Oscars

Didn't 'we' do well. Weta Workshops's Richard Taylor is now equal Oscar-wise with Clint Eastwood, Bob Hope, John Barry and Francis Ford Coppola as the winner of five Academy Awards. Says the Dom enthusiastically: "Wellywood and Weta have done it again, with King Kong grabbing three Oscars and The Chronicles of Narnia earning a fourth on a night that had Kiwis beating their chests on stage at the Academy Awards."

King Kong special effects wizard Richard Taylor continued to work his magic on Hollywood, winning his fifth Oscar, but it was the sound-mixing team of Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges and Hammon Peek who delighted cast and crew by beating their chests in unison on stage, with Peek saying "Go Kiwis"... "It's just fantastic. Kiwis do it again," said King Kong editor Jamie Selkirk, who won the best film-editing Oscar in 2004 for The Return of the King.

Good for them. Taylor puts the gongs in perspective. "The awards," he explains, "were a by-product of the Kong crew's real achievement. 'It's about the job and the results of the job, not just the awards'." Quite right. As Howard Roark tells Peter Keating in The Fountainhead, "Peter, before you can do things for people, you must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences."

Good on Taylor and his crew. They are entitled to bask in their achievement, even as they undoubtedly plan their next project.

LINKS: Kong gong gives Weta boss entry to exclusive Oscar club - NZ Herald
Chest-beating wins for Kong - Dominion Post

TAGS: New Zealand, Films, Objectivism