What would you call the trip of a lifetime? For me … going to the southern hemisphere, meeting the effects supervisor who brought the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia to life, flying in a helicopter for the first time and sitting on a remote beach in New Zealand would all apply.
That’s exactly what I did this fall when Disney invited me to the land of sheep and kiwis (yes that would be New Zealand) for a chance to tour the Weta Workshop, interview Oscar winner Richard Taylor and fly to out-of-the-way locations in celebration of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on DVD.
Day #1
Welcome to Weta Workshop
Weta Workshop is to Lord of the Rings and Narnia fans what George Lucas’ Northern California compound is to Star Wars fanatics. It’s where all the magic happens and I couldn’t wait to get inside. That’s because, even though we were banished from the workshop itself (I’m still dying to know what they were working on in there) we had free range of the Weta Cave. This new addition is the company’s answer to curious fans who tried to visit over the years, but left empty handed. Now, the cave offers a mini-museum packed full of goodies like Meet the Feebles and Heavenly Creatures memorabilia and a gift shop of books and collectibles.
Hidden away in a residential neighborhood you could almost mistake the building for another house on the block. As we walk inside its sensory overload from the get go. Of course my favorite character, Gollum, is waiting to greet me at the door – fish in hand. I whisper “hello precious” and have a picture taken with him straight away. The cave is full of surprises with a rocky wall covering jutting out all around us, framed art on the ceiling, eyeballs bulging from above the cash register, a mannequin dressed in full battle garb and a life-size Lord Cockswain and Moon Mistress sculpture.
Click here for photos of Weta!
Designer Daniel Falconer
Soon after our brief tour of the cave it was time to head upstairs to meet with Daniel Falconer. He just happens to be an expert in the world of Narnia as a designer on the two films and the author of The Crafting of Narnia: The Art, Creatures and Weapons from Weta Workshop. I was tickled to see he brought a few choice objects with him from the film to give us a chance to see the work up close.
Most intriguing was Susan’s horn, the one Prince Caspian used to call the children back to Narnia. Falconer explained that the director Andrew Adamson visualized the piece in ivory and coming from the same tusk used for Susan’s quiver.
“That became a great jumping off point for our designers to use that as an idea and come up with look for the quiver and the horn,” he says. “So this is the very tip of the tusk, the horn, and it is carved in Aslan’s likeness…there is symbolism in the flower that is used on the end as well with the mother of pearl inlay.”
Symbolism abounds in Narnia. While Susan’s horn comes adorned with a Daffodil, the flower suggests the arrival of spring and the return of Aslan. Lucy’s vial, another treasure to behold, is designed with Yarrow leaves, a plant known for its healing properties. Looking closely at the prop, used as Lucy’s elixir in the film, I could just make out her little monogram on the front and Aslan’s fierce head acting as a stopper.
Also among the goods were the Turkish Delight Case from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter’s helmet and swords belonging to Prince Caspian, King Miraz and the minotaur General Otmin.
Click here for more with Daniel Falconer
NEXT: Greg Broadmore and his Unnatural Selector
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Designer Greg Broadmore
Greg Broadmore joins us next, armed with the most beautiful gun I’ve ever seen. Setting it on the table he explains, “This is the Unnatural Selector from Doctor Grordbort’s, which is the world of retro science fiction universe that I sort of [created]. We do a series of collectibles from it. We’ve done three metal and glass very highly limited edition art piece ray guns and this is basically the latest and greatest in that group.”
While most designers start with a movie and then move on to collectibles from their creations, Broadmore is going about it his own way. The designer, who worked on King Kong and the first Chronicles, was granted his own line of collectibles, a book deal called Doctor Grordbort’s Contrapulataronic Dingus Directory that tells the story of characters and ray guns through advertising.
The massive gun that lays before us belongs to Lord Cockswain, a “giant buffoon of a man, a great white hunter” and “idiot on a rampage.” Broadmore hopes the success of the line at Comic Con and elsewhere will lead to more projects including another book and maybe even a video game or movie.
“[This support] is a testament to Richard. He is a creative power house and he wants to see the ideas of those around him realized,” he told us. “He gets excited about any creative thing he sees coming out of the workshop…New Zealand in general is brimming with creative ideas, but we lack opportunities to share that and so Richard, it is totally his mandate to push those out there. And we are starting to do that more and more.”
Click here for more with Greg Broadmore
Effects Supervisor Richard Taylor
Running back down to the cave I wait with my fellow journos for a chance to talk to design mastermind Richard Taylor who’s managed to bring to life the books of my childhood with the help of his team and fellow fantasy wizard Peter Jackson.
He starts by telling us about his design philosophy — “pursue the creative first and hopefully good business will follow.” Obviously this has paid off 10-fold for the team who will likely land a deal for the upcoming Hobbit blockbuster.
Prying him for some details on the Chronicles second film he tells us, “Prince Caspian was surprisingly challenging at a design level, because in the first film the core of the world was the Narnians and the miracle and the creative excitement of delivering this group of highly-sophisticated speaking animals and putting them into believable armor that was emblazoned with their culture. Then you had Prince Caspian and all that’s gone that’s been swept away by bitter in-fighting and political intrigue and men overbearing the natural world and all the motifs he wrote of so beautifully. Suddenly you’re initially developing a war movie.”
“When we came to approach the Narnians we had to draw them right back to a guerilla fighting force, so they are primitively armored at times, they are crudely equipped and that was a challenge psychologically of letting go of those beautiful characters that had been developed so much.”
He admits the world he helped create was so believable even his 6-year-old son couldn’t differentiate between the film and real life. “When we walked on set William dressed in full military regalia drew a sword, kneeled at my son’s feet and welcomed him as a fellow king and my son to this day thinks that he met the King of Narnia. He talks about how he went to the palace to see the queen. It is bloody marvelous!”
Click here for more with Richard Taylor
KEEP READING: ‘Prince Caspian’ location tour
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Day #2
We had a big day ahead of us, but first the reporters met up to watch the behind-the-scenes footage being featured on the new DVD. The kids at homeschool, cast tick checks, meals for 800 to 1200 cast and crew members and helicopter drops were all part of the movie making process.
From the hotel we were about to go on a helicopter adventure of our own. From a heliport near Auckland we took off in a five-copter convoy over some of the most beautiful landscape I’ve ever seen. There’s a reason they make these films in New Zealand. Where were we off to? Cathedral Cove, a site along the eastern side of Coromandel Peninsula’s Mercury Bay used for the children’s first steps back into Narnia.
Our gang flew into the cove and landed on a private farm where our tour guide Abraham met us at the top of a bluff and led us down to the beach for a look around and photo opportunity.
Next our chopper took us further down the peninsula where the actors filmed their scenes at the ruins of Cair Paravel. A 20 minute hike up to the bluff revealed an open site with a breathtaking view. It quickly became apparent that despite filming obstacles this location couldn’t be passed up at any price.
On that note, I invite you to check out the images from the trip, they just might tell the story of this once in a lifetime trip, better than I can.
Click here to see the photos of Cathedral Cove and more!
