Week 1 update...

Ok, so It’s been a few days since my last post and more has happened to write, though here is the jist.

Day 2: I went into the studio today, well one of the buildings; they are all separated and scattered around Wellington (did I mention that it’s windy here, like serious, easily 50 mph gusts on a daily basis). At the Wexford building, I met most the HR people I have been emailing these past few months. What a lovely bunch, they were all extremely nice and very informative on what I’m going to need to do over the next few days, this includes, banking, tax info, housing, how to bill payment, health care, where I’ll be working and with whom. I was also given my rental car and driving lesson. This was actually quite easy, a lot easier then I had anticipated. That was pretty much my “first day,” though I didn’t really do any real work.

Day 3: I went with one of the housing dept women, Marilyn, who took us to a few apartments. After seeing a few places I went into the Rongotai building where most of the modelers work. I was given my desk but had to wait for my computer, which was being built. (Quad-core processors with 6 GB of RAM…nice!). I hung there for the day with Simon reading some workflow papers and then that night a bunch of us all went to dinner. The food here is great, the coffee is even better. It’s weird though because you don’t tip here and tax is included with the price of food, makes splitting up the bill at the end of the night very easy.

Day 4: This is Thursday I believe. Thanksgiving though we didn’t do anything special since they don’t celebrate it here of course. I now have my computer and was called into to view dailies for the show I’ll be working on, Avatar, very happy to be apart of it. I also got the pleasure of meeting an acquaintance of Simon’s from ILM, and apparently a fellow Pittsburgher, VFX Supervisor Joe Letteri. He’s won Academy Awards on all three Lord of the Rings films and King Kong, yeah, I’m looking forward to working with him to say the least. I was also assigned my first model, which is going to be a lot of fun, though I can’t say anything more then that. That night Simon, Jose and I had went out to my new favorite Wellington restaurant Chow, fantastic Asian cuisine, and they actually make a mean Mojito, hard to find that.

Day 5: Today I got a formal introduction to more of the modelers I will be working with. An extremely talented and even nicer group, very welcoming. I learned a little more about the pipeline and actually started to do some real modeling, was nice to get back into the swing of things. Man on man do they have some powerful scripts here, very impressive stuff. That night we were kind of “initiated” with the tradition of Friday’s Beer o’ Clock. Basically at 5pm everyone at the building hangs out in the rec-room where they supply loads of imported beer and chips. The whole team kicks off the weekend the right way. We were also fortunate that it happened to be the day of “Burning Sheep.” Similar to “Burning Man” in the States, this celebration involves a ton of Weta people, as we are called, a beach, beer, food, fireworks, and a 10-foot long wooden/pine-covered sheep…oh yeah, and a large fire! It was awesome, getting to know the people outside of work, partying on the beach and enjoying some pretty fantastic amateur fireworks under a crystal clear beach, I’ve never seen more stars in the sky.

Day 6: Today Simon and I signed the papers on the house that we’re renting. It’s more like a mansion, being that it is 4-bedrooms, fully furnished, and right on the water off of Karaka Bay. Seriously, this place has one of those views that I have only ever dreamed of, don’t worry, pictures will sure be to follow. We are looking for a third roommate to enjoy the place and then will have a nice guest room for whomever decides to visit us…you have to visit us, now more then ever. Other then all that, ah…we went bike shopping to commute to work, and are looking into renting a car while we’re here to get around in the rain that sure to come this winter.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll try to post more next weekend, hopefully we’ll have internet set up in our house soon, we move in Thursday.