An Inside Look at Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - GZ's Interview with 

 Staging Director Tani Kunitake

Somewhere in Detroit Michigan, perhaps it still stands, there was a particular abandoned building which etched itself not only into the mind of an artist, but, through that artist's memories and conveyance, be rendered into immortality in a Hollywood films. "You grow up fast," the artist remarks about his hometown, the place where his ambitions of Hollywood were born and made into reality by the artist's pencil. With a degree in Industrial Design, this Motor City resident spent time on the design staff of big three automakers before he would make the fateful decision that would lead to his talents becoming a part of movie history – including Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the first film of it’s kind in the history of cinema.

Meet Mr. Tani Kunitake, the Staging Director of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. GameZone Online was fortunate enough to get a chance to talk with Mr. Kunitake about his experiences in film-making and his role in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within – soon to be released on VHS and a DVD special edition on October 23^rd, 2001.

"Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be involved in the movies" Tani says about his life-long affinity for the movie business. Star Wars was one of his childhood influences, but he says Aliens was really the movie that really inspired his ambitions for making his mark in the movie world. "I watched a lot of movies as a kid,” he observes, attributing this to the fact that even at a young age his avid movie watching parents took him to see many movies at the local drive-ins. This affinity for the movie industry would also lead him to many side projects with friends that would help him "pick up on a lot intuitively." Adding to the hands-on side project experience was a lot of research and books on the trade.

Tani’s hard work and passion for his art would pay off, in a big way. 1993 would find him working for Industrial Light and Magic and Digital Domain. His resume includes such blockbusters as The Matrix, Fight Club, Blade, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He’s also worked as a conceptual artist with such prestigious Hollywood directors such as Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam, Michael Bay, Vincent Ward and Steve Norington. It was in the midst of such projects, about 5 years after his arrival in California, that he was approached by representatives of Square about Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

And so, Tani made the trip to Square Pictures Studios in Hawaii, taking on the position of Staging Director in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. His role was an integral one, and a role which kept him in direct contact with the director (and creator of the Final Fantasy game series) Mr. Hironobu Sakaguchi. In his own words, Tani describes his work as “illustrated scouting missions.” They say a picture may be worth a 1,000 words, but in this case, the words of the script were to become thousands upon thousands of “comic-book” like frames that would become the very structure of the entire movie. Tani and his team had the tough job of taking the script, and without the added help of live actors and physical locations, setting the scenes, moods, and pace for the entire movie before the graphics teams began their work. Tani spent 3 years working on Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. In comparison, he spent 7 months working on The Matrix. This is a testament to just how much work went into the Final Fantasy movie and it speaks to the true dedication of its creators and it’s talented artists. It also got him more involved in the storyboarding and narrative aspects of the field, and it added to his already wide repertoire of illustration and conceptual work.

The key word in the process; “preconceptualization.” It’s a big word to describe the infinitely bigger task of translating the literal to the visual. For example, Tani remarked upon the sheer complexity of the airport scene. “The airport scene was very complex with multiple sets and multiple actions,” he told us. With so much going on and the lack of actual physical props and actors to give the production team a first-eye view of the placement of the action and settings, this was no easy job. Much of the initial layout was achieved by intense discussion between the director and Tani, after which Tani would take the direction form the conversation and combine it with his own instincts to begin to bring the story to life. A simple picture was more than just a placement of characters and objects; pictures would also have to convey lighting, mood, energy, and other vital pieces of information for the production team. Once the basic structure of a sequence was laid out and approved by Mr. Sakaguchi, these “frames” would be placed into a sort of “slideshow” presentation for their final approval before sent to animation.

Mr. Kunitake’s job didn’t end with pre-production, either. While the best laid plans might not always be laid to waste, sometimes once the production moved onto the graphics teams, little snags might pop up. “15% of the time we would catch something,” he says in regard to some of the issues that sometimes made their way back to his team. As work progressed, the production team would notice perhaps some flow problems or awkward “blocking.” Scenes would sometimes have to be drawn in a different way, and some of the fixes could be completed in a day.

Free time isn’t an abundant resource in Tani’s life. Work keeps him fairly well occupied and he doesn’t get a lot of chance to just exercise his talents on his own. Photoshop has joined his chosen mediums of pencil, pastel, and markers for efficiency’s sake. He also took a couple moments to talk to us about “his dream” project with Ridley Scott. The project was based on the book, “I am Legend,” by Richard Matheson. This book first became a favorite of Tani’s when he first read it in junior high and it would later influence movies like Night of the Living Dead. The general premise of the story places humankind under a terrible plague which converts all humans, save one, into vampire like beings. Some may be familiar with the loose translation of the 50’s novel as it was interpreted in the Charlton Heston movie The Omega Man. Although the movie was never complete, his looks back on the 7 months he spent on the project as perhaps the best in his career.

Sometimes our best works come from experience. I asked if Tani used any of his personal experiences in his work. Amongst some of the things he mentioned was the building referred to in the introduction, which actually became part of the formulation in The Fight Club. He also mentioned his experiences in industrial clubs in the Detroit area as inspirations for scenes such as the ones in Blade and The Matrix.

“The work is very demanding, but still a lot of fun," Mr. Kunitake shares with us as we wrap up the interview. “It’s very gratifying to pass off materials and see them grow.” With ambition and talent like his, there’s no doubt we will continue to see Tani’s work in films to come. Until then, you can catch Tani’s work in action when Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is released on DVD and VHS October 23, 2001, see many examples of his work in “The Making of Final Fantasy” hardcover release from Brady Games or “The Art of the Matrix”, and check out his name for a list of the films he’s worked on at sites like the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).

-the Badger-

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On behalf of GameZone Online, The Badger would like to sincerely thank Mr. Tani Kunitake for his time, for sharing his experiences with us, and for contributing his talents to some of the most revolutionary and beloved titles in cinema today!