Weta: "Formal Friday"

If you work in our industry then you know what our standard dress code is like, but if you don't work in our industry, the standard dress code for the Digital VFX/Computer Animation industry is "none" whatsoever! :) It's pretty much wear what you wanna wear to work. I've seen everything from flip flops and board shorts, to tear away/warm up pants, to jeans and khakis. But the last thing anyone will wear to work is proper business attire...no suits, no ties, maybe a dress shirt but it won't be buttoned up or tucked in. I've rolled into the office wearing a golf shirt and golf slacks before and people asked where I was going "so dressed up"...haha. Ummm..."who's dressed up? I'm going golfing in the afternoon?"

So yes, here at Weta we have a tradition called "Formal Fridays". Apparently it USED to be every Friday, but now it's slacked off to only once in a while. An excuse for us to "dress up". Any of you who work in the Banking or Finance/Accounting industry are probably laughing at me right now, cause you probably pay money to be able to wear jeans on "Casual Fridays" :P

So here at Weta Formal Fridays means an excuse to pile into the photo studio to act like school kids at photo time. That's one of the benefits of our building, is that WE have the photo studio. The other buildings have to make do with taking their Formal Friday photos in the office or outside on the lawn...although Wexford did a great job this year getting everyone onto the grass hill for some great shots. Props to them for that. Anyways, here are just a couple from our department, and a few others of some friends in the building. There's way too many photos to post here. Oh, and not everyone bothers to get dressed up. This was my first time. I thought it'd be fun to participate cause Kristie wanted more numbers from our department this time around...so I went half and half.

I guess this would be my "Frat Boy" or "Movie Director" look...wear a jacket and tie, but still wear a baseball hat because I want to :)

Malcolm "Chocolossus" Thomas-Gustave.

Dana and Malcolm...and yes, Dana is my boss :)

Clowns :)

Jogle...aka James Ogle.

Super Ogle?

And some of the peeps from downstairs...I just like this one cause of Matt's look on his face (sticking his head in frame).

Below are some of the fun pics from Wexford...I'm not sure who took the photos though.

Weta: Wexford Office

Apparently someone at work is putting together an online monthly newsletter at Weta, and I guess they wanted to feature the different office locations. So they asked one photographer in each of the Weta buildings to photograph the exterior of their building, and the front reception area and receptionist. However, they asked myself and James without realizing we both work at "The Recordpress". I think they missed someone from "Wexford" or maybe they thought one of us worked there...so I volunteered to take the long journey over the hill to the Wexford office...it takes me longer to walk to my car and get in it than it does to actually drive to Wexford...but Recordpress and Wexford are on opposite sides of a hill, and I wasn't about to walk over the hill with my camera gear...plus it was "Formal Friday" at work and I was wearing dress shoes and didn't want to get all sweaty...what a baby! haha :) ...more on Formal Friday later...

So this is Jasmine Wong...no relation...I think? Although her family is from Hong Kong/Southern China, so probably 'family' from back in the day. She's the Receptionist at Wexford, this was the first time meeting her. She's got a younger brother who works as a "Runner" at the Manuka office. I've never met him. Oddly enough when people find out she has a brother that works at Weta, they think it's me...haha.

Someone was supposed to let the Receptionists know that someone would be stopping by to photograph them at some point this week or next, but I think Jasmine found out about 5 minutes before I called her to make sure she'd be around when I went over. She knew I was coming, but had no idea why I was taking her photo. A natural ham for the camera though meant I got a few humorous photos of her and Chris, the Runner for Wexford.

The "Official" photo.

The "Attitude" photo.

The "Angry" photo. I love Chris' expression..haha :) I don't think they'll be using this one.

The "Venting My Frustration" photo.

And one more "Official" photo just in case.

...and a couple of panoramics of Wexford from the front lawn. You'll notice that they are perched atop a hill, overlooking Evans Bay (North) which essentially attaches to Wellington Harbour. On the far left of the last photo you'll see the Northern end of the Wellington Airport runway. Yes, now you know just how close we are to the airport. If you were to drive East down the other side of the hill, that's where Recordpress is located.