60 FEATURE FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL
The movie Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool was a passion project that also featured a technology world record WORDS MADELYN MOST IMAGES EON/COLIN VAINES THE ACTING PROJECT
to move back to the dreary darkness of Northern Europe. Production Effects Supervisor, Lester Dunton, of Dunton PFX (Projection FX), was in the midst of aligning the cross hairs of a grid from four great, heavy computerised projectors that would overlap multiple images onto an 80-foot reflective screen. In another area, two more projectors mounted on cherry pickers were being repositioned to cast light onto the set and other actors. Knowing Lester to be a one- man band, technical wizard, jack of all trades who grew up on film sets
Building 10 with trepidation: no, anticipation.
ne fine Saturday afternoon at the BSC luncheon in July 2016, I overheard Lester Dunton say he built the largest back projection screen in the world and had applied for recognition in the Guinness Book of Records. Determined to see this for myself, then accessing permission and clearance to visit the impenetrable fortress that our once-lovely old Pinewood Studios has become, due to the security precautions required for filming the steady stream of Star Wars episodes, I entered the enormous 22,000 square feet of the newly constructed
ABOVE Director Paul McGuigan on set with actor Jamie Bell.
Noticing Lester engrossed in conversation with his two projection technicians while checking the monitor with the DIT, I slowly approached the back of the stage, and felt an aura, a glow, of energy bounce on my shoulders. Gazing up at the massive transparent wall of light, a pinky/ochre sunset sinking into an indigo ocean, almost took my breath away, as I flashbacked to the many times I walked my dog on the beach in this light, trying to remember exactly why I ever left this
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