Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546033
W E L C O M E T O D E R R Y | P E R S P E C T I V E 5 9 at Cinespace Studios in Toronto in January 2023, with principal photography beginning in May. After shooting about 90% of three episodes, the production was suspended due to the strike, and we had to pick up again in the fall. The Town of Derry We revisited some of the key exterior locations from the earlier films, with the town of Port Hope, Ontario, as Derry's stand-in. For this iteration of Derry's main street, the Art Department designed signage and storefronts for thirty-five separate businesses. Illustrator Joey Beelich built a Twinmotion version of the town so that we could visualize all the storefronts together. The talented graphic design team of John Moran, Jeremy Gillespie, Paul Greenberg, Danielle VanHelden, Joelle Cravan and Jenny Lang redesigned earlier iterations of "Second Hand Rose," "Quality Meats," "Keene's Drug Store," "Jade of the Orient" and of course, the "Capitol Theater." All of the signs were hand-painted by our scenic department, led by longtime collaborator Cameron Brooke. This time, the series actually had a big sequence set inside the theater itself, as well as the lobby and the projection room. We used the exterior of the 1930s Capitol Theater in Port Hope, and built an early 1950s-looking concession stand in the existing lobby. We then combined it with the interior auditorium of the similarly dated Westdale Theatre, located in Hamilton. On stage at Cinespace, we built a projection room with a pair of working projectors sourced from a local collector by set decorator Jeff Melvin. Our young actor Amanda Christine got quite adept at changing the reel on camera. Since it was a TV series, we did not have all the directors on at once, so we were unable to block shoot the A. DERRY MAIN STREET DAYTIME. FILM STILL, INCLUDING CGI DERRY STANDPIPE IN THE DISTANCE. B. DERRY MAIN STREET NIGHT. TWINMOTION MODEL AND RENDER BY JOEY BEELICH. C. DERRY MAIN STREET STOREFRONTS IN PORT HOPE, ONT. SET PHOTO. C B