The Edge - The Birth of Weta

Television (Excerpts) – 1994

This excerpt from arts show The Edge looks at the early days of Weta, the Wellington effects company which would win Oscars for King Kong and Avatar. Dressed in a Tintin T-shirt, Peter Jackson talks about the effects being crafted for Heavenly Creatures, and forecasts a future where filmmaking will go digital. Richard Taylor — later head of Weta Workshop — crafts a sea creature for another project; George Port guides viewers through the basics of digital effects. At this point Port was Weta's only digital effects expert. He worked on Heavenly Creatures for seven months straight.

I really like the Kiwi ingenuity. I mean we’re in a small building, in a tiny room, and we’ve got all this gear. We bought it and didn’t have a clue really how it worked. We've figured it out ourselves, and learnt a lot from it. We’re kind of doing it. They [Hollywood] can do it, so we can do it. It’s a real Kiwi attitude I think, which is kind of fun.
– Peter Jackson on taking on Hollywood from Tasman Street in Wellington