
Jan 13, 2023, 8:00am · ⛅ 14 °C Altitude: 9 m
New ZealandWellingtonWellington CitySeatoun HeightsWorser Bay41°18’37” S 174°49’11” E
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WETA and Wellington

Wingnut Entertainment Technical Allusions or WETA is the special effects and props company probably best known for its work on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. They work with production companies in television, public art, and more, all in addition to the film industry. The name also refers to the weta, New Zealand's largest insect that they use for their logo.
The 1st 4 pictures are all in their lobby. The main museum space allows no photography as all the artifacts are owned by the production companies, not WETA. I'm sure you will recognize their creative genius from just these examples. The tour of their shop was amazing, seeing all these original, preserved special effects, masks, prostheses, etc. used in so many productions. BTW, Wingnut is the name used by Sir Peter Jackson, director of LotR and more, for his production company.
The Roxy is a restored art deco theater owned by Sir Richard Taylor, founder of the company that became WETA Workshop. WETA is located in the Miramar section of Wellington.
The 5th picture is a view over Wellington, taken from the observatory on top of Mount Victoria. It is a beautiful city. BTW, Miramar is out of this picture to the right.
The next 2 pictures are 2 more LotR filming sites that are located on the side of Mount Victoria. The 7th picture is the site known informally as Shortcut to Mushrooms. It is here that the hobbits fall and roll down the hill to land among mushrooms. Frodo yells get off the road, and they hide under roots just before a black rider arrives and almost finds them.
The 8th picture is where Frodo and Sam made camp one night. Frodo is sitting in the tree where one of our group is sitting. Sam is standing in front, and they hear elves passing by.
The 9th picture is extra special. That is Daniel Reeve. He is the calligrapher, map maker, artist and more on both trilogies, Rings of Power and many more projects. We were blessed to be with him for a good part of a day where he walked us through his work on these JRR Tolkien related projects. Here he is demonstrating calligraphy on a painting of Hobbiton, writing a rather famous line. They asked that this not be splashed all over the web, but I simply could not leave it out. It is a big deal for me to meet him. So I included it here. I encourage you to visit
https://www.danielreeve.co.nz. to better acquaint yourselves with this incredible, generous, kind and unbelievably talented artist.Read more