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About our guests: Richard Taylor | Presentation | Photos | Links

About our guests

On Wednesday 12 March 2003 Richard Taylor joined us for a discussion on his career as the co-founder of Weta Workshop Ltd.

Watch clips of him talking about:

  • His early career plans
  • Starting out in the film industry
  • Qualifications for working in the industry
  • The most challenging aspect of working on The Lord of the Rings
  • Gollum
  • His plans for the future

Richard Taylor

Photo of Richard Taylor.

Richard Taylor

The greatest feeling of success has been to watch all these bits and pieces of polystyrene and metal and wood become a world so real you believe these characters live there. We’ve painted Tolkien’s palette as much as possible across the film.

Richard Taylor


Richard Taylor is a co-founder and director of Weta Workshop Ltd, the special effects company best known for its work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Weta designed and produced all the weapons, armour, creatures, makeup, and miniature models for the film production.

During the five years it took to make The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Weta hand-made more than 1000 suits of armour, 2000 weapons, 48,000 pairs of prosthetic feet and ears, and more than 20,000 individual everyday items.

Richard Taylor co-founded Weta Workshop Ltd in 1994 with his partner, Tania Rodger, Jamie Selkirk, and Peter Jackson. Their aim was to supply special effects for a growing New Zealand film industry. Their first large jobs included producing the special effects for Heavenly Creatures, Hercules, Xena, and The Frighteners, which then led to work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

In 2002 Taylor’s team won two Oscars and two British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup (as well as nominations in both awards for Best Costume Design) for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The success continues with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - the second film in the trilogy - being nominated in six categories of the 2003 American Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Art Direction, Sound Editing, Visual Effects, Film Editing and Sound.

In 2003 Richard, Ngila Dixon and the team won an award for Best Costume at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTAS). Richard Taylor has also worked on television effects for Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules, and a number of other New Zealand features.

Participating schools:

  • Kaupapa Ara Whakawhiti Matauranga (KAWM) and OtagoNet schools.

Weblinks
Read more about Richard Taylor
http://www.lordoftherings.net/index_filmmakers.html
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/wick_ed/cool/archives/richard_taylor.php
http://www.lordoftherings.net/index_production.html

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