Wellywood sign? Embarrassing.

09 March 2010 · 4 comments

How embarrassing: Wellington’s going to get a rip-off of the Hollywood sign to celebrate our burgeoning film industry. Something original must be too hard for us.

Apparently Wellington’s going to be burdened with a rip-off of the famous Hollywood sign:

Wellywood picture from stuff.co.nz.

Wellywood — artist’s impression from stuff.co.nz.

A massive Wellywood sign celebrating Wellington’s success in the film industry will greet tourists as they fly into the capital.

But not everyone agrees on the sign, which will sit on a cutting above Miramar wharf in the seaside eastern suburbs. …

Sir Peter Jackson said … “It’s Kiwi tongue-in-cheek humour at its very best, but beneath the leg-pulling is genuine pride. ” …

Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast said the giant sign would capture the essence of the capital.

[Via : A sign of success for Wellywood hills | Stuff.co.nz.]

How embarrassing: here we are a creative people in a centre of arts and innovation, and what we do is make a copycat sign to celebrate success.

I don’t see it as tongue-in-cheek humour at all. Referring to Wellington as ‘Wellywood’ is one thing, but ripping off an iconic sign is quite another. It just seems flat, stale and to suggest a poor imitation, try-hard wannabe.

Our film industry deserves much better.

A better idea is the Pillars of Argonath, as Mike Riversdale explains.

Update 11 March 2010 — there’s hope yet that the sign will be abandoned:

Hollywood Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive Leron Gubler says the staggered Hollywood lettering is trademarked.

“If they do that with the Wellywood sign then I would think that would be a violation of our trademark…I am checking that with our attorney,” he told The Dominion Post.

[Via : Wellywood sign could breach trademark laws | NATIONAL News.]

4 comments

Tagged as: film, signs, Wellington

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Mike Riversdale 09 March 2010 at 19:57 18

I agree with your summary, “It just seems flat, stale and to suggest a poor imitation, try-hard wannabe.”

(and thanks for the link, wouldn’t it be awesome if it actually happened)

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Miraz 09 March 2010 at 20:27 18

Thanks, Mike.

I love the idea of celebrating what film is doing for Wellington, but the sign is just plain naff. We have so much creativity around Wellington – poetry, sculptures, installations and so on, and the fine folks at Weta, of course. Surely the Airport could have spent the money on something creative, original, stunning.

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Maria 10 March 2010 at 00:37 59

Wow. I’m really sorry for you folks. I’d be embarrassed to have a sign like that in my city, too.

What’s especially weird is that the true history of the “Hollywood” sign has nothing to do with the film industry. From Wikipedia:

The sign originally read “HOLLYWOODLAND”, and its purpose was to advertise a new housing development in the hills above the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. H.J. Whitley had already used a sign to advertise his development Whitley Heights, which was located between Highland Avenue and Vine Avenue. He suggested to his friend Harry Chandler, the owner of the Los Angeles Times newspaper, that the land syndicate in which he was involved make a similar sign to advertise their land. Real estate developers Woodruff and Shoults called their development “Hollywoodland” and advertised it as a “superb environment without excessive cost on the Hollywood side of the hills”.

You can see photos of the original sign at http://www.tomborst.com/hollywood.htm

The Wikipedia entry also mentions that, “Signs of similar style, but spelling different words, are frequently seen as parodies.”

Surely you folks can get some kind of action group together to stop this silliness?

Reply

Mike Riversdale 10 March 2010 at 08:03 41

On reflection I think this subject (not this post specifically) is garnering far too much hot air … whilst I still think it’s a bit naff I’m certainly not gonna run as mayor on the subject ;-)

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