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DISCLAIMER: This transcript is provided on an "as is" best efforts basis and is based on a MiniDisc recording made where speech was not always legible because of noise in the room. Any errors made in transcribing what was actually said are mine, and not those of the speakers quoted, and may include spelling mistakes, incorrect names and other minor typo's.
Richard Taylor, Weta Workshop: Well we've been on quite a journey over the last six years. It's the biggest chunk of my career. We realised that Tolkien had set out to write a world that is a fantasy world, but a world that had a cultural reality. A world that if you entered it through your reading you could come to believe that these cultures and these people existed, that the cultures referenced a history that placed it very firmly in a real place. So we set about with our work - the Weta Workshop looked after the design and fabrication of the special makeup, effects and prosthetics. The armour, the weapons, the creatures and the miniatures. Weta Digital looked after all the digital requirements on the film. In total we produced over 48,000 separate things for the three films. In the numbers and in the crafting of the work it was imperative that we realised the writings of Tolkien at the highest level. We fulfilled the preconceived vision of the world's readers. To go out and try and make our version of Middle-earth, to try and bring our artistic persuasion to bear wouldn't have created a cinema that was pleasing to the fan base already built in around the books. We endeavoured to go back into the writing of Tolkien and really appreciate this rich cultural reference that he had written and use it as a blueprint and ultimately create creatures and cultures that fulfilled all of the readers' vision of this world - not just our own.
		When we came to the end of the films we ourselves had always thought that an exhibition would be wonderful because in endeavouring to paint this sort of Tolkien-ish brush stroke over the work we had gone to extensive levels to produce an authenticity in the work. I was so concerned that I didn't want the work to look as if it had come from a 1990's art department, that we did things like setting up a blacksmithing shop. We hand beat the armour. We hand beat the weapons exactly as they would have been made in the medieval times of our own world, so that the traditional techniques would come to bare on the items and they would have a physical reality through their manufacturing technique, so that they don't look like they're stuck together with hot glue and fibre glass, but rather they reference a world that we've come to know through photographs and museum exhibitions.
To now come to the point that Te Papa took on the immense job of taking over the mantle of the work that was done by this huge group of technicians and present it to the world in the form of an exhibition where the audiences can stop and inspect that detail, can see the efforts that have gone into making Tolkien's world vibrant and real. The Story Inc. guys who are three people sitting just up here who are from New Zealand so please do get a chance to chat to them. They so capably took on the role of realising Peter's vision and presenting our work so beautifully. This wasn't a film made by a single film maker. It wasn't made by a group of technicians. It really was made by the overall efforts of a whole country. Sitting in the bright light of day here today it may sound a little bit corny but it was really a huge push by a whole nation of people to make sure that these films would be made at a level that could stamp our culture onto the world stage. As the exhibition began it was imperative that that exhibition continued to take the story about the science and the technology, the artistry that was put into these films by so many people, to the world's audience. So it's such a wonderful thing to walk into this hall today. The last time I stood in this hall was when I was eleven years old and my grandfather brought me here to see the machinery and the wonders of science and this exhibition hall. To bring our work back here and have it celebrated by such an esteemed museum is truly wonderful. I do hope that you enjoy having a look through the exhibition but obviously, more importantly, that the fans of the films, the fans of the books, can discover a little bit more about Middle-earth in this incredible exhibition. Lawrence Makaore, 'Lurtz': I feel in awe to be here actually because a year and a half of my life was spent doing the movie. It was a shame actually that my character got killed off. Richard touched on this before where it's really great to be in a country to open up the exhibition where a special story was actually created. So it's been a really wonderful opening for me… and it's starting to get really hot in here! Stephen Bromburg, Communications Manager:Let's open up the floor for some questions .... Click here for transcript of the Q & A session at the Press Conference Panel Click here for first (previous) page of Press Conference Panel transcript
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Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk