Movie magic—the post-production trickery that renders monsters lifelike and explosions earth-shaking—used to be conjured exclusively by studios in New York and L.A. But thanks to technological advances, post-production facilities have popped up around the country in cities like Minneapolis, home to Pixel Farm, which specializes in visual effects, animation and finishing of commercials and feature films. Founded in 1995 by Mohsen Sadeghi, an Iranian who immigrated to the United States in 1968 in search of editing work, Pixel Farm eventually laid roots in Minneapolis with a decided advantage. With Minneapolis’s relatively low cost of living and Pixel Farm’s streamlined, online workflow, Sadeghi’s company has been able to produce work cheaper, faster and arguably better than post-production houses on the coasts. Equipped with a mind-bogglingly impressive 32,000-square-foot facility, Pixel Farm is generating a slew of high-profile work, some of which you may be familiar with:

Project: Pixel Farm supervised the final mix, color correction and sound design of each of the spots in United Airlines’ 2008 “It’s Time to Fly” ad campaign. Comprised of a series of five meticulously animated television spots, the campaign won multiple advertising awards for its poetic depiction of international air travel.

Behind the scenes: Pixel Farm consulted with the L.A. Philharmonic before painstakingly orchestrating the campaign’s sound effects and final mix (each spot contains a derivative of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”) at Pixel Farm’s fully functional, onsite recording studio. For the “Sea Orchestra” spot—featuring an animated orchestra comprised of sea creatures—Pixel Farm went so far as to acquire crab legs from Minneapolis eatery La Belle Vie to create the sound of the orchestra’s crustacean conductor.

Where you might have seen the campaign: Somewhere between Michael Phelps’s first and eighth gold medal; the campaign premiered on NBC during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
See it: youtube.com/uniteditstimetofly

Projects: Local music video director Phil Harder entrusts Pixel Farm with the finishing and effects work of all his music videos, consulting with them prior to shooting to steer the creative direction of the video.

Behind the scenes: When creating visual effects for Prince’s “Cinnamon Girl” and Rob Thomas’s “Ever the Same,” Pixel Farm paired green-screen technology with dynamic camera movement to create surreal watercolor-inspired environments.

Where you might have seen Harder’s videos: MTV, MTV2 and VH1
See them: mergefilms.com; pixelfarm.com

Project: Under the supervision of associate Paul Sadeghi, Pixel Farm oversaw the entire post-production—including sound design, score, final mix, color correction, credits, titles, effects and output to DVD—of Older Than America, a film by Georgina Lightning. Shot entirely on location in Cloquet, Minn., the film dramatizes the atrocities of a decades-old American Indian boarding school, and the haunting visions suffered by the daughter of one of the silenced.

Behind the scenes: Pixel Farm utilized its in-house movie theater for screening and reviewing purposes, while essentially building a workflow pipeline that moved the film through various stages of post-production. “It probably touched everyone at Pixel Farm,” says Sadeghi of the project they hope will be the first of many feature films to come through Pixel Farm.

Where you might have seen the film: Older Than America celebrated its world premiere in 2008 at SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
For more on the film: olderthanamerica.com +