Weta? Wait, what?

Feb 1, 2025 

"Weta" ~ Maori for "small ugly thing"

In many ways, New Zealand is like a whole different world. The trees and plants aren't the ones we're surrounded by in the Ozarks. In fact, there are a few almost fossle-like throwbacks, cyclades, that were present when the dinosaurs roamed. They have no large predators like our coyotes, small black bears and the occasional mountain lion. Their birds are often flightless. The rugged landscape has been shaped by earthquake, tsunami and fire. 

It was perfect for Peter Jackson's vision of Middle Earth. Not only did he have natural settings to film his Ring Trilogy of Tolkein's epic stories in NZ, he found a partner in a small prop and fabrication company in the fledgling Weta group. 

"What's a Weta?" I hear you ask. It's a disgusting six-legged beastie that seems to be an unholy combination of cricket and cockroach. They grow to a length of 3 or 4 inches and make my skin crawl at the thought of them. But the designers and imagineers who worked with Jackson were diehard sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fans, so why not name their company after this nightmare of an indigenous  insect?

Our excursion today was a visit to the Weta Workshop. It provided 48,000 individual props, costumes and effects for the three Ring movies. Needless to say, the company that started with only 2 employees experienced explosive growth in short order. 

Some wanted to make this sign say "Wellywood" like the Hollywood sign since Lord of the Rings made them a film-making powerhouse. But Wellington is the country's capital, not just a Lord of the Rings mecca. It's also known as Windy Wellington, one of the windiest capitals in the world.

Peter Jackson wanted to shoot the three Ring movies at once, so that meant moving the cast to NZ for a year and a half. He rented out houses for them and their families to relocate to and the result was a very family-like atmosphere in the cast. 

Golem, the pitiful creature who was utterly consumed by the One Ring.

Inside the Weta workshop, we were only able to photograph in the anteroom. Inside the shop, the company has posession of a lot of items they had produced, but the rights to them, so we weren't allowed to take pictures.

The DH and a model of one of the dwarves

Sometimes, the workshop made full body copies of actors so they could be filmed in situations that would be too dangerous for humans. In the case of the dwarves it was a 1 to a certain percentage to give the appearance of a smaller size. For another film, they made a full body double of the NZ actor Sam Neil and we saw him sitting there, realistic down to the last eyelash. 

The techno-wizards at Weta are able to take anything and make it appear as if its something else, with an appearance of great age and weight. Inside the workshop, we saw chainmail made from plastic that looked alike ancient rusted metal. Those were used for extras and long distant shots. Up close, they fabricated things to exacting standards. Vigo Morensen, who played Aragorn, insisted on wearing actual metal chain mail and nearly paid for his method-acting sensibilities with his life when he fell into a river. 

From a high point just outside Wellington

Weta created special effects for dozens of movies as well as the LOTR trilogy. They worked on Avatar and we saw a replica of the 10 ft. tall blue chick. Their horror film credits stretched as long as my arm, but since I'm not a horror fan, I didn't recognize many. They also did small model work on movies like Master & Commander at the Far Side of the World. (You didn't really think they filmed full-sized sailing ships nearly sinking in the Drake Channel, did you?)

New Zealand is incredibly beautiful, but I'm told for sheer awesomeness, the northern island can't touch the southern one. Sadly, we will not see the site of Mt Doom or any of the other rugged locations used in LOTR. 

That just means we'll have to come back someday, doesn't it?