January 26, 2025 • 4 mins
Wētā VFX has received three Academy Award nominations for their work on Alien: Romulus, Better Man, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
2000 people work within Wētā FX, many in Wellington, and head of VFX Matt Aitken said the nominations will make a 'great contribution' to the capital's economy.
The Oscars are set to take place in Hollywood on March 3rd.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
The Oscar nominations came out today. Our own Wetter FX
has nabbed three nominations for the film's alien Romulus Better Man.
Now that's the Robbie Williams one where Robbie is played
by a monkey and speaking of monkeys, also Kingdom of
the Planet of the Apes. Now they're all up for
awards for visual effects work. The Oscars are set to
play take place in Hollywood, the date the third of March,
(00:22):
and the head of VFX at Wetter is Matt Aiken,
who joins me, Now, hell are Matt Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
What a great piece of news to wake up to
this morning. Three nominations in the possible total of five.
So just an incredible testament to all the hard work
that the team's been doing here over the last year.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Talk us through the work that went into these films.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, so one by one Kingdom of the Planet of
the Apes. It's there's a lot of digital visual effects
work involved in creating these entirely CG ape characters. What
distinguishes Kingdom that at several generations after the last episode
in the series, so there's a whole new cast of
(01:08):
ape characters, so we had to build them all from scratch.
We get to work with new actors doing the reference
performance for these characters, and we got involved in a
lot of simulation work as well. Another real great girl
that we've developed over the last few years is digital
water simulation work, so we can create very natural, realistic
looking water. So when we've got a digital orangutan character Raka,
(01:34):
who has fallen off a bridge and is hanging on
for dear life in these rappers with water all swelling
around him, his furs wet, his fur is being dynamically
moved by the water, that's all simulation work that we're doing.
That looks incredibly believable, and I'm sure people are just
lost in the peril of the moment and not thinking, Oh,
I really like the way that that water simulations probably
(01:56):
took up a lot of disk space.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's the trick, isn't it. As so it doesn't look
like a special effect. It looks like reality. And I
guess your your mokey, your monkey work served you well
with the Robbie Williams film Better Man and then of
course Alien. I mean, gosh, that must have been a
dream come true to do a film like that, because
it's always been great what I would like to ask
you though, in getting this recognition, how important is it
for New Zealand Films to get this And it is
(02:19):
good news for the Wellington economy.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I would like to think it's it's fantastic news for
the Wellington economy. You know, we we're over two thousand strong,
most of whom are here in Wellington. It's it's very
highly technical work, highly artistic work. It's very satisfying work.
I think we make it make a great contribution to
the Wellington economy. But we you know, we're tucked away
here at the bottom of the Pacific. We we have
(02:45):
to work extra hard to attract the work down here.
And the best way that we can do that is
by delivering work of the highest quality. That's that's our
calling card. That's that's what gets us the repeat work
on series of films like the Apes film. And so
the equality is what is is what's going to continue
(03:08):
to to be our you know, our main, our main
calling card. And the fact that we've got these three
nominations today determined by the Academy, you know that this
is the people who are making these nominations are determining
these nominations are the leaders in visual effects in the world,
you know, the three hundred and fifty odd members of
(03:29):
the Visual effects branch of the Academy. That's who's nominated us,
and so that they think that we're doing the best
work in the world is just fantastic news for us.
And if one of these three films ends up picking
up the oscar itself, that will be like the icing
on the cake. And we'll have our seven, the best
seven people from the company who are actually named on
(03:52):
the nomination list, that will be dressing up on the
Tech taxedos on the day and going to the ceremony
in Hollywood at the Dolby Theater. And if some of
those people get to go up on the stage and
pick up an oscar, that will be a huge moment
for us here. We'll all be watching here in Wellington,
We'll all be popping champagne.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Call of course, you Willy Interesting and thank you so
much for your time today. Matt Matt Aiken is the
head of VFX at Wetter And if we talk call
them after com if we call them after they win
the Oscars, we have to call them before they hit
the Governor's Ball, because then they'll be in no state
actually to give us a decent interview.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
Right.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
The Oscar nominations came out today. Our own Wetter FX
has nabbed three nominations for the film's alien Romulus Better Man.
Now that's the Robbie Williams one where Robbie is played
by a monkey and speaking of monkeys, also Kingdom of
the Planet of the Apes. Now they're all up for
awards for visual effects work. The Oscars are set to
play take place in Hollywood, the date the third of March,
(00:22):
and the head of VFX at Wetter is Matt Aiken,
who joins me, Now, hell are Matt Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
What a great piece of news to wake up to
this morning. Three nominations in the possible total of five.
So just an incredible testament to all the hard work
that the team's been doing here over the last year.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Talk us through the work that went into these films.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, so one by one Kingdom of the Planet of
the Apes. It's there's a lot of digital visual effects
work involved in creating these entirely CG ape characters. What
distinguishes Kingdom that at several generations after the last episode
in the series, so there's a whole new cast of
(01:08):
ape characters, so we had to build them all from scratch.
We get to work with new actors doing the reference
performance for these characters, and we got involved in a
lot of simulation work as well. Another real great girl
that we've developed over the last few years is digital
water simulation work, so we can create very natural, realistic
looking water. So when we've got a digital orangutan character Raka,
(01:34):
who has fallen off a bridge and is hanging on
for dear life in these rappers with water all swelling
around him, his furs wet, his fur is being dynamically
moved by the water, that's all simulation work that we're doing.
That looks incredibly believable, and I'm sure people are just
lost in the peril of the moment and not thinking, Oh,
I really like the way that that water simulations probably
(01:56):
took up a lot of disk space.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's the trick, isn't it. As so it doesn't look
like a special effect. It looks like reality. And I
guess your your mokey, your monkey work served you well
with the Robbie Williams film Better Man and then of
course Alien. I mean, gosh, that must have been a
dream come true to do a film like that, because
it's always been great what I would like to ask
you though, in getting this recognition, how important is it
for New Zealand Films to get this And it is
(02:19):
good news for the Wellington economy.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I would like to think it's it's fantastic news for
the Wellington economy. You know, we we're over two thousand strong,
most of whom are here in Wellington. It's it's very
highly technical work, highly artistic work. It's very satisfying work.
I think we make it make a great contribution to
the Wellington economy. But we you know, we're tucked away
here at the bottom of the Pacific. We we have
(02:45):
to work extra hard to attract the work down here.
And the best way that we can do that is
by delivering work of the highest quality. That's that's our
calling card. That's that's what gets us the repeat work
on series of films like the Apes film. And so
the equality is what is is what's going to continue
(03:08):
to to be our you know, our main, our main
calling card. And the fact that we've got these three
nominations today determined by the Academy, you know that this
is the people who are making these nominations are determining
these nominations are the leaders in visual effects in the world,
you know, the three hundred and fifty odd members of
(03:29):
the Visual effects branch of the Academy. That's who's nominated us,
and so that they think that we're doing the best
work in the world is just fantastic news for us.
And if one of these three films ends up picking
up the oscar itself, that will be like the icing
on the cake. And we'll have our seven, the best
seven people from the company who are actually named on
(03:52):
the nomination list, that will be dressing up on the
Tech taxedos on the day and going to the ceremony
in Hollywood at the Dolby Theater. And if some of
those people get to go up on the stage and
pick up an oscar, that will be a huge moment
for us here. We'll all be watching here in Wellington,
We'll all be popping champagne.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Call of course, you Willy Interesting and thank you so
much for your time today. Matt Matt Aiken is the
head of VFX at Wetter And if we talk call
them after com if we call them after they win
the Oscars, we have to call them before they hit
the Governor's Ball, because then they'll be in no state
actually to give us a decent interview.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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