The Weta Workshop
Experience in Auckland
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OUR next section is the slaughterhouse. For the claustrophobic and the faint of heart, you can go through this door to my right to skip this section. For the rest of you, with the cour...!
Before the young man finished his sentence, I was standing before the door with a bisected sheep on it.
A great lover of horror movies, this section of the Weta Workshop Unleashed tour was the one I’d been most eager for.
For any film buff with an interest in practical effects, the Weta Workshop tour is an activity not to miss when in Auckland.
The tour begins with a quick screening of three film concepts designed to allow visitors a glimpse at filmmaking behind-thescenes without compromising any real or existing film ideas.
Then, after a quick talk with the studio’s security officer Jeff, an animatronic troll with narcoleptic tendencies, the true tour begins.
The first section of the tour explores the imagined horror film, Fauna. Visitors are let loose to explore what looks to be where the creative process begins, a room full of designs, concept props, and tools of the trade.
Realistic bodies of strange clawed and winged creatures adorned the walls and miniature versions of them littered the tables along the edges of the room. A bust resembling officer Jeff stood on a table in the centre.
The body of a giant winged creature appeared to break through the wall, its limbs and head attached to several levers located below it.
“Go ahead and pull one,” the guide said.
I and another visitor grabbed at a lever each and yanked. The creature roared to life, its movements reflective of the levers. Someone standing a few steps behind us, distracted by a bin of fake severed limbs let out a little squeal.
But the main attraction of this section was yet to come. A metal operating table with tongs and tools hanging above it. On it, the corpse of the creature we’d seen in the mini screening of Fauna, its chest cavity opened, organs exposed.
I stood marvelling at the detail in its design and finish, its realism almost eliciting a genuine sympathy from me. This was until I heard the guide say the word, “slaughterhouse.”
I was the first to step through the door, into a scene from any number of slasher flicks; a butcher’s freezer room with animal corpses hanging from the ceiling. They felt the way I’d imagine cold decaying skin to feel.
This led into several other horror movie staple sets, each as thrilling as the last. After a quick jump-scare at the end, we were rewarded with a beautiful fantasy garden.
We had entered the section dedicated to fantasy film Age of the Ever-Clan.
A staff member in the middle of designing seemed to have dozed off at his table. I bumped his table and an “Oh, I’m sorry,” escaped my lips before I realised that he too was only a prop.
A gigantic version of him, eyes open this time, towered over us in the next room.
A room of props and set pieces came next.
Medieval swords, a throne, a large porcine blacksmith going about his work.
Last was the section for a science fiction adventure film called Origins.
We entered an open space, jagged walls giving the appearance of a cave. Against one wall was a massive spaceship. Against the other was perhaps the only part of the tour that did give me a tingle of fear.
A colossal ancient robot.
Intricate markings across its torso, adorned with a stunning headdress, with one arm outstretched towards us. I walked over and stood beneath it, telling myself it was silly to think it might come to life.
But it did come to life. Or at least the looming figure’s eyes suddenly glowed white and it gestured towards the spaceship, accompanied by an earie robotic ringing.
The spaceship lit up, lights dancing across it as a screen below it began its tale. My eyes remained on the robot. She was equal parts beautiful and terrifying, and I’d decided the tour merchandise I’d buy would be related to her.
I left with a pin of her to put on my backpack, and renewed appreciation for the intricacies of prop design and practical effects, and all the work it takes to bring our favourite fantastical worlds to life on the big screen.