Wētā Workshop

Wētā Workshop

Company type	Private
Industry	Special effects, animation, video games, board games and miniatures
Founded	1987; 38 years ago (1987) (as RT Effects)
Founder	Richard Taylor Tania Rodger
Headquarters	Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand
Key people	Richard Taylor (CEO)
Website	wetaworkshop.com

Wētā Workshop is a creative company delivering concept design, special effects, props, collectibles,^[1] immersive visitor experiences^[2] and video games.^[3] Based in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand. It also offers two tourism experiences, the Wētā Workshop Experiences Wellington Tour^[4] and Wētā Workshop Unleashed^[5] in Auckland. It is known for effects for television and film.

History

Founded in 1987 by Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger as RT Effects, Wētā Workshop 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 version, Weta Digital (now Wētā FX), was formed in 1993 and operates independently as a separate company.^[6] The company is named after the New Zealand wētā, one of the world's largest insects.^[7]

Wētā Workshop's output was used in director Peter Jackson's film trilogies The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, producing sets, costumes, armour, weapons, creatures and miniatures.^[8] It also aided in the making of Jackson's 2005 version of King Kong.^[9] It supported the creation of Reclaiming the Blade (2009), a documentary film on stage combat, historical European and Asian swordsmanship.^[10]

Wētā Workshop teamed up with Team Fortress 2, creating weapons and cosmetics based on the company's Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators series.^[11] Additionally, Wētā Workshop created the Aegis of Champions, the trophy awarded in The International, an annual esports world championship for Dota 2.^[12]

Wētā Workshop's video games division was founded in 2014^[13] and has produced multiple games including the augmented reality project Dr. Grordbort's Invaders for Magic Leap,^[14][15][16] and the video game Tales of the Shire.^[17]

Wētā Workshop made its American musical theatre debut in 2022 with Workshop designer Rebekah Tisch serving as the art director for the musical stage production of Other World at Delaware Theatre Company, creating a digital world for live stage.^[18]

Innovations

People

• Jonathon Brough works as a designer and prop finisher.^{[23][24][25][26]}
• Daniel Falconer is the author of several Wētā Workshop publications including The Art of District 9: Weta Workshop^[27] He is also a member of the design team for the Lord of the Rings film franchise and other films.^[28]

Workplace culture

Beginning in June 2020, an investigative project by New Zealand public TV broadcaster 1News into Wētā's workplace culture resulted in over 11 current and former Wētā Workshop employees anonymously sharing accounts of bullying and harassment.^[29] Another former employee, Layna Lazar, came public with her own allegation by social media posting the same month that she was sexually harassed repeatedly and after seeking recourse, was fired, this prompted an independent review by Hive Consulting in December of that year. Their reviewer Ashley Benefield cleared the company of the allegations stating that "the majority of allegations in the post including the most serious allegations, have either not been substantiated or were reasonable in the context of circumstances not described in the post". The review's December 2020 report did not address the anonymous allegations of over 11 employees originally reported by 1 News back in July, and the concerned employees stated they were not informed of the review having finished, in spite of their cooperation in it.^[30]

Film

Television

Video games developed

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (September 2024)

References

External links

• Wētā Workshop
• Wētā FX