ourteen years ago, game creator Hironobu Sakaguchi made one final attempt at creating a game that he hoped would reach mass popularity. He dubbed the game Final Fantasy, ironically--and the rest, as they say, is history. This initial installment sparked a series of eight more games that have sold some 26 million units worldwide. And Final Fantasy X waits in the wings, hovering in the background as the ground-breaking feature Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within promises to capture the imagination; after all, it's the first film to star fully animated human characters. Over 200 animators, creative and technical talent helped bring Final Fantasy alive from the Honolulu-based offices of Square Pictures.
Producer Chris Lee, animator Roy Sato and actors Ming-Na, Peri Gilpin and Donald Sutherland share their experiences as they sought out The Spirit Within.
Chris Lee, producer, left his job as president of production at Tri-Star Pictures to sign on to Sakaguchi's vision.
What sets this film apart from other attempts at translating a video game franchise to a feature film?
Lee: One of the fascinating things about this movie, and one of the things that sets it apart from other video-game-based pictures, is that this is the first time that a game has been translated to the screen by the creator of the game, in the medium of the game. And working in this particular medium allows Sakaguchi's imagination to really deliver what he delivers in the game.
How long was the story massaged before you felt you had a working script?
Lee: About a year and a half into [development], we felt that technically it was accomplishable, and story-wise we were pretty happy with where we were with the script [by Sakaguchi and screenwriter Al Reinert]. So we moved forward with it.
Are all of the characters in the film digital?
Lee: Everybody is digital. The only tool that is used that's human is motion capture, and that's not even used in a lot of the scenes.
You use customized versions of tools like Maya and Photoshop, but you're still using key-frame animation?
Lee: Yes. Instead of having somebody at the drawing board with pen and ink, you have somebody at the computer monitor with bits of code. But the people that work on it are all classically trained in animation and movement. It's just a technological change from what was available before.
How did you and Sakaguchi decide on the design of the very alien-appearing phantoms?
Lee: [We wanted them] to be something that walks through walls. They move through space--some of them fly, some of them are on the ground, but they have the ability to go through solid surfaces. I love that dragon-kite thing they do, as I call it. There are about 10 different phantoms running around the movie. And I just think that the ability to make them scary or real comes from the fact that everything is a digital environment.
The realism of the characters seems to come from the detailed animated environments as well. Still, do you think audiences will be more critical of the CGI characters, considering they're intended to approximate humans?
Lee: [When] you immerse yourself in the environment and you can see how well they walk and talk, that's when you'll believe what you see. We have such an ability to discern problems in those areas because they're human beings--they're not dinosaurs or toys, which we have no idea what they would move like, or how they would talk, if they could move. But we absolutely know how the person next to you is going to move or inflect or walk or run or raise an eyebrow.
Do you think we'll see more of this sort of "hyperrealistic" animation in the future?
Lee: I don't think of this as the future of film, but I think of it as part of the future of film. And it's the first true convergence of gaming and film.
How did you decide on the voice actors?
Lee: In putting the movie together, in terms of casting, I really approached it the same way I'd approach any other movie: we had a script, looked at the individual characters, and thought, who'd be the best actor for this part or that part. We did go with very established actors ... [since] we're making a feature film, and we feel very strongly that these individual actors were going to be the emotional power behind the performances. We record them, and they provide so much guidance to the animators.
Peri Gilpin, who plays Roz on the NBC sitcom Frasier, voices Final Fantasy's second prominent female character, Jane Proudfoot.
How was working on Final Fantasy different from doing other voice-over work?
Gilpin: It was definitely an evolutionary process, because the first step was just to lay tracks. I read the script and did my part. I saw no picture, nothing; it was just sort of described to me. The director that I worked with was named Jack Fletcher, who was great; he's done a lot of animation, and he was really great at keeping the scenes alive. He'd play the scenes with me, and talk about ways to do different bits. Then, as they got picture, and as they put together all of the tracks,
I'd start to work with the other actors vocally. [At that point] you're working with a track, and it turned into sort of a looping process.
What do you think about your character's fate in the film?
Gilpin: I loved it. Anytime anyone asks me about my favorite scene, I don't want to say that, because I don't want to give it away, because she went with dignity. I think these are great parts.
Veteran actor Donald Sutherland (Ordinary People, Space Cowboys) lends his soft yet authoritative voice to Dr. Sid.
What are your thoughts on the story, and the animation in this film? Are you concerned about digital actors replacing humans?
Sutherland: No, I don't think so. When you watch Meryl Streep, what happens to her [on screen], you can't do that, it's not possible [to duplicate with CG]. Very few other people can do that, either. Our job [as actors] is about pursuing the truth. If you achieve truth through animation, that's wonderful--but it's animation. If you achieve truth through documentary, that's a whole other thing; a totally different reality. This film is about the life energy that we have to respect and work with. It's wonderful to see a computer-generated film; the art of it is extraordinary. But it's a different thing than Tom Hanks sitting on an island [as in Castaway].
Was it difficult to voice Dr. Sid without having a visual reference for the character, and what was happening on-screen?
Sutherland: I had no idea what the character looked like. They had a video camera here, and a video camera here, looking at me; and I was working on the microphone. It was less instruction and more amplification. First it came from their script. Out of my interpretation of the script, they would adjust it.
How much did you understand of the goals of Square when you signed on to voice Dr. Sid?
Sutherland: I understood they were going to create characters for which we would have empathy on a three-dimensional level. And they succeeded. What I didn't understand, and had never even dreamt of, was the depth of the art they would go to.
When not playing a doctor on E.R., Ming-Na finds time for projects like Final Fantasy, in which she voices the very human-appearing protagonist, Aki, and the title character in Disney's Mulan.
What do you think of the animation in Final Fantasy?
Ming-Na: I was amazed. I was truly surprised and amazed by the level they had the detail work to. [Square] had expressed to me what they were hoping to do, but to actually achieve it [was something else]. For Sakaguchi-san, it's not about the technology, it's not an intellectual exercise. For him, it gave the freedom to create something else, to create this incredible world that he visualized and he wanted to see come to life.
How did you give personality to Aki?
Ming-Na: In the beginning, it was tough, because the script itself was not what the final outcome of the movie was. It was more dreamlike in a lot of ways, and it was hard to understand the concepts of the Gaea and the energy wave and all of those elements at that time. It became much more clear as it progressed over the years, because I worked with [the film] for three years. But Sakakguchi-san was there in the beginning to really give me the outline of who she was, what happened to the world, where these phantoms came from, and what happened to Aki--so I understood who she was in this world.
Aki is part of the summer of the take-charge action heroine. Is this trend something that's long overdue?
Ming-Na: I think it's a great trend, because I think three or four or five decades have been dominated by male action heroes. It's great to see these female heroines who are not only able to be fearless and strong-willed, but they can also be feminine at the same time; they can have romance and vulnerability.
Roy Sato, senior animator, was in charge of the movie's central character, Aki.
Aki looks like a bit of Agent Scully, a bit of Princess Leia, and a bit of something intangible in between. What is Aki's origin?
Sato: She is half Asian, half Caucasian; that was one of the criteria from [director] Sakaguchi-san. She's about 25, 26 years old, and her personality is very strong-minded, strong-willed. I don't use any exaggerated emotions, so you don't see her laughing really loud or anything. I use a lot of subtle emotions, which the director preferred.
Square developed a number of scripts to automate the animation process in Alias Wavefront's Maya. What are some of the controls you were able to create?
Sato: [One] can drive three different things at the same time. Essentially, Aki is a 3-D puppet. You can view her from many angles. This one [he says, pointing to his screen] controls friction--the higher you set it, the faster her hair would settle. There are wind effects, so the more you offset these numbers, that's how the wind will affect the hair. For example, you don't want the hair blowing at exactly the same time at the same speed, so you type in different numbers to offset the [60,000 strands of] hair.
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