Weta Workshop

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Costumes designed by Weta Workshops, Elven soldiers in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

Weta Workshop is a physical effects company based in Miramar, New Zealand, producing effects for television and film. Founded in 1987 by Richard Taylor and others, it has produced creatures and makeup effects for the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess and effects for films such as Meet The Feebles and Heavenly Creatures. A digital division, Weta Digital, was formed in 1993.

Weta Workshop's output came to worldwide prominence with director Peter Jackson's film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, producing sets, costumes, armour, weapons, creatures and miniatures.

"Weta" was named relating to the New Zealand-native insect. The company's website "history" page says the four promoters called it "Weta" "after New Zealand's coolest little monster, a bizarre and prickly prehistoric cricket". Weta may be going through a re-branding exercise, having spawned new divisions such as Weta Tenzan Chain Maille, Weta Collectibles, Weta Publishing.....with more in the pipeline.

Currently, Weta is working on the costumes for Justice League, with Weta Digital likely to be involved as well^[1]. Other projects include Jane and the Dragon and the live action version of the hit Japanese anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Weta is currently working on the Game to Film adaptation of the popular Xbox video game Halo: Combat Evolved. Weta's fantasy skills were also used for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Weta also provided special effects for the Rock2Wgtn music festival held in Easter 2008.

1 Weta Tenzan Chain Maille
2 Bigatures
- 2.1 Bigatures used in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
3 Special effects filmography
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Weta Tenzan Chain Maille

Weta Tenzan Chain Maille is a division of Weta Workshop that makes Chainmail. This chainmail was made for not just the lead actors, but also for the hundreds of extras that appeared throughout the films. Due to the time-consuming nature of making chainmail, prior films tended to use either painted cloth (such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail's painted wool sweaters), which cannot be used in close-up and looks terrible at greater distances, or real chain mail armor which is quite heavy. Weta invented a technique of injection-molding PVC rings which snap together. They are electroplated with a very thin layer of metal to give a true-metal look. The mail, therefore, has exactly the same look as real chain mail and moves like metal at one third the weight, and is much cheaper. The mail can be repaired easily on-set. Weta also produces aluminium or steel mail for high-impact stuntwork.^[2]

In The Lord of the Rings, the injection molding process was not used, rather PVC pipe was sliced into rings, assembled by hand into armor, and then electroplated, so the rings had some rough edges to them. 12.5 million links from 7 miles of PVC pipe were used in this extremely laborious process.^[3] The injection process was used for the armor in Kingdom of Heaven, giving better results.^[4]

[edit] Bigatures

The term "Bigature" was Weta Workshop's nickname for a very large miniature model. They are used in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, with the largest of them measuring some 9 metres high. Extensive computer graphics techniques and computer controlled cameras were used to seamlessly mesh the Bigature photography with live actors and scenes. Weta also used Bigatures in Peter Jackson's King Kong.

[edit] Bigatures used in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

The Hornburg -- The mountain fortress of the Rohirrim.
The Grey Havens -- The elven harbor.
Minas Tirith -- The white city of Gondor.
Orthanc -- Saruman's Fortress.
Minas Morgul -- Sauron's 'Dead City'.
Barad-dûr -- Sauron's massive tower.
The Black Gate -- The gate guarding the gap between the Ered Lithui and the Ephel Dúath.
Grond -- The battering ram that smashed down the gates of Minas Tirith.