How will your brand story be remembered? Your brand’s origin, its journey, with all the twists, turns, and challenges is worth being preserved. You may only get one chance to tell it–tell it with style.
Over 70 years ago, family-owned Leprino Foods had an idea that would eventually catapult them to be the #1 producer of mozzarella cheese on the planet, distributing to household brands like Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa Johns, Stouffer’s, and many, many more. It all began with a gutsy 14-year old Italian immigrant Mike Leprino and a one-way ticket to America.
Follow along as we unpack the behind-the-scenes epic tale of telling the origin story of Leprino Foods.
Situation
Family-owned since the beginning, Leprino Foods has established themselves as a global dairy entity. Their epic story continues to set them apart to this day. Full of ups and downs, ingenuity, adventure, and risk, the Leprino story is one for the ages. Capturing the spirit of the Leprino brand, its people and founding family was no small task. Retelling their epic rise from local Denver corner grocer to global dominance would prove an adventure in and of itself.
Approach
To tell the story from humble beginnings, something needed to be the driving thread connecting it to its establishment as a company of the future. We needed to guide our viewers through these parts of the story in an interesting and stylistic way that maintained accuracy. Upon finding that Leprino still owned the original delivery truck from so many decades ago, an idea was born. The team at Bionic Giant crafted a story that used the original delivery truck as the driving force of authenticity throughout the film.
A Drive Through Time –The Leprino story, from its infancy in 1950s Italy to its establishment as the dominant player in the global cheese industry.
Design
After an extensive discovery process, Bionic Giant established a fun production design leveraging a throwback 1950s animation style to complement live action. Tying in vintage company colors further grounded the nostalgic approach in telling the history of Leprino Foods.
Each piece had to be meticulously handcrafted. The original artwork, animation, and even set designs were all executed by the in-house team of illustrators, animators, and designers at Bionic Giant.
Production
Telling this story properly would take the cast and crew (72 people in all) on an epic journey of their own. From the Bionic Giant studio in Minneapolis, to a 700-acre cattle ranch in Denver, and a Los Angeles studio with five custom built sets––the Leprino story came to life. The entire production plan, crew, management, and gear was provided by Bionic Giant.
Filming A Drive Through Time for Leprino Foods was executed in just five days, which helped maximize and control the budget. Bionic Giant conducted casting in Los Angeles, Denver, and Minneapolis. Cinematic look and feel was captured on RED digital cinema cameras with anamorphic lenses. Filming included studio live action, studio for VFX and 3D modeling, live action on location, and also several drones and a 32 foot SuperTechno crane.
Post-Production
Riding high off the amazing production days in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Denver, the time for intricately piecing together this epic story had come. In the Bionic Giant edit suites is where the production assembly line takes place, and pieces filmed independently now come together to tell the full story. Each individual shot gets special time and attention to make sure we honor the incredible Leprino legacy. This is where green screens are removed, real-life elements 3D modeled are added, visual effects (VFX) composite every pixel, color grading styling is realized, and audio mastering elevates sound.
“We had an incredible story to tell and BG brought it to life with a tremendous air of ambition while honoring our immense sensitivities and demands. Leprino Foods is incredibly grateful to Bionic Giant for this outstanding video resource that preserves our legacy and influences our future.” – Andy Kinomoto, Senior Creative Manager, Leprino Foods
