Friday, July 19, 2019 - WETA Workshop Day - Wellington again
Happy Friday everyone! I'm posting my end-of-day as you're all getting ready to wake up. A bit drizzly today, but don't let it get you down - always lots of end-of-week fun to be had as you unwind into the weekend.
Tash picked me up from the hotel at 8:30 this morning. We had a 9:30 tour at WETA Workshop. We had the 2 hour tour because.... I'm in New Zealand how many times in my life and I will get this chance again when?
So, got to WETA workshop early and went out for coffee before signing in for the tour at 9:15.
Had 15 minutes to wander around the gift shop, which is a wonder in itself. Oh! You're wondering what this WETA thing is? <face palm> Of course! WETA Workshop is the special effects design house of SIR Peter Jackson, the obsessively creative director, screenwriter, and producer of the Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, King Kong, and other movies. 
You'll recognize a lot of the models from the shop in my pictures here - lots of movies they've contributed design work for. Avatar..... Lara Croft, Tomb Raider.... Alien.... I don't have pictures of all. Mostly LotR... But I've been coveting that Lara Croft jade necklace. omg! In a puzzle box! Fabulous, really.... 
A "Weta" is actually a set of insect species endemic to New Zealand. There are Cave Weta.... Giant Weta.... Tree Weta.... they look like Crickets, but most are much larger. Apparently their bite is a bit painful, but as with most species.... if you're not sure.... DON'T TOUCH IT! (picture from Te Papa museum trip)
Isaac was our tour guide for today. He was really the BEST EVER! Isaac was friendly, answered questions, let me take notes on my phone and trusted me not to take pictures in the copyrighted portion of the tour. Really. Isaac is awesome. WETA should tell him that often because we certainly couldn't tell him enough. I particularly liked how good he was with the kids on the tour. They were so curious and he was super sweet with them.
In the First room there were six Wooden panels, in each of which was carved a relief of a character that had been designed by WETA. There's a distinct LotR feel to many of the areas throughout the tour and this room set that tone. We were offered cubies to put our bags and coats in while we went around the tour. We also watched a short video at this location.
The first room we moved into included a timeline of the WETA workshop production going back to 1987 (established as RT Effects). One of the first movies they consulted on was "Brain dead," which won an award for the most blood ever used in a film. The Lord of the Rings movies were a long time coming, really.
In this room (no pictures, remember!) there were the Power Ranger helmets, a Giant bee, a T-Rex, and many Lord of the Rings items.
Pieces from a board game WETA designed are on display. A GoFundMe Kickstarter was originally established to design the board game and the entire project was funded in 10 minutes.
WETA made large human sculptures for a Te Papa museum exhibit about World War 2 - For these models (about 8 times the size of a person) hairs must be pushed in 1 at a time. One eyebrow took 2 days to complete.
A question about the materials used for the model work was asked and Isaac explained that they use silicon for models, not wax. The Silicon reflects light without the shine of wax, so it looks more realistic. Chemically, Silicon is more like Carbon, so that makes sense.
All work at WETA starts with drawing, so they said if you want to come work at WETA then you should start by being good at drawing. Design work can take a year or more - Avatar 6 yrs - LOTR 2.5 yrs for the design work.
After the design work is complete, then the team presents them to the filmmakers and get approval to design a prototype. Prototyping is done with foam.
At Weta they don't use 3D printing, they use a milling machine to carve the model into cevatol. Cevatol can shatter, so they just use it as an initial model for molds, then they use silicon for models used in film - synthetic material is CC60 (CC35 more flexible and used for other items.)
Isaac said their painters are the “best liars in the world.” It is not a lie - it was impossible to tell a synthetic sword from the real materials.
Once a CC60 helmet is made, they put human sized helmet inside and apply steel weighting at the rim to make actors move accurately. Steel weighting in feet for dwarves to the tune of 10k/foot. All of this is to help with the realism.
When they were working for the first Lord of the Rings they were still using fiberglass - materials are constantly evolving, so their work changes with the materials.
Also displayed:
A running car made that looks like Christian Bale's batcar. The movie this car was made for was cancelled before production.
Gorgeous wall of swords & shields - blue crane & red phoenix?
It takes 90 hrs to create the sword on display, then it was seen 2 seconds in extended version of Lord of the Rings.
4 versions of same prop in different materials - Viggo Mortensen broke his toe during filming because he kicked metal helmet that was supposed to be plastic. Misplaced prop not good. What we see was him actually breaking his toe on screen.
Invented a new material for Power Ranger costumes - The director asked for a chrystalline rock-like substance that is flexible. It looks like the Paoa shell - abalone. It is really cool how it looks on the Power Ranger suits.
See the helmet room…. Dozzzzens! One with wings off side…. Medieval… Roman…. Templar…. PlatePlate mael…
Chainmael samples in different materials (rubber, aluminum, steel) … and different methods Knitted, 4 + 1, dragon scalemael, etc
Silicon mask must custom made for a face.
King Kong head mold demo.
Sauron armor - actor 7 ft tall…. Supposed to be 13 feet tall… to scale version was also made…
OMG! Warren Beaton gave me the aluminum skull he was making as the example!!!!
Thunderbirds behind the scene building - Tour Part 2
<pictures are from the last room on the tour, there was a lot more that I could not take pictures of with the Thunderbirds set, but I'm really needing to track down how the girls & I can watch this in the states!>
The same principal is used today. They use a method called "Kit bashing" - used 30-40 different model kits to create a vehicle- get second hand kits w/ parts missing.
Similarly, "Trash bashing" uses the same technique, just uses trash stuff from around the house.
Overnight creation of space station using materials from around the house
Bladerunner 2049 - entire city of LA built with kids toys from around the house
Shoji (creator of original transformers from Japan) - designed spaceship for Thunderbirds Go!
“power of suggestion” - shape, color, & texture… People will believe what you tell them it is.
Kitchen sponge - break it up, put it into blender - cleans blender & creates green plant materials.
Tracy house large (1/12 scale) - Tracy Island w/ small Tracy house (1/100)
Characters are animated, but all physical world interaction is real.
Hairspray to hold light fluffy things in place.
Can't copyright rocks have been using the same rocks for 20 years. 😂🤣
They like Lemon Squeezers… Because, why not? Looks good everywhere
Hedges - bits of sponge dipped in green paint
Hoods Lair & Ship - all made out of old computer parts 😂
Working on 3rd season of Thunderbirds now
Baking soda for snow - not sugar, which turns all your sets into ‘Attack of the killer ants”
Here are more GREAT PICTURES from the Thunderbirds after-tour room!
After the tours Tash and I went back to the Gift shop, then also played with the trolls outside. What an amazing tour today! So informative and absolutely amazing! Thank you WETA for letting us visit!!
Ty cat for such an amazing tour.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the write up Cat!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed your tour with Isaac, he's pretty great!