Weta workshop
| Weta workshop
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| legal form | Privately held company |
| founding | 1987 (as RT Effects) |
| Seat | Wellington , New Zealand |
| management | Richard Taylor , Tania Rodger , Jamie Selkirk , Peter Jackson |
| Branch | Visual effects , animation |
| Website | www.wetanz.com |
Weta Workshop is a New Zealand special effects company founded in 1987 as RT Effects and headquartered in Wellington , offering services for film projects such as design drafts, makeup effects, props, creatures, dolls, miniatures, models and large sculptures, as well as producing merchandising items. Together with Weta Digital , it makes up Weta , which is owned by Richard Taylor , Tania Rodgers , Jamie Selkirk and Peter Jackson . Weta Workshop is located in the Miramar district, in close proximity to other film production companies such as Three Foot Six and Stone Street Studios . The miniatures department is located in Rongotai. With 65,000 square meters, where most of the departments are united, it is said to be the largest company of its kind in the world.
The company is named after the grasshopper Weta .
history
Beginning and development
Weta Workshop was founded in 1987 by Taylor and Rogers as RT Effects . At first, they worked in their home making physical effects for films. In 1990, Rogers and Taylor worked with Jackson for the first time: They made the dolls for his film Meet the Feebles . When Heavenly Creatures was filmed and produced in 1993/94 , Jackson and Selkirk joined the company. At that point, they renamed RT Effects to Weta . The company was subsequently split into Weta Workshop, in which Richard Taylor continued to lead, and Weta Digital, responsible for digital effects. At the same time, an entire block with an old pharmaceutical and an old ice cream factory was bought and moved into. The pharmaceutical factory has been converted into Camperdown Studios, the headquarters of Weta.
Lord of the rings
For the Lord of the Rings films, Weta Workshop was responsible for the prostheses, weapons, armor, creatures and large miniatures that were filmed. The company was thus responsible for a large part of the physical objects that were required for the shooting. Weta Workshop carried out extensive preparatory work, which enabled Jackson to present parts of the equipment when pitching his New Line Cinema project . The work was Alan Lee and John Howe , were regarded as the most important Tolkien illustrators, working as a consultant. The fictional story was treated as historical during the work: the employees studied the development of weapons and clothing of various real peoples in order to take such developments into account in their work. One example is the helmets of the elves' armor, which were significantly changed between the opening sequence and the battle of Helms Klamm - and in the related 3000 years of difference in the narrative. The workers at Weta Workshop developed specific designs for each race and creature in Middle-earth. Blacksmiths and other craftsmen and artists were used to implement the designs. Most of the objects were made realistically; Lighter and less dangerous materials were used only for some armor and weapons. When developing creatures such as the creatures on which the Nazgûl fly, attention was also paid to the correctness of anatomy and physics under real conditions, so that the proportion of the wings to the body was correct. The effort that went into the equipment for the Lord of the Rings films was extraordinarily high overall and was usually not immediately comprehensible for the viewer.
Most of Weta Workshop's activities took place in the original company building, but for the Lord of the Rings films an old warehouse was rented nearby to house the miniature department. Weta Workshop was also involved in the development of the merchandising. Sideshow Collectibles had expressed an interest in producing collectibles in 2000, while Taylor had already approached New Line Cinema because he wanted Weta Workshop to design them. An agreement was reached that Weta designers and sculptors would create the prototypes and Sideshow would then sell the objects. This agreement expired in 2005.
Further development
After the "Lord of the Rings" the company was involved in the production of King Kong , among other things . It was also responsible for the relevant merchandise. Other merchandising projects included The Chronicles of Narnia , Superman Returns , The Muppets and Hellgate: London . In 2004, Weta Workshop re-acquired the ice cream factory that had been sold to fund Stone Street Studios. It was converted into a real-time motion capture studio where the children's series Jane and the Dragon was produced. In addition to work for international productions, local productions also took advantage of the Weta Workshop. One example is the film Black Sheep , which was a New Zealand-Korean co-production. Weta Workshop also supports local filmmakers with the creation of illustration pitch materials.
Projects
Movies
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Television productions
Others
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Awards
Academy Awards ( Oscars )
- 2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Companions
- 2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- 2004: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- 2006: King Kong
British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards ( BAFTA Award )
- 2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Companions
- 2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- 2004: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (nomination)
- 2006: King Kong
literature
- Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, ISBN 978-0-520-24774-1 .
Web links
- Website Weta Workshop (English)
- Weta Workshop in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, p. 291.
- ↑ Information on wetanz.com, accessed on July 14, 2013. ( Memento of the original from July 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, p. 293.
- ^ Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, p. 89.
- ^ A b Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, p. 90.
- ^ Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, pp. 91 and 92.
- ^ Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, p. 92.
- ^ Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, p. 294.
- ^ A b Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, p. 197.
- ^ Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, pp. 302 and 303.
