22 August, 2019 - 08:02
FX Legion recently completed a complex mix of visual effects for History Channels new docudrama mini-series, The Food that Made America. The Burbank-based company worked on every phase of the production, from start to finish. Its team was on-site during locations scouting and on-set during production in New York, all the way through the final delivery of a show open assigned during the eleventh hour of production.
Produced by Lucky 8 out of New York, The Food that Built America tells the stories of visionaries - such as Milton Hershey, John and Will Kellogg, Henry Heinz, C.W. Post, the McDonald brothers - who built the brands and invented the technology that revolutionized the food industry. The docudrama recounts these titans roles in the reshaping of the countrys culinary landscape at the turn of the century, using dramatic reenactments that replicate the look of the period with spot-on accuracy.
Among VFX Legions most challenging tasks was building out present-day structures with large-scale set extension to recreate warehouses and factories from a by-gone era. Legion stepped in to meet another challenge when the plates originally shot didnt show off the Hershey factory and surrounding landscape to their best advantage. Its team built a fully digital replica of the factory and the vast landscape surrounding it - from the ground up. The shot recreated the style of the period architecture, as well as the documentary-like feel of the series.
Luck 8s Creative Director Yoshi Stone worked closely with Legions LA In-house VFX Supervisor Matthew Lynn and Creative Director James Hattin. They developed the look of the sets based on the technical scout sessions that VFX Legions New York-based On-Set Supervisor Eric Pascarelli attended.
Pascarelli made sure that Luck 8 had the shots Legions artists needed back in Burbank. The detailed descriptions and measurements of each shoot that he provided ensured that they got it right the first time and were able to turn around the all of the visual effects quickly and cost-effectively. VFX Legion used Zoom video conferencing to collaborate during every phase of the production, and to go over the continually evolving plan of action and ensure that the teams on both coasts were always on the same page.
Late in the game, Legion to create the show open graphics package. The team pitched a number of designs and styles of both treatments and logos. The companys LA team designed and animated the open, and fine-tuned it based on the clients editorial decisions.
The Food That Built America was a fixed cost show because of the way it was structured, says Hattin, Legions founder. It required the kind of practical solutions that our pioneering pipeline and forward-thinking approach to visual effects production was created to handle.
Working on a docudrama with Lucky 8, a New York-based company thats produced a prestigious roster of documentaries, was a great experience, adds Hattin. History Channel is home to a continuing line-up of documentaries and docudramas that captivate and engross audiences with dynamic programming about the past and present. Legions team really enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to work in this genre.
VFX Legion used a mix of equipment to create the shots for the series, including The Foundrys Nuke for compositing, Adobe Photoshop for matte painting, Redshift for 3D rendering, Autodesks Shotgun for project management, Autodesks Maya for 3D lighting and animation, motion graphic design was created using Adobe After Effects/Illustrator and Signiant Media Shuttle was used to transfer files.
For additional information about VFX Legion LA/B.C. and its services, visit www.VFXLegion.com, call 818-736-5855, or email contact@VFXLegion.com.
CREDITS:
Title: The Food That Built America
Type: VFX for Mini-Series/Docudrama
Airdates: August 11-13/History
Client: History Channel / NYC
Executive Producer: Jim Pasquarella
Executive Producer: Mary E. Donahue
Executive VP and Head of Programming: Eli Lehrer
Produced by: Lucky 8 / NYC
Director: Nick White
Executive Producers: Yoshi Stone, Greg Henry, Kim Woodard, Isaac Holub
Visual Effects by: VFX Legion / LA, B.C
Creative Director: James David Hatting
VFX Supervisor/Show Open: Matthew T. Lynn
On-Set VFX Supervisor/NY: Eric Pascarelli
3D Supervisor: Rommel S. Calderon
CG Dynamics: Eric Ebling
Compositing: Nick Guth
Compositing: Brad Moylan
Compositing: Eugen Olsen
Camera Tracking: Guy Delgado
Pipeline Tools: Brandon Rachal
Matte Painting: Marc Adamson
Matte Painting: Christian Haley
Matte Painting: Jim Hawkins
Matte Painting: Eric Mattson
Matte Painting: Yvonne Muinde
VFX Coordinator: Lexi Sloan
VFX Coordinator: Amanda VanDeCar
Bookkeeping: Michaela OBrien
Embedded video for VFX Legion Creates Effects For The Food That Built America on History Channel
Television
Americas United States
SJ Golden, vfxlegionla@yahoo.com
Most recent headlines
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today! By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's The Great Flood and Culinary Class Wars 2 Top Gl...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things By the Numbers: How the Global Phenomenon Shap...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
23/12/2025
New technique lights up where drugs go in the body, cell by cell Scripps Research scientists developed a technique that maps drug binding in individual cells th...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22 August, 2019 - 08:02 
