Day 4: Wētā Workshop

Scottie’s Story

A lovely bright sunny and reasonably early start to the day – we were booked on a Wētā Workshop Tour just outside Wellington. We got there, on time, with only one very minor Scottie shortcut and found a parking space pretty much outside the venue – our luck was in today.

We arrived to find a guy brandishing a sword (not a real one) in an attempt to encourage a bird to fly out of one of their rooms. He was not successful in the time we were waiting for our tour to start, but it was free entertainment.

It was a “do not touch” and “do not take photos” tour as some of the stuff was protected by copyright, however there were a good number of things, later in the tour, that we were allowed to touch and even try on and areas where we could take photos, which was nice. Unlike Rob, I am not a Lord of the Rings fan – I liked the first film and that was it for me – however it was not all about LOTR, this company did and still do loads of work on countless films, and the stuff they produce is amazing. We got to see how they make the characters’ faces / body parts using silicon and less frequently latex (due to allergy issues) and the attention to detail is incredible. For example, the choice of latex vs silicon is due to amount of light absorbed / reflected to make whatever it is to appear more in keeping with the scene / shot. One of the things we were shown was a head, over twice the size of a human head, and one eyebrow would take someone all day to do – they had to put every individual hair in one by one, using a mixture of yak hair and fishing line, and the end result was very realistic. The head also had facial stubble, so I dread to think how long it took to put the individual pieces of stubble on the face. I had to laugh (inwardly) when the guide said that by putting hat on the head, they avoided having to put hair on, which would have taken an eternity. They showed us the process of creating the silicon masks that actors had to wear and it was time consuming but, again, the attention to detail, down to the very last wrinkle was incredible. Each mask could only be worn once, so if an actor was in scenes spanning a number of days, they had to have a mask for each day, so it was not a once and done creation, it had to be replicated. This is why their process included creating a mould that could be used time and again.

The same detail went into costumes, from full body armour and chainmail to swords. Some chainmail was plastic based, but from a distance you’d never know, so they had the “plastic” chainmail for actors / extras who would not be in close proximity to the cameras, and other chainmail for actors in close up scenes. Some chainmail was knitted, but as the people creating this didn’t know how to knit, they had to engage the help of a group of knitting grannies who then taught them how to knit – I kid you not.

In one room we tried on some head gear, possibly not suitable for a wedding or posh affair though, as you will see from the photos and we tried our hand at tin foil design. One member of staff made amazing things from tin foil and while he was explaining the process he made a seahorse using tin foil and a teaspoon. We were then given the chance to create something ourselves and you will see from the photos that it is not as easy as it looks. I’ll give you a clue, mine was supposed to be a cat lying down, but honestly it takes a bit (OK a lot) of imagination to see my lump of tin foil as anything more than ….. a lump of tin foil. As we used to say at nursery “it is the process not the product that matters”, and it was fun to do. This guy also added cardboard to the tin foil to create figures and then covered them in something that set hard and gave the creation weight etc. You’d never guess that it was made from cardboard and foil. It gave me ideas for the garden as one of the products to spread on the tin foil is specifically for use outdoors – he told me that one lady made a monster for her garden and all of a sudden Nessie in our garden sprang to mind, however I know my artistic limits and quickly canned that idea, but I have less ambitious ideas of how I could use this stuff. I hope I can get it in the UK, so a bit of googling to do and one more idea to add to my garden to-do list.

This company has also won a number of Oscars, but they do not have a name engraved on their Oscars as the founders & owners said that the Oscars were really the work of all the staff, rather than them, but they were not allowed to have their company name engraved, so the space for the recipient’s name is blank. A real Oscar and all the stuff re the event were on display, like tickets and the envelope with the announcement of the winner and more – pretty cool.

I am in complete awe of the skills, imagination and patience of the folk who created all these widely different things – simply and utterly a-maz-ing, as Craig R-H would say. The tour was 90 minutes long and went by in a flash – you don’t have to be a LOTR fan to be completely blown away by what these people can create.

Tour over, lunch next.

We used Google to help us to find somewhere for lunch, as a good number of places were still closed post-New Year, but  we got there only to find that the Parkside Bar & Grill was actually in a Sports Centre … and closed. We found a space, in the empty car park, to find another eatery, which we did and got there too without a Powell Path or Scottie Shortcut and only one car park detour. Success. On lacrosse tours, a car park detour to “rectify our direction of travel” was virtually a daily occurrence so it was nice to be able to carry on that “tradition”, even if this time it was not strictly our fault – Google can take that one instead.

After our meal it was back home to do norra lot as this was Rob’s last day before lacrosse refereeing duties kick in, so time to relax, do nothing and be all prepared for the upcoming tournament.

Rob’s Reflections

Capital idea

Took a trip back to Wellington today. I wasn’t aware that it is the capital of New Zealand, had always assumed that would be Auckland. We got up early and drove the 40 minutes to get to the Weta Workshop Tour. Online warnings about parking proved not to be a problem early on Sunday, Lorna found a space just metres away from the building. Onto the event: our guide Molly talked us through exhibits showing, amongst other things: the many productions that they have done work for; weapons and armour, including some we got to touch – four types of chainmail, ranging from coated plastic to the ‘real deal’ steel rings put together by hand, and also some that was knitted; prosthetics and the process of creating from an impression of the actor’s face; more physical props; and on a lighter note, how to use a sheet of aluminium foil to start doing 3-D art. It all ended with a photo opportunity which we took advantage of. Finally a quick look around the shop, where I managed to resist purchasing a multi-thousand dollar replica of the sword Narsil – decided that it wouldn’t have fitted that in my luggage.

We returned to Upper Hutt and had lunch at a restaurant, then took another drive past the lacrosse event venue on the way back to base.

It appears that our apartment is on the local cat highway – we have seen three different ones walking right past our window already.

Think I’m over the worst of the jetlag – today will see if I can stay awake past 9pm… and tomorrow I move into the referee accommodation.

Video of a silicone head

The facial movements are done here by remote control. This was to demonstrate just how realistic the movements are, thanks to all the intricate work that goes into producing the silicon “parts”.