From South Africa to Wellington

Hi My name’s Bryan Goodwin, I’m from Wellington and I’ve moved over from South Africa.

Well the story started way back when,  I was just starting University,  we saw the trailer for Lord of the Rings, and we were like “What on earth is this?”  In Johannesburg, I studied a, just a traditional film making course, with a course in drama, a course in marketing … when we started seeing the work that WETA digital started producing … you know back then you just thought well, that's the option, that’s what I’m going to pursue.

So … the passion 15 years ago led me into pursuing finding out what companies were worth working for … and then Lord of the Rings came about, and the next sort of phase of work came through, where, you had James Cameron  also paying attention – And that’s when Avatar came about, and at that opportunity I moved over to Wellington. So initially it was pretty much just going to be for a couple of months. 

I arrive thinking well, what’s this place got to offer? It’s a slower lifestyle, but you start appreciating it, you start realising that you don’t spend your weekends in the hustle and bustle, you’re actually spending it doing things you want to do, and it seems really weird to say but, everything we generally do, even going to the shopping market, going to the local store, going snowboarding, going to the beach, it all feels safe, it all feels like the community seems to be part of it. When I moved here, after the first two years - for a brief moment I actually thought, “well, do I need anything else?”

I work hard because I enjoy it. That’s one thing, and, I like what it provides me and that when you’re not at work you can pretty much enter into the real world and be completely at ease, which I actually really like – and, the outdoor life here seems to be just as good as, what it was where I am from.

I initially came over with a highly skilled visa. For five years I kept on renewing it because I wasn’t really interested in doing a lot of paper work. After about three years I realised, the paper work actually not as intimidating as what you think, it’s – you know, 30 -40 pages that you’ve got to check and cross and sign - I think if anything the hardest part is actually waiting for the other countries to, to do what they need to do,  trying to get birth certificates, and trying to get proof of, you know,   police certificates - that was the only thing that caught me off-guard, was – if you’ve got three months to apply for your residency after your initial application because three months is sometimes  not enough.

The moving, the relocation process was phenomenal, and if you compare it how other facilities handle it WETA are just – we’re leagues ahead. Because of the sort of idea behind the whole country being quite caring and the whole country really being like a small family, the company is also like that.

The thing for me is, working in an environment that’s incredibly demanding, it’s really good to have that balance to life where, you don’t have those stresses in your private life.  To me it’s actually beneficial that you don’t drive to work and you get bombarded with adverts. 

 I actually really like what I have here at the moment.  You know - right now I’m pretty happy.