Make-up & Prosthetics

The word Make-Up may lead you to believe that this is about improving the look of something. Well, it is, in our own little way.

Weta's Make-up department won't slap on some lippy and a few streaks of mascara and send you on your way. Oh no.

Here it's rarely about beautification - it's more likely about the complete opposite. The make-up effects room at Weta is more often than not a bonanza of cuts, abrasions, boils, welts and other gory prosthetic devices.

The walls are lined with gruesome facial appliances, severed heads, yetis, vampires and hundreds of casts of famous faces. Hitchcock, Laughton, McKellen and Nicholson share these walls with Hepburn, Travolta and Washington. No, not Denzel - George!

This is the department that under the supervision of Gino Acevedo turned perfectly pleasant-looking actors and extras into the most convincingly detestible orcs and hairiest hobbits every day for years during the filming of The Lord Of The Rings.

Look at the portfolio of images from past projects and try to imagine the person behind the mask. We're pretty confident you wouldn't recognise them walking down the street.

Learning from the best 

Both Gino Acevedo and Richard Taylor have diplomas from Dick Smith's Advanced Professional Make-up Course. Richard often attributes a lot of Weta's success to this program by Dick Smith, the Academy Award winning makeup legend behind films like The Exorcist, The Godfather, Amadeus and Taxi Driver.

Watch Richard's personal endorsement of Dick Smith's Make-up Training Program: 
High Quality (45 MB) | Standard (7 MB)

Learn more about Dick's Advanced Professional Make-up Course