WETA JOB - 03/04/26
Okay technically is isn't a Weta job. It's a 3foot8 job. But it's part of the same project and around the same sites and weta job sounds cooler than 3foot8 job so that's what I'm titling this...
I got a job working on the upcoming Gollum movie!!! I've been hired as an assistant in the set decoration department, which means that I basically go work on whatever they tell me to do that day. My first week is over and I've gotten to make rope and play with latex, and do a bit of painting and weathering on props... all pretty basic stuff but I'm having the time of my life!
It's so unbelievably cool to get to actually work behind the scenes in film. I've always loved Tolkien (more the books than the movies but the movies are awesome too) and growing up around Wellington it feels like everyone knows someone who knows someone who worked on the original films. When I was a kid my brother brought home a prop coin that was sized extra large to make hobbit hands look small and I thought that was the most fascinating thing ever. I was always so sad that I missed my chance at that by being born about 20 years too late...
But yeah it's so cool! I've been looking at all the concept art and props scattered around the place and trying to piece together the story as much as I can. There's also a big map with all the locations and routes that main characters take through the setting plotted out that I've been studying. There're a lot of other people who are huge LOTR fans working on the project, it's so fun being around people who are also excited about what they're working on.
They keep taking us on trips to look at stuff around the other Weta studios- we got to walk through the HUGE stages where they're starting to set up some of the sets. The scale of these things is fucking crazy, to the point where if I hadn't seen the sets in person I would have assumed that the scenery was added in post. The logistics are insane.
It's an enormous relief to be actually starting this job. It's a weight off my shoulders to finally find work in film, a reassurance that I can actually get a job in the field. Still need to lock in and try to stay in this job and move up the ranks, but at least I've made it in the door. This has been a tentative, vague, maybe-I'll-get-the-job-maybe-I-won't situation for months now and it's such a relief to have actually started it! I have my last shift at my old work in a couple of days and I'm so happy to be quitting there (see my previous post about hating my job...
One other thing that I think is really funny. I have to assume that this is a temporary stand-in name while the film is in production, but all the emails about it refer to it is Juicy Sweet. I keep getting emails like "Get on the Juicy Sweet payroll!" and it makes it look like I joined a cam site or something.
moved house!!!!! - 06/02/26
god holy shit moving house is so much harder than I expected oh my lord
It was a hassle just finding the place. Because we had a set date to move out of our old house, we had very little flexibility in terms of move-in dates. We got very stressed out going to viewing after viewing, but eventually we found a place that fit the bill!
I thought that meant the stress was over, but we now needed to deep clean the shit out of our old place and organise a big team of people to move our stuff into the new place, as well as hire professional movers to move our heaviest furniture up the steps and into the place. I'd understimated how much stuff we had to move- I'd assumed that it would be ~3x what I had, plus the lounge and kitchen things, but as it turns out one of my flatmates has about 3 flatmates worth of possessions that could have filled a couple of trucks by themselves.
But eventually, after 4 moving van loads, one carful and about 6 bus trips, we finally have everything moved in! I was really nervous going in because the room is a solid chunk smaller than my old room, but I'm finding I actually prefer it- this one is just big enough, wheras the old one was way too big. And I pay less rent! I've been having an awesome time setting up my possessions and decorating the room and am now in the finishing stage where I just have a bunch of art to put on the walls. Exciting!
The view from the window is excellent. You can look out for miles across the hills and forests and town lights, and in the far distance you can just make out the wind turbines on the far hills.
And closer to home, it's realy exciting to finally have an actual garden to put things in! At the moment there's more lawn than I'd like, but I'm doubtful whether the landlord will let me plant something more ecologically useful so lawn it will likely remain. But there are still plenty of little garden beds that I'll be able to chuck some herbs in!
At the moment I have mint, coriander and catnip seeds quietly germinating in the lounge, with some lettuce seeds waiting to be sown once I have some actual compost to fertilise them with. I should probably have waited for the others too, but I got excited.
I'm trying to identify all the plants in the garden so I know what I can and can't pull up. At the moment the only weed I've definitely identified is agapanthus and a clematis / old man's beard vine, but I know there are more out there waiting for me...
game jam!! and gifs of questionable provenance - 20/08/25
I've finally done a game jam! I entered the 2025 GMTK game jam with the biggest team ever omfg
I think we had about 30 people? slightly more when you include playtesters. Basically a really big team, which meant we got to make a really polished game! The art team was about 7 people, with me as the main background artist. It felt really good to finally get to put my art skills into practice with an actual real game. Even if it was a small project and I was only a small part of it, it makes me feel more confident about my ability to actually do this for real and find an actual job in the industry. Plus I can put it on my portfolio! In the discord shortly afterwards the lead guy was ranting about how much he likes the art on my artstation and how he would have loved to base the game's overall aesthetic around the Substrate style if he had time. I'm glad he didn't though that would be way too much pressure for me hdehdbd
and speaking of portfolio stuff, I got entered by Massey into a design award thing a few months ago and I found out about a week ago that I'm a finalist! I did not expect to get anywhere with it, less because of a lack of confidence in my work and more because I assumed I just wouldn't fit the brief for what they're actually looking for. But I made it in! My stuff is up at this site . I probably won't win anything but I'm smiling big as fuck at being a finalist and having another thing to put on my resume.
(update 6/2/26: I got a bronze award!!!!! holy shit!!!!)
excited tomorrow because I'm gonna hang out with donny and astrid and isacc! I think we'll be going to the tip shop and maybe carlucci land too... yay :DD
I wanted to drag ppl out to red rocks to look at the seal colony and maybe have a bonfire one of these days but I think it might be too tricky to get there- it's too much of a walk, and even if Isacc's car Suzy is a 4wd I don't entirely trust it hdgdehe. so the dream goes unfulfilled, but maybe I'll make it out there by myself one of these days. I thought of it because I went for a solo trip out there in the morning earlier this week! got distracted and walked up a valley instead of along the beach and it was absolutely beautiful :)) especially with how the light would hit the cliffs above me. I love going on walks where I have to actually clamber over
rocks and up and down cliffs! I had plans of bringing other people with me on a future trip but I had to gradually give up on that dream as it got more and more treacherous lol
lastly I got sent a couple of really good images for this site by Donny earlier today- this was actually what inspired me to open up notepad++ for the first time in months and write this log!
OH AND I FINALLY BOUGHT A 3DS!!!
get me out of hereeeeee - 03/06/25
the yearning to get out of working in hospo and out into a creative field is really hitting lately.
I had a really bad shift the other day. everyone else left early and left me to do a gruelling and merciless herculanean trial of cleaning, and the entire time I was just ruminating on how like. I have been here nearly 3 years. I get minimum wage. I am overheating and covered in a thin film of grease and sweat while soapy water runs down my arms and drips into my eyes and my hands have burn marks on them under my rubber gloves and I need to GET OUT OF HERE!!!!!!
anyway. if there's a good side of working there it's that the long hours of dish-washing give my brain time to think about creative projects that I want to make! I've been pondering over ideas for zines, games that I could make if I actually figure out how to make them, comics and drawings. As I write this I'm taking a break from thinking out how I would adapt my 4th year uni project, Substrate, into a simple gameboy inspired game.
I spent a week or so learning how to make a game in godot, but I fear that I made a fatal error by not immediately putting that into practice with my own game. it's been a while since then and I hope I haven't forgotten how it all works ...
I've also been grindsetting getting set up for freelance commissions! I've got a carrd now (warning for nsfw!) and I've been posting ads for my stuff about the place. I've also been setting up the dreaded paypal, against my will...
