By Nell Geraets
For over two decades, Oscar-nominated visual effects (VFX) supervisor Keith Herft has barely stopped moving.
Since beginning his career, Herft has travelled the globe for work, living in both London and Wellington. It’s a story familiar to most Australian VFX artists.
“In the 2000s and 2010s, Australian VFX was a feast and famine thing,” says Herft, who has worked on Better Man (for which he received an Oscar nod this year) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. “You’d start on something great, but then nothing else would come in, and you’d need to disappear to find work somewhere else.”
Keith Herft is bringing his Oscar-nominated abilities back to Australia. He isn’t the only one.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Now, a new studio is bringing some of Australia’s best VFX talent home. Weta FX, the award-winning New Zealand visual effects company founded by The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) director Peter Jackson with Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993, which has worked on the LOTR and Avatar movies among many others, is opening a permanent base in the Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford. The move follows the success of its temporary facility for Michael Gracey’s Better Man. With state government and VicScreen support, it will generate up to 80 specialist VFX jobs.
“I’m coming home now,” Herft says. “To have something so firmly established, and with its connections to Wellington, Vancouver and Hollywood, it means we’re able to have a sustainable VFX space here – to keep it going and growing. People will be able to keep doing what they love where they already live.”
Zada Herbert, a Weta FX lead layout technical director, is among them – it meant she could come home after years in New Zealand.
This will be revolutionary for young talent, she says.
Zada Herbert believes a Melbourne Weta FX hub will be a game-changer for emerging talent.Credit: Wayne Taylor
“Moving overseas isn’t always possible for someone who’s just graduated. Having more Melbourne studios will mean they don’t need to worry about things like visas, or they can continue living at home,” Herbert says. “This hub will make it easier for young people to break into the industry, which is the hardest step.”
Studio manager and VFX producer Sharna Hackett says the hub is talking with universities and training programs such as the GameChanger Academy to establish collaborations or mentorship pathways.
Other VFX companies already operate in Melbourne – arguably the heart of Australia’s burgeoning VFX business – including Framestore and Luma Pictures. But Hackett says they will strengthen each other.
“VFX is the pinnacle of collaborative art. Really big blockbusters require work from multiple companies in multiple locations. We bring a great deal of craft and crossover to each other.”
To date, the government’s screen strategy has generated an estimated $1.7 billion in direct economic expenditure, says Creative Industries Minister Colin Brooks.
“We’re seeing the screen ecosystem come together,” he says. “Weta leverages Victoria’s wonderful artistic culture to grow the industry … This expansion will see people who work in this space come back home to Melbourne.”
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