Epic centre of Middle Earth

MEENAKSHI RAO stepped into the southern hemisphere's most imaginative spot when she visited the Weta Cave Workshop at Wellington where, a bevy of animators, graphic designers and visual effects artists have created armies, built-up environments, prototyped alien guns, conceived characters and their costumes and given you films like Lord of the Rings,Hobbit, Avatar, King Kong, Narniaand District 9,among others

As the crow flies, Wellington is 6709 miles away from Beverly Hills, California. But Hollywood’s biggest flights of fancy are stitched up all this distance away at the Weta Cave Workshop in a famous but quiet nook of New Zealand’s coolest little Capital.On first look, it’s a naive looking house — small, unpretentious, cushioned in a corner and nothing really that would catch your eye had those gigantic Trolls not been frolicking around in its side garden. You can’t believe it till you actually step inside this miniature house in a residential area a little away from the hub that is Wellington, that it’s here that all the armoury and characters, not to mention the costumes, of the Lords of the Rings (LOTR) series have been conceptualised and designed. It’s here that The Planet of the Apes got their identity and it’s here that the infamous District 9 armoured itself up with its mightier than alien guns, one of which sits rather pointedly at the gate of this workshop.

Spielberg’s Tintin, Cinderella, the mighty King Kong, Narnia and Avatar, to name a few, have all been conceived in this unassuming pad by artists, animators, graphic designers, painters, sketchers and a bevy of young minds and technical hands whose job is to step out of mundane human existence, imagine big and impossible and then give them shape on paper, comps and software programmes specially designed for each project.  It’s mind-boggling really to be explained the bigness of the work that goes into creating one shot, just one character, of a particular film.  

Started for a lark by the legendary Sir Richard Taylor in his cosy little pad way back in 2008, this address has since acquired quite a few laurels, including 5 Oscars and 5 BAFTA Awards, including the latest Motion Pictures Academy to honour for Best Design for New Dawn: Rise of the Planet of Apes.

Taking you through the loaded confines of their workshop, Marrissa (who has been part of the creature conceptualisation team for The Lord Of The Rings series), tells you how for the first time ever, the Weta Workshop actually stepped out of home to do all the imagery and designing of newest edition of The Planet of the Apes on location.

It’s not an easy job you see to take tonnes of equipment and big time complex programming to venture out from behind a tabletop into the expanse of realtime location. It’s another matter though that this unprecedented effort, managed through a programme quite aptly names MASSIVE, was duly applauded by the world community with an Oscar.

The quantum of work that goes into the making of these sci-fi and fantasy films is incredible though Marissa insists it is fun for the a100s of animators, designers and graphic artists under whose amazing imagination the paraphernalia gets its flesh and blood. All that and much more is laid bare to a visitor at this quaint workshop, a must visit for LOTR fans and an absolutely singular option for those who need a conversion.

The tour of the workshop is designed as impeccably as the many figures that stand guard after having served a purpose in the mega films they featured. Captain Haddock greets you at the onset; Halo’s Warthorn which was built here looks ready to roll on, except, there is no engine to it; a forge machine churning out metal sword props occupies space and imagination; then there is original art work piled up for past, present and future film projects; the numerous PVC designs and the stunning ways and means used to fill in armies, give aliens their arms, create cities and environments and all else that needs to fill up space in the film frame is painstakingly built here.

Actually, Weta (which is the Kiwi word for a giant insect that is now extinct but could weigh close to 80 grams and be the size of a sparrow when pregnant) Workshop is everywhere. On the numerous Hobbit locations dotting the verdant landscape where not just the big veggies but entire orchards have been artificially erected through this workshop. The imposing Te Papa museum on the picturesque waterfront of Wellington shows off the Weta Workshop’s most amazing works — life-size statues of the heroes of the Gallipoli Battle in which the Kiwis lost around 3000 men fighting the British battle against Turkey. These figurines are so gigantic that you would mistake them for real had they not been so bullish on size. Every emotion of battle — of loss, the ravages of war, the poignance, the defeatism, the regret and the utter haplessness of the soldiers is so well captured in these figurines that even if you are far removed from this war you are moved to tears.

Then there is this absolutely becoming and innovative Hobbit safety video that the Weta Workshop made for Air New Zealand making it stand apart from all other standard safety videos in airlines across the world; the Wellington airport Smaug towering inside the lobby, the giant eagle dangling from the ceiling of the quaint little Nelson Airport and all those imposing figures from various film franchises that have often guarded the gates of Comic Con summits all around the world — you name it and it all has its origin in this workshop, a must visit for anyone who happens to be in the southern hemisphere. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 12 July, 2015