuseFX. Still, it's the last 20 percent, where you are fine-tuning and integrating practical waves, foam and swells, that takes the most care and effort.
We chose to work with FuseFX because of their ability to create water effects and what they've been able to accomplish on a television time-frame is amazing, says Windell. Their matte paintings and recreation of iconic buildings and ships add production value.
Across the board, everyone who works on this show is top notch, he adds. The quality of the writing sets the tone and inspires us to do great things.
Still, if all that hard work goes unnoticed by viewers, Windell won't be displeased. I find it incredibly fulfilling to work on a period piece where the job is not to be seen, he concludes. If viewers accept what they see as reality, that's the highest compliment.
TURN: Washington's Spies premieres its third season on Monday, April 25th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.
Season Three of TURN: Washington's Spies, the Revolutionary War spy thriller, builds towards one of the most notorious moments in American history - the treasonous defection of Benedict Arnold (Owain Yeoman). Behind enemy lines on Long Island, Abe Woodhull (Jamie Bell) is a spy for the Patriots, reporting directly to George Washington (Ian Kahn). Embedded within the Continental Army, Benedict Arnold is seduced to become an informant for the British. As the consequences of their espionage ripple through the battlefield, the spy
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
AMC's critically acclaimed Revolutionary War drama TURN: Washington's Spies transports viewers back to the cities, villages, plantations and battlefields of colonial America. Ensuring that all those locations, their buildings and geographic features are historically accurate, that the ships, flags and musket shots are correctly represented, is the result of careful research and clever work on the part of the show's production team and visual effects artists from FuseFX. 
