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Attraction Profile
Fab4D
New 3D film brings
Beatles music to life
Fans of the “Fab 4” can enjoy their music as
never before in a brand new 3D film laced
with special effects, and there’s only one
place to see it – the Beatles Story in Liverpool,
where else? Park World goes behind the
scenes of the latest 4D experience from
Simworx
MAIN PIC: Mike the roadie and Sergeant Pepper embark on a tram trip to remember LEFT: The effects theatre
by Simworx TOP RIGHT: Beatles Story managing director Jerry Goldman prepares to enter the auditorium
F
ab4D opened this summer and is the highlight of the new Beatles Story Bespoke Production
annex at the Pier Head ferry terminal on Liverpool’s renowned “For the Beatles Story an off-the-shelf film simply would not have worked,”
waterfront. The original Beatles Story, just a 10-minute walk away at says Simworx managing director Terry Monkton. “By commissioning Fab4D
the Albert Dock, is already one of the British city’s most popular visitor they get an exclusive, custom-made movie for the equivalent cost of a typical
attractions. Located on the first floor of a new £10.5 million three to four-year licensing deal, plus they can benefit from spin-offs like
($17m/Euro.18612m) terminal building, the new outlet is a “Beatles Story merchandising.”
Light” featuring the 40-seat Fab4D theatre, Fab 4 Store and an “For me, it’s hard to choose a favourite part of the film,” adds Goldman,
exhibition space, currently hosting the world premier of White Feather: “but I think the whole Yellow Submarine sequence, where the tram turns into a
The Spirit of Lennon. submarine, you are splashed with water, and then there are all these fish and
The idea for Fab4D came from Beatles Story managing director Jerry bubbles, is fantastic. In fact,iIt’s hard to work out what is real.”
Goldman: “Someone once said we should make a film of the song As well as bubbles and water, other 4D effects include leg ticklers
Eleanor Rigby; it’s such an amazing story,” he explains. “Then I was at an (simulating octopus tentacles), scent (the strawberries in Strawberry Fields),
exhibition [Leisure Industry Week] and came across Simworx. I went into smoke (during the graveyard sequence), wind, seat drops and psychedelic
their effects theatre on the show floor, saw what they were offering, and special effects lighting.
thought ‘just a minute…’” As with the rest of the Beatles Story, Fab4D’s creators had to be careful
A bespoke computer-animated 11-minute movie was commissioned from how they addressed certain aspects of band’s rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, but
Red Star 3D, the same studio that produced Curse of Skullrock and other ‘60s kids will appreciate the 3D strawberry hallucinations and Sergeant
attraction films sold by Simworx. Fab4D tells the tale a Mike, a young roadie Pepper’s rolling eyeballs.
at the Cavern Club taken on a magical mystery tour through the music of “the More explicit are the links throughout the film to Mersey Ferries. The tram,
world’s greatest band” to meet Anna, the girl of his dreams. meanwhile, is a nod towards Liverpool’s ill-fated light rail system, which should
Mike must make his way to a concert that night if he is to capture have been installed in time for European Capital of Culture 2008, but never got
Anna’s heart, but how should he get there? Sergeant Pepper is his guide funding.
on a tram trip to remember, travelling along Penny Lane, into Strawberry
Fields, through a lonely graveyard
(cue Eleanor Rigby) and on a
Yellow Submarine voyage beneath
the River Mersey. When he arrives
at the gig, Anna gives Mike a
longing stare as the band plays
She Loves You.
“There’s so much Beatles music
to choose from, the challenge
was to narrow it down to the five
songs we have,” says Goldman,
“but I think it really works.”
LEFT: Sergeant Pepper in a Yellow
Submarine RIGHT: Strawberry Fields
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SEPTEMBER 2009
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