Have you seen The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, The Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong or Dune? You’re probably thinking, “What do any of these movies have in common?” The design and special effects in all of these movies are brought to you by Weta FX, a visual effects and animation company based in New Zealand. And I had the pleasure of checking out the Weta Workshop movie-making tour in Auckland!
Weta FX has achieved many awards for its involvement in movie-making. Although you may not see them on the big screen, the visual effects company works hard behind the camera to create scenes that wouldn’t be possible without them. They are responsible for bringing notable characters to life, such as Gollum, Thanos, King Kong, and the Na’vi in Avatar. Weta Workshop was created in Wellington when its founders noticed the groups of movie fans surrounding the movie workshop, so they opened a store for them to go wild! This was then turned into a tour space after much success as a rising landmark. Weta Workshop Auckland then opened, and is now a creative hub for the fans of Weta and their movies to experience behind the scenes of movie-making.
As soon as we arrived, the staff were immediately sweet and enthusiastic without even trying. You could tell they love their job, and that just makes the whole experience all the more magical! The tour invites you to become interns for the day at a movie production company, with 3 original movie concepts to explore. So, we got our photos taken like all tourist spots. Except this one was different; this one had swords!
We followed our guide through all the secret doorways until we came across a room full of movie figurines. We were told that these all belonged to their Head of Security, Jeff. Before we knew it, another door opened and an animatronic of a troll was sitting with his cup of coffee behind his desk. So that Jeff?! I remember thinking our tour guide was talking about an actual worker at Weta Workshop but no. She was talking about an animatronic. It was actually kind of cute, he was pretty life-like for an animatronic. He was moving around, talking, and laughing. So, that was Jeff. Onto the next weird Weta surprise.
There were so many rooms during the tour, each one showing different steps and processes of movie-making. It really demonstrates how much work and effort goes into creating them. Weta Workshop is also an interactive experience as well. Unlike other tours and activities, here you’re able to touch and play with what’s in front of you, like using all different levers to control each part of a giant monster. Or playing the giant version of Operation to remove glowing orbs from some alien creature.
As I said before, the tour is centred around 3 movies as we are shown the different elements of movie-making. We looked at horror, fantasy and sci-fi. Horror was first, and as an initiation of sorts, we were guided through a haunted-house-style corridor themed around the movie we were investigating. It was designed to look like a slaughterhouse with all sorts of fake animal parts hanging from the ceiling. It was very claustrophobic, especially towards the end. I felt like I was being birthed. The guide did warn us though, and said that we didn’t have to go through with it if we had claustrophobia or sensory issues. But You know me, I like a challenge.
We stumbled out of the horror section into the fantasy land. This is where we could let our creative juices flow and make whatever we wanted out of foil, clay, and tracing paper. I was a little disappointed that they had a chainmail table set up without actually letting us make something out of chainmail but I digress. They also had a photo opportunity where you could sit on a throne with your choice of sword or axe as your “weapon”. This is when I noticed that I was just being myself in a photo for a very long time. There were people around me, and usually because of my social anxiety I wouldn’t even bother to have my photo taken, but today I didn’t care. I was having fun and that’s all that mattered. I raised the sword in the air and snapped the victorious photo!
The last part of the tour was about creating sci-fi films. Usually, sci-fi is one of my least favourite genres, but as soon as I saw the statue of this alien robot, I just fell in love. I wanted to see this film so bad, but all the movies we were “working on” during the tour weren’t released. Nevertheless, we stood back and enjoyed the show as this giant golden robot flashed an array of colourful lights before opening up her face to reveal the alien inside. All of the statues at Weta Workshop were just breath-taking, but I still can’t get over this one. She was almost divine in the way they designed her.
Sadly, that was the end of the tour. I never knew how much work went into creating films, but now I have a greater appreciation for movie-making. The Weta Workshop tour was such a fun and creative way of learning about movie production, with animatronics, light shows and hands-on fun! Trust me, it’s worth the visit!
All photos and videos in this post were taken by me or my Dad.
For more information, visit https://tours.wetaworkshop.com/
The Travel Journal 
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