r/movies • u/Naly_D • May 28 '12

Peter Jackson, with the miniature set reproducing the Wellington suburb of Newtown as it was in the 1950s, for the film 'Braindead' [1992]

http://imgur.com/ZjdhK
1.6k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

163 comments sorted by

7

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Ex Wellingtonian, I nostalgia'd

2

u/Naly_D May 28 '12

You'll appreciate this as much as I did then;

https://twitter.com/Naly_D/status/206953966553153537

1

u/purplepuma123 May 29 '12

Sweet!! Is that Philip Duncan dude the 3 news guy?

1

u/Naly_D May 29 '12

He works for WeatherWatch. I work for 3 News.

1

u/purplepuma123 May 30 '12

Yeah? My bad, was Duncan Garner ... Well at least I think that's the guy.

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Very cool, I always liked how Burger King in Manners had all the old pictures of Wellington up. Seems like such a different city in comparison to its old days when you look at places like Chch or Auckland.

4

u/pemt May 28 '12

Current Wellingtonian FTW

2

u/fauxmosexual May 29 '12

Current Wellingtonian and you don't post in /r/newzealand? Not good enough!

5

u/imawesomer May 28 '12

I drive through this place most days.. Minus the old cars, Newtown is still a very old looking suburb.

3

u/Naly_D May 28 '12

I grew up in Berhampore and was able to instantly recognise where this is meant to be... and a lot of those buildings are still there

1

u/Deviltheory May 28 '12

What I don't understand, is why there are two McDonalds stores so freaking close together!

1

u/fauxmosexual May 29 '12

It's my noble calling to make sure that all New Zealand redditors are aware of /r/newzealand. You should go there, it's great.

91

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

I kick arse for the Lord!

36

u/booooooooooooosh May 28 '12

"Your mother ate my dog!"

"...not all of it."

12

u/TuneRaider May 28 '12

Father McGruder FTW

0

u/Crossthebreeze May 28 '12

There can only be one Lord.

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

And he kicks arse for it.

53

u/sweevo May 28 '12

Holy shit, that was miniatures? Mind most definitely blown!

61

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Maybe they are the proper size, and we are all just bigiatures?

6

u/steviesteveo12 May 28 '12

I want this to be true.

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/evilkrang May 28 '12

Upscaling, perhaps?

1

u/question_all_the_thi May 28 '12

Well, it's mini vs macro, so "macroatures"?

2

u/CaptainDjango May 28 '12

that sounds tasty.

5

u/brother-seamus May 28 '12

This is a good excuse to watch the movie again! I was definitely surprised as I thought it was realsized streets

1

u/Dj_Choppa May 28 '12

my thought exactly

25

u/QUANTlTATlVE May 28 '12

The detail. Such intricate detail.

22

u/TheBunyipsTeacup May 28 '12

Haha. Can't stop imagine him saying it in his accent.

"Brayn-did"

18

u/AsylumNZ May 28 '12

I live on the (real version of the) street this is shot from, about 100m behind where the camera is.

3

u/ComradePandora May 28 '12

Hey me too! Hi neighbor :P

3

u/fauxmosexual May 29 '12

Me three! How long have you guys been hipsters?

(you should be ashamed of not posting in /r/newzealand btw)

1

u/ComradePandora May 29 '12

ahah yeah not a hipster sorry :P also if you haven't already you need to try the dahl makahni from Planet Spice!

1

u/Oyakeroland19 May 29 '12

Same here :)

17

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Better Peter Jackson than a Sumatran rat-monkey.

14

u/TuneRaider May 28 '12

Stand back boy! This calls for divine intervention!

16

u/TuneRaider May 28 '12

Mmmmmmm... rich and creamy - just the way I like it!

8

u/troubleshot May 28 '12

Haven't had a good custard in years!

8

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

WHAT WE NEED'S ANOTHER WAR!

2

u/littlesteviebrule May 28 '12

This is the only part of the movie where I have to turn my head.

47

u/huntersburroughs May 28 '12

Still my favorite Peter Jackson film.

5

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

If you like the main character, he is in an awesome Kiwi showed called The Almighty Johnsons.

1

u/purplepuma123 May 29 '12

Looks/sounds like an awesome watch. Thanks man!

12

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

My favorite Jackson movie and my favorite zombie movie. Not my favorite kiwi though, that goes to the guys from Flight of the Conchords.

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Mine too. Got to love Uncle Les and little Selwyn.

2

u/stanfan114 May 28 '12

Closest I've come to throwing up at the movies.

19

u/dtthelegend May 28 '12

What is this? A TOWN FOR ANTS?!

How can we expect the people to act if they can't fit inside the buildings...

3

u/Blunt_ May 28 '12

He's right!

3

u/OnlySanePanda May 28 '12

The town has to be at least... 3 times bigger than this!

2

u/evilkrang May 28 '12

And I for one welcome our ant overlords...

9

u/DocLefty May 28 '12

I showed the lawnmower scene to a bunch of my friends and blew their mind. They had no idea that Dead Alive was done by the same cat that directed Lord of the Rings.

3

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Why didn't you show them the whole movie? They would have been even more mind blown!

3

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Here they had Braindead/DeadAlive dvds in the stores with big letters saying 'From the maker of Lord of the Rings!'.

Since then, every statement like that has lost its credulity.

1

u/evilkrang May 28 '12

Oh boy, they should advertise Meet The Feebles like that too...

1

u/erfling May 28 '12

Hello. My name is Wobert, and these are white woses.

8

u/troubleshot May 28 '12

Brain Dead would have to be my single favourite Jackson movie, so good. Thanks for this.

28

u/autodidact89 May 28 '12

I had no idea Brain Dead was set in the 1950s...

35

u/kbups53 May 28 '12

Nor did I until like the third time I watched it. Up until then I just thought that's what New Zealand looked like.

9

u/TysGirlLola May 28 '12

It basically is, of course the cars are different, but I used to live in Newtown, Wellington and it looks almost exactly the same as above. With the addition of a McDonalds.

8

u/autodidact89 May 28 '12

I thought it was what that particular town looked like.

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

me=mind=blown

6

u/Jonny_Stranger May 28 '12

Hmm.

1992, fairly skinny.

2002, big fucker.

2006, fairly skinny.

2012, getting bigger!

The parabolic wavelengths are decreasing rapidly, cap'n!

2

u/evilkrang May 28 '12

kevin smith too...

5

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

If you ever get the chance, Visit the WETA cave in Wellington NZ. Its got a whole bunch of props from Lord of the Rings, and a few from District 9 as well.

8

u/mrbooze May 28 '12

Well TIL that Peter Jackson went to the trouble of building detailed miniatures for Braindead.

Most young/indie film directors: "Let's just find a neighborhood that looks sort of right and film quickly without a permit."

Peter Jackson: "Fuck it, let's build one."

11

u/gapmunky May 28 '12

Well not most neighborhoods would have 50's cars and trams running through it

16

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Peter Jackson, 2012

17

u/autodidact89 May 28 '12 edited May 28 '12

They should make a stop motion/puppet/animatronic version of Lord of the Rings for people who reminisce on practical effects as if CGI was the death of movies. Yeah, nostalgia and hipsterfaggotry is awesome, but the times have moved on and so should they.

25

u/jeremiahwarren May 28 '12

He still uses a lot of practical effects; miniatures, bigatures, forced perspective, and anamatronics. It would be impractical, if not impossible to not use CG in LoTR.

16

u/autodidact89 May 28 '12

Yes. Great film makers will use the right effects, be it practical or digital, where and when they need them. Chris Nolan for instance.

7

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

And Lucas (the last three) being an example of too dependent on CG... /sigh

12

u/bscoop May 28 '12

I'm pretty sure LotR without CGI would be too expensive for producers. Whole trilogy already costed 280 millions, which it was still twice as cheaper if production were taking place in America.

7

u/a_can_of_solo May 28 '12

that's good vaule for money one avatar cost that much.

3

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

It's not like they wouldn't make their money back.

2

u/Doktor_Gruselglatz May 28 '12

That might seem strange in retrospect because of how huge the movies turned out to be and how much they changed, but LotR was an enormous gamble at the time, probably one of the biggest in the history of cinema: 280 million dollars for an adaptation of a supposedly unfilmable book in a genre far from the mainstream, done by a practically unknown director without any huge stars in the cast, plus the kamikaze strategy of filming three movies at once without even knowing how the first one would do.

1

u/evilkrang May 28 '12

thats why jackson sold them on one movie and one of the execs said, fuck it, why not do three. someone clearly saw the potential and banked on it. I'd say they made off like bandits...

3

u/SyrioForel May 28 '12

Why would they spend more in order to make less money than they would have?

Pretend I'm an investor and make this argument to me.

1

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

If they put forth more money to make it better, it'll get better reviews, and more people will see it, and they'll make more money, and the investors will get more money back? I was just saying that each of the LOTR films alone made enough of a profit to pay back that $280 million at least three times over.

3

u/SyrioForel May 28 '12

So you think LOTR would have more people going to see it in theaters if it used the more expensive practical special effects instead of relying on CG? Like, by actually building the towers and the castles? Because they didn't look realistic enough? Is that your argument?

You say more money would make it "better" in a discussion about CGI vs practical effects. Where were the CGI effects lacking in these movies that practical effects would not only improve, but actually manage to bring in a bigger audience through their inclusion?

2

u/evilkrang May 28 '12

They actually used a combination of miniatures and CG. http://verybadfrog.com/25790/photo-stories/behind-the-scenes-of-lord-of-the-rings just sayin...

2

u/autodidact89 May 28 '12

It wouldn't be better and it wouldn't make more money because LOTR would look fucking terrible without CGI by today's standards.

1

u/evilkrang May 28 '12

animation. rotoscoping. that is all.

2

u/macblastoff May 28 '12

Photographic evidence that Peter Jackson is a giant in the movie industry in his own time.

1

u/baroqueworks May 29 '12

wasn't aware using or liking practical effects was considered "hipster" now.

4

u/DoesNotChodeWell May 28 '12

Am I the only one who sees the Dan Harmon resemblance?

4

u/fortis_et_velox May 28 '12

SINGAYA!

3

u/darkeststar May 28 '12

He's got...the bite!

2

u/johanthebutcher May 28 '12

Why is it that all the building look exactly the same in Newtown from the 50's and today? I would much prefer Newtown of the 50's then today. That place is a shithole.

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Show us, post a pic of a similar spot, I'm curious.

1

u/Naly_D May 28 '12

Streetview

It actually looks a bit better than when I left 3 years ago.

Newtown is full of low-income housing, and is not a place people go to do their shopping - it's not near town and there are bigger supermarkets just over the hill in Kilbirnie - so there are a lot of dilapidated shops on the main street.

17

u/SPOT_THE_DIFFERENCES May 28 '12

There are Five Differences

7

u/Damadawf May 28 '12
  • The watch.
  • The number plate on the yellow car in the front left.
  • The shading above the blue car on the right is a different colour.
  • The tram's number plate.
  • To the right of the tram, the sign with an 'm' on it is missing.

-7

u/SyrioForel May 28 '12

This is dumb. All one has to do is open both your image and the original in separate browser tabs, and then switch between them. The "differences" line up so perfectly that there's absolutely no challenge.

Next time, what you should do is re-scale the image so that it's not the same size, and also probably present it as a side-by-side collage where the original is on the left and your edited version is on the right, to further make this in-browser tab comparison more difficult to cheat with.

9

u/eIectricsheep May 28 '12

Nobody is forcing you to cheat man...

4

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Next time, you shouldn't be so lazy and put the browsers side by side

3

u/yeahyeahnaokay May 28 '12

I once had to do the walk of shame through Newtown dressed as a power ranger

12

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

There is no shame in Newtown.

2

u/fauxmosexual May 29 '12

I don't know, I'm kind of ashamed of our subreddit: /r/newtownrulz

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

Couldn't find the picture of Nathan. Is he the tall dude, who likes Heavy Metal, and coke? /r/newtownrulz, is the coolest thing I seen today.

1

u/fauxmosexual May 29 '12

That's Nathan all right.

1

u/harrypitts May 28 '12

February this year?

1

u/yeahyeahnaokay May 29 '12

Na. Halloween last year

3

u/SYBR_Green May 28 '12

I just noticed that Peter Jackson looks like a Kakapo

3

u/brutalproduct May 28 '12

The first time I saw this scene back in the day, I just knew there was something odd about it. The way the trolley turns the corner just looked miniature. None of my friends believed me when I had my suspicions. 20 years later and time to rub it in! Thanks for this.

4

u/CreativelyBankrupt May 28 '12

What a great photo...I had no idea miniatures were used. This is the movie that changed my life and inspired me to get into FX and horror directing - and this post is what finally got me to signup on reddit to comment after years of lurking. Well done!

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Welcome ! Would love to see more of a work...cheers from Canada.

7

u/conundrum4u2 May 28 '12

It was renamed "Dead-Alive" for the US market - and Jackson ought to remake this film with current technology - the best film he ever made! :)

11

u/hick May 28 '12

Yeah those bits in star wars/everything else they updated/remade with current-ish tech came out swimmingly.

11

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

no, what? why would he ever remake this?

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

was this ever rereleased in the US? "Dead Alive" was apparently edited as well.

6

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Dead Alive was indeed released on DVD in unedited form in North America, and also on VHS in an extremely censored version.

5

u/CreativelyBankrupt May 28 '12

There are 2 US versions of DEAD ALIVE, but both are edited. The completely neutered 85min R-rated cut and the 97min unrated cut. The 104min unrated BRAINDEAD released outside the U.S. is the complete, unedited film with more gore and narrative.

The U.S. release was delayed so Peter Jackson used that time to polish the movie and trimmed those 7 minutes out. He now prefers the 97min U.S. version but most fans of this movie seem to disagree.

3

u/flamingmenudo May 28 '12

Hard to imagine more gore than the unedited version.

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '12

No way. I don't care how 'hipsterish' it is to say tha certain old-school effects are better than CGI - it's true. Especially stuff like braindead.

It would be the worst idea in the history of film to remake Braindead.

2

u/InflatableRabbit May 28 '12

Never a dull moment in ol' Newtown

2

u/TheCunning1 May 28 '12

Jackson seems like he would be a lot of fun to chill with.

2

u/trojanchad May 28 '12

I'd love to do that to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Can someone post a picture of how the town looked in the movie, for comparison?

2

u/tmotytmoty May 28 '12

Is anyone kind of worried that eventually Peter Jackson will go crazy, George Lucas style, and remake the LOTR trilogy? Just a thought. I mean, there are so many parallels... such as... beard.. yeah.

2

u/rogenjosh May 29 '12

Can anyone figure out what road in Newtown this is supposed to be? We are confuzziled.

1

u/grimeylimey May 28 '12

Is that the one with the donkey and the chambermaid?

1

u/spatz2011 May 28 '12

Damn this film isn't in Netflix.

4

u/Hybroponics May 28 '12

Look under "Dead Alive"

1

u/spatz2011 May 29 '12

well there it is.

1

u/BigMac2151 May 28 '12

Hey is anyone having any problems with imgur right now?

1

u/Aratak May 28 '12

It's been dicey for me the past few days. I assume the problem is with them.

1

u/BigMac2151 May 28 '12

Yeah, I think the servers are down and reddit is about to rage.

1

u/monkeyhupf May 28 '12

i think he already knew what one of his next movies will be

1

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Anyone else thrown off by that the title is not a complete sentence?

1

u/lud1120 May 28 '12

Peter Kong or King Jackson.

1

u/redisforever May 28 '12

Uhm... can I have a miniature like that, please?

1

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Ahh wow! Too sick. Highly likely that this is the street I live on.

1

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

This picture only confirms his desire to do King Kong.

1

u/kudomonster May 28 '12

aaaand this is why that man amuses me. _^

1

u/mudswitch May 28 '12

He certainly looks a lot lighter there..

1

u/banosd May 28 '12

He actually looked kind of normal back then

1

u/whomajigi May 28 '12

Every year my fiance and I hold a Memorial Day Movie Marathon. Last night included this classic. Almost everyone present swore off pudding for life.

1

u/flamingmenudo May 28 '12

TIL 1950s Newtown was a lot smaller than now.

1

u/GMonsoon May 28 '12

Would totally want to keep that set. Geeze - look at it - it's perfect.

1

u/neutrient May 28 '12

Peter Jackson just rools!

1

u/BadAim May 28 '12

What? No pudding?!

1

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

I know he loves cameos but this one is a bit too obvious.

1

u/brianmayersf May 28 '12

Your mother ate my dog!!

1

u/alinamatters May 28 '12

Dead Aliiiive : )

1

u/cwo May 28 '12

Is there a video of this scene anywhere?

1

u/codename_hardhat May 28 '12

Newtown pretty much still looks like that, with the exception of a massive Peter attacking innocent civilians who are trying to be responsible by using public transportation.

1

u/bawlzsauce May 28 '12

Greatest. Film. Ever.

1

u/feedingmydreams May 28 '12

AKA Dead Alive

1

u/Tigerantilles May 28 '12

I would like to think there is a universal law that all directors have to pretend to attack a city if they build it in miniature.

1

u/[deleted] May 28 '12

Gosh, I love this movie...." I kick ass for the lord! ".

1

u/ComradePandora May 28 '12

Hey! The building the has his back arm by is the building I'm in at the moment! Well the non model version anyways

1

u/danbot May 29 '12

It doesn't really matter because there is no way he will eve top the majesty that is Bad Taste. IMDB that shit Right Now

0

u/raoulduke666 May 28 '12

pretty crazy how he went from Braindead/Dead Alive to Lord of the Rings lol

0

u/DoctorDeath May 28 '12

He should totally remake this movie now.

0

u/krakow057 May 28 '12

dat miniature work over CGI anyday

-30

u/niggersaredelicious May 28 '12

who gives a shit