Next doort to the iconic Sky Tower is the Wētā Workshop, an award-winning company (with 5 Oscars) known for creating special effects and props for movies and television as well as developing video games. Their special effects were used to create various movie sets in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit movies as well as his 2005 King Kong movie. Wētā’s artists also helped create the Te Papa Museum exhibit, Gallipole: The Scale of our War that we considered one of the best we’ve seen (the report of our visit to the museum is here). The castle in the image above is made from foam and other model-making materials. The company, wētā, is named after one of the largest insects in the world.
On a Wētā Workshop Unleashed tour, you visit three different hypothetical movie sets. One department emphasized horror, another fantasy, and the last focused on sci-fi. The Weta Workshop in Auckland is designed for kids, but adults like us also marvel at the creativity of the artists. There is another weta workshop in Wellington, which has props from actual movies currently in production.
In the horror department, there are realistic animatronics and prosthetics. You even get to enter a dark maze for a heart-racing experience. One girl on the tour refused to go in, even though she was told it was all make-believe.
The second part of the tour takes you to the artists’ studio, where you get to learn all about how intricate fantasy worlds are brought to life, starting with artist concept sketches.
The third and final section is a sci-fi film set where you see robots, spaceships, and light displays.
The company is also known for their miniature model making, and you can see the intricate details on display. Above are character from The Lord of the Rings movies, including Gandalf (left column) and Bilbo (upper right). Wētā Workshop created creatures and characters, make-up and prosthetics, environments, miniatures, props, weapons, and armour for The Lord of the Rings movies. There were some 48,000 individual pieces created for that trilogy alone.
We saw how chain mail armor was made, with each ring individually placed in a time-consuming manner. Chain mail was an effective defense against the slashing and cutting of swords, but ineffective against cross-bows and bullets, which could enter through the gaps between the rings.
On this interactive tour, you are allowed to touch everything and pretend to be a special effects artist intern, so it was fun to see the molds and tools used to create the various characters and monsters. The tour guide (upper right) is a real character herself. We could overhear a guide from the group behind us, and we swore that all the guides were trained the same way. They all speak with similar comical, high pitched accents.
It’s hard to believe, but this is Evelyn, after putting on her make up. There were a number of make up stations that digitally applied the effects. The left column shows the various steps as the artist adds layers, with the right image displaying Evelyn ready for the stage. It was fun to see the end result.
Here are some of the creative concept sketches used. There is an amazing amount of talent and creativity in this company. The workshop was a fun way to spend time on a rainy day, which surprised us.