lcummins
Universal MODster
And now... something completely different...
...oh wait! You people don't want different, you want the rest of the story don't you? Ok! Ok! On to day two...
Day two arrived bright and early for me! I was still on US time and after walking around downtown Wellington most of Monday, I was pretty beat and went back to my hotel room with the intention of just resting a bit before going out to get something to eat. Instead, I fell asleep about 6PM and woke up at 1AM in the morning, which was 8AM (the day before) back in the states! I was no longer sleepy so I turned on the television and watched the BBC news, which carried the Michael Jackson Memorial live in its entirety. After the memorial was over, I went downstairs to the lobby of the Ohtel to get some coffee. The owner/manager asked if I would like breakfast, and being hungry I replied yes. I sat down to a couple of small pancakes, a couple of slices of fruit, a couple of slices of tomato, toast, orange juice and of course, my coffee. This was similar to a "continental breakfast" back here in the states, which is usually included with your room. I assumed the same was true in New Zealand... Au contraire! My tiny little breakfast cost me $22NZ (which was about $14.44US)! Lesson learned for my next international trip!
Darren (Weta's Customer Services Manager) was back again to pick us up and take us to Weta Workshop for the tour. Before heading straight there, he took us to the top of Mount Victoria, which is the peak rising up directly behind the hotel we were staying in. There is a spectacular view of Wellington, from Oriental Bay all the way around to the airport and Miramar, the area where most of Weta's properties are located. The third panoramic picture I've posted was taken from the top of Mt. Vic. (as the locals call it). Now, off to Weta!
We drove over to Miramar, which is about a 20 minute drive, winding through mostly residential neighborhoods. Going down a main road in one of these neighborhoods, Darren pointed out the house where Peter Jackson works much of the time when he is in Wellington; if you didn't know he worked there, you would never guess it. As with most of the Weta buildings, they are located among homes in residential areas and are fairly plain and not too "showy" like they would probably be in the US! Weta Workshop and the Weta Cave are located on a corner at a "T" intersection, with homes beside it, across the street in front, and across the street on its other side. A metal "entry way" and sign over the door are the only things to let you know where you are!
We were escorted up to the conference room where we found the Halo 3 line of statues sitting on the conference table to commemorate the day! The Halo sterling silver ring was also there, and we were the first people (outside of Weta) to get to see it in person! The conference room is quite small, and dominated by a large conference table in the center; one wall is lined with plaques, certificates, artist autographed pictures and the like, while the other wall is lined with display cases which run the length of the room and from floor to ceiling. These display cases start on the left with several awards that Weta has won, including the five Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, several British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, some Visual Effects Society (VES) awards and many others! As you continue along the cases your eyes are constantly drawn to rare statues and unproduced pieces like the Moria Cemetery environment! I later found out that most of the pieces in the cases were one of the three "paint masters" that were created for each piece and used for design and production! Counting the paint master, we would see at least four Balrog statues around the workshop, and that was just the small section we got to tour! Yes, I said four!!!
After taking our pictures of the conference room, it was time to begin the workshop tour. Unfortunately, that meant it was also time to sign the "non-disclosure agreement" and leave our cameras behind, so I am able to talk about some of what we saw, but not everything. For example, we went down some stairs, from the conference room area, and entered a hallway type area and I noticed a large whiteboard with all the current projects Weta is working on and the personnel assigned to them! That is where I saw the names of the first few pieces in the John Howe line of statues, but again, unfortunately I can't talk about what they were or the other projects listed on the board, but you already know some of them, such as Avatar and The Hobbit.
From there, we entered a garage area where the Warthog just happened to be parked! After the Warthog and another vehicle parked there, the thing that will catch your eye first is a life-size head of King Kong done as a scale reference! That's right, I said LIFE-SIZE! One word... MASSIVE! And it was hanging on the wall above our heads just to give you an idea of the size of this room... and it was a small room compared to the next room we entered! The next room was one of the main workshop areas and can best be described as a "small warehouse" sized room. Another of the life-size Kong heads hung high on a back wall; several dinosaur "parts" and bones (from Kong), also life-size, hung in various places around the room. A huge Lord of the Rings banner was just lying across and hanging down from one of the steel beams near the ceiling. Various costumes on mannequin bodies (from LOTR, Narnia, etc.) stood in corners and empty spaces. A very large (maybe 3' x 6' or even bigger) sculpture of the word "Kong", sculpted to look like the sides of the ravine in the movie, complete with vines running down the letters, stood on a shelf above a door at the other end of the room! Workshop employees were working on two projects, one involving full size set pieces for an exhibition, and the other involving (what to me was very large, but only a small part of the total) the Prince Caspian village miniature being refurbished for a display somewhere. There were many full scale and small scale replicas around the room, waiting to be delivered to various clients, but...
To be continued...
If you want to go ahead and browse the day two pictures before you've heard the full story, that's up to you, but I'd wait if it was me... but that's just me, you do what you want...
https://www.non-sport-cards.com/image...ay2/index.html
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...oh wait! You people don't want different, you want the rest of the story don't you? Ok! Ok! On to day two...
Day two arrived bright and early for me! I was still on US time and after walking around downtown Wellington most of Monday, I was pretty beat and went back to my hotel room with the intention of just resting a bit before going out to get something to eat. Instead, I fell asleep about 6PM and woke up at 1AM in the morning, which was 8AM (the day before) back in the states! I was no longer sleepy so I turned on the television and watched the BBC news, which carried the Michael Jackson Memorial live in its entirety. After the memorial was over, I went downstairs to the lobby of the Ohtel to get some coffee. The owner/manager asked if I would like breakfast, and being hungry I replied yes. I sat down to a couple of small pancakes, a couple of slices of fruit, a couple of slices of tomato, toast, orange juice and of course, my coffee. This was similar to a "continental breakfast" back here in the states, which is usually included with your room. I assumed the same was true in New Zealand... Au contraire! My tiny little breakfast cost me $22NZ (which was about $14.44US)! Lesson learned for my next international trip!
Darren (Weta's Customer Services Manager) was back again to pick us up and take us to Weta Workshop for the tour. Before heading straight there, he took us to the top of Mount Victoria, which is the peak rising up directly behind the hotel we were staying in. There is a spectacular view of Wellington, from Oriental Bay all the way around to the airport and Miramar, the area where most of Weta's properties are located. The third panoramic picture I've posted was taken from the top of Mt. Vic. (as the locals call it). Now, off to Weta!
We drove over to Miramar, which is about a 20 minute drive, winding through mostly residential neighborhoods. Going down a main road in one of these neighborhoods, Darren pointed out the house where Peter Jackson works much of the time when he is in Wellington; if you didn't know he worked there, you would never guess it. As with most of the Weta buildings, they are located among homes in residential areas and are fairly plain and not too "showy" like they would probably be in the US! Weta Workshop and the Weta Cave are located on a corner at a "T" intersection, with homes beside it, across the street in front, and across the street on its other side. A metal "entry way" and sign over the door are the only things to let you know where you are!
We were escorted up to the conference room where we found the Halo 3 line of statues sitting on the conference table to commemorate the day! The Halo sterling silver ring was also there, and we were the first people (outside of Weta) to get to see it in person! The conference room is quite small, and dominated by a large conference table in the center; one wall is lined with plaques, certificates, artist autographed pictures and the like, while the other wall is lined with display cases which run the length of the room and from floor to ceiling. These display cases start on the left with several awards that Weta has won, including the five Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, several British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, some Visual Effects Society (VES) awards and many others! As you continue along the cases your eyes are constantly drawn to rare statues and unproduced pieces like the Moria Cemetery environment! I later found out that most of the pieces in the cases were one of the three "paint masters" that were created for each piece and used for design and production! Counting the paint master, we would see at least four Balrog statues around the workshop, and that was just the small section we got to tour! Yes, I said four!!!
After taking our pictures of the conference room, it was time to begin the workshop tour. Unfortunately, that meant it was also time to sign the "non-disclosure agreement" and leave our cameras behind, so I am able to talk about some of what we saw, but not everything. For example, we went down some stairs, from the conference room area, and entered a hallway type area and I noticed a large whiteboard with all the current projects Weta is working on and the personnel assigned to them! That is where I saw the names of the first few pieces in the John Howe line of statues, but again, unfortunately I can't talk about what they were or the other projects listed on the board, but you already know some of them, such as Avatar and The Hobbit.
From there, we entered a garage area where the Warthog just happened to be parked! After the Warthog and another vehicle parked there, the thing that will catch your eye first is a life-size head of King Kong done as a scale reference! That's right, I said LIFE-SIZE! One word... MASSIVE! And it was hanging on the wall above our heads just to give you an idea of the size of this room... and it was a small room compared to the next room we entered! The next room was one of the main workshop areas and can best be described as a "small warehouse" sized room. Another of the life-size Kong heads hung high on a back wall; several dinosaur "parts" and bones (from Kong), also life-size, hung in various places around the room. A huge Lord of the Rings banner was just lying across and hanging down from one of the steel beams near the ceiling. Various costumes on mannequin bodies (from LOTR, Narnia, etc.) stood in corners and empty spaces. A very large (maybe 3' x 6' or even bigger) sculpture of the word "Kong", sculpted to look like the sides of the ravine in the movie, complete with vines running down the letters, stood on a shelf above a door at the other end of the room! Workshop employees were working on two projects, one involving full size set pieces for an exhibition, and the other involving (what to me was very large, but only a small part of the total) the Prince Caspian village miniature being refurbished for a display somewhere. There were many full scale and small scale replicas around the room, waiting to be delivered to various clients, but...
To be continued...
If you want to go ahead and browse the day two pictures before you've heard the full story, that's up to you, but I'd wait if it was me... but that's just me, you do what you want...
https://www.non-sport-cards.com/image...ay2/index.html
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