In the years were Sir Peter Jackson was producing the film of Lord of the Rings, from the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien, he got hold of an old paint factory where he refurbished and evolved it to produce the film and many others after this, he named it Stone Street Studio. Stone Street Studios is located in Wellington, New Zealand, and is divided into 19 warehouses, where most of the warehouses are used in creating life scale props and others are broken down into departments. One particular department is where all the architectural mock-up scale models are made.
This department is called the art department, where Sir Peter Jackson with leading artists begin the process of creating these mock-ups by drawing/painting the scenes from the novels onto paper to depict the world of ‘Middle Earth’ from the words of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Once the drawing/painting sketches are done and approved they are then sent to the Supervising Art Director where he/she will then give separate sketches to separate model designer who will commence on constructing a model. The models are created using vast number of material, mostly used are clay (terra cotta), Styrofoam, a number of softwoods and different metals due to the manipulation of the material.
After the models are built they are then examined by Sir Peter Jackson, the leading artists, the Production Designer and the Set Decorator so that they choose a final model. When the final model is chosen and given the approval by Sir Peter Jackson the sketch, design and model is send to specific warehouses where the construction of the life size scale model can commence.
The following are examples from when produced in the studio and when it is seen on film;
The Hobbit; An Unexpected Journey troll scene
The Hobbit; An Unexpected Journey Azog vs Thorin scene
The Hobbit; The Desolation of Smaug spider scene
Though most of the constructional work is produced in Stone Street Studios, the minor work is produced in another workshop, not located within the Studios, but is also located in Wellington, this is Weta Workshop. Weta Workshop is a company in which it produces special effects and props for a variety of TV series, films and of course Sir Peter Jackson’s movies, in which they produced the sets, costumes, armors, weapons, miniatures and facial masks for his movies.
The process for the above mentioned is similar to that done in Stone Street Studios but instead of creating a mock-up build before the life size scale, Weta Workshop immediately builds their products to life size and half size scale. This is done as they have to work with actual figures and be able to identify specific features and details which cannot be captured on small scales. Most of the material used within this workshop are Styrofoam, aluminium and stainless steel, but like Stone Street Studios Weta Workshop is divided into separate departments in which each department has their specific tasks, these are:
- Modelling
- Modelling weapons and armour
- Trimming
- Sanding
- Sculpting miniatures of creatures
- Engineering
- Milling
- Injection moulding
- Bending
- Laser Cutting
- Mechanics
- Painting
- Painting of armour
- Aging of weapons and armour
- Spraying
- Clean up
- Bow String (for archery purposes)
- Dying
- Moulding
- Baking
- Foam filling
All this is done to achieve the final product as seen below, the left which is life size and the right which is half size scale.
Since I started the course at MCAST on Creative Arts, I’ve always had a keen eye on designing and producing products. When I was introduced with the subject of model making I began to have an interest in the world of filming and the way they produced most of the scenery and products done by hand. This shows great teamwork, talent and a creative imagination that these designers had and have to produce such works. Being a fan of the novel and movies, I took interest and saw how they have developed these pieces of work, through which these processes have aided me in my designs in my last year. All this experience opens to more opportunities and open doors, eventually, to various future occurrences in the field related to design and technology.
Critical Thinking 