Square USA --> Sprite Entertainment

[Boone]

Here is wishing them the best!:beer:

[mrZack]

hey, the word SPIRIT is also defined as a soul or ghost!!!!
and it kinda looks like the word SPRITE, which is also a drink i think.
wow!!! :bounce:

[Lunatique]

Looks like it's only the Asian employees from Square. Wonder why? Maybe just a coincidence?

[HapZungLam]

i heard about from the others too that square only hire asian, mainly only japs.

[mrZack]

yes, reverse discrimination!!!

or maybe its located in Hawaii, and i think there are a lot of native and non-native asian ethnicity in Hawaii , but of course you would never know that from watching movies like Pearl Harbor and Blue Crush.

:surprised

[BoydLake]

"The founding co-director of the University of Hawaii’s Cinematic and Digital Arts Program, Chris Lee, also helped to promote Final Fantasy. Lee says, “In a lot of ways, Square was ahead of the curve with the first CGI film. Now, more importantly, if you look at some of the films like the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or the upcoming Hulk directed by Ang Lee, they have fully digital characters.”

As if Toy Story's Buzz and Woody and the gang were really animatronic puppets? Whaaaaaaaaat? Gollum AND the Hulk get dissed by the guys in charge if the biggest CG dissapointment in history? Make no bones about it. The box office failure of FF coupled with the exorbitant money spent on the production was a set-back to future photoreal human character animation as much as anything. :surprised


"Former Final Fantasy Co-Director Motonori Sakakibara, who is Sprite Entertainment’s president, likens Final Fantasy to launching the world’s first rocket into space from Hawaii. He says, “When you first decide to do something so dramatic and big, significant, you can’t really count that R&D stage toward movie production [costs].”


Yup sometimes the big rocket explodes in your face..... Sad thing is, most of that high octane talent and expertise moved on to other projects. It is a pity, cause it was a great team...too bad they didn't have Bay Raitt to handle facial rigs. They would probably still be there.....well then there is that whacky FF story....hmmmmm


"Being the first didn’t stop the Japanese parent from shutting down the company and its multimillion dollar studios in the Harbor Court building last year. That’s when about a dozen employees decided that they were going to stay in Hawaii and ultimately make another animated feature film. Sakakibara helped to reel in a majority investor, Japan-based Amuse Inc., a multimedia production and advertising agency, which had also invested in Final Fantasy. Amuse put in $300,000, "

This is rather surprising...that Sakaibara could convince the same investors into funding another project. We'll see how far they can go....riding FF coat-tails

[PhilOsirus]

WOah, wait a minute. Take a look first at the stuff they are making before critisizing. First, it is normal that there are mainly asians, because the founders are Japanese so they will hire people they know. There is nothing wrong with that.

Second, they didn't diss anyone, they are basicly saying that very realistic CG characters are used much more often now than when FF was released, and they have a right to beleive that a lot of producers realized they could therefore make realistic characters and not just weird monsters or robots. That's all they are saying. And anyway it is either a translation of what he said or he doesn't speak great english, which is the case with most of Square's top employees.

And no it is not suprising that they could convince the same investors, not at all. You don't seem to know much about ex-Square members' talents other than what you saw with the FF movie. They didn't say they were going to make another FF. They know why the first one tanked, now let them go ahead with what they have in mind, it's not like they'll eat you or something. It can only bring diversity to a stagnant field.

BTW the characters we see on the site look really great:)

[My Fault]

Great looking characters and I love their logo! Hope they can pull this off. :thumbsup:

[BoydLake]

Originally posted by Phil "Osirus"
... they didn't diss anyone, they are basicly saying that very realistic CG characters are used much more often now than when FF was released, and they have a right to beleive that a lot of producers realized they could therefore make realistic characters and not just weird monsters or robots. That's all they are saying. And anyway it is either a translation of what he said or he doesn't speak great english, which is the case with most of Square's top employees.

Ok, I'll give you that it's not a diss....not directly anyway. Here's how I take what he's saying. "We were first... and because of what we did, they are able to do what they are doing now." I just disagree with that. And to your other point.....why even mention FF unless they are suggesting they can do photoreal humans?

My point is that ILM/WETA/name your studio doesn't owe that much to Square. In fact they are succeeding where Square failed. while doing no less where Square succeeded.

My point is also, that Sprite looks to be trying to cash in Square's old team, and this mis-representing who they are and what they are capable of.


And no it is not suprising that they could convince the same investors, not at all. You don't seem to know much about ex-Square members' talents other than what you saw with the FF movie.

Ok, I'll bite on this one:

Here are some links to what I call the real horespower behind the successes of "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within"

Steven Giesler (http://www.stevengiesler.com)

Fransisco Cortina (http://www.digitalsculptor.net)

Rene Morel (http://www.amazonsoul.com)

Kevin Bjorke (http://www.botzilla.com)

There are of course many others who contributed and are also not in Hawaii working at Sprite.

They didn't say they were going to make another FF. They know why the first one tanked, now let them go ahead with what they have in mind, it's not like they'll eat you or something. It can only bring diversity to a stagnant field.

So again, why all the mention of FF, Gollum, and the HULK, if not to say, "yeah look what we did", when the "we" is not Sprite? It smacks of corporate executives taking credit for the talent of the art team....a team that no longer is with them.

BTW the characters we see on the site look really great:)

That's fine if you like them. I can't say I'm that impressed. They remind me of student work actually, but hey, maybe they animate the hell out of 'em eh?. I hope they succeed too, but selling Sprite with Square's rep is bad form IMO

[Nicodemus]

So the employees seem to be mostly Asian, what's the big deal. Hawaii is comprised of a hugely asian descended population. Let it go. They do have the one Caucasian lady in the picture. Or is she just the token white person in the office?

I say good luck to the guys/gals at sprite. They are making the best of a bad situation and seem to be doing pretty well. It has been a rough economy and to start a company and seem to be making a go if it is good to hear. Besides, just one more cool place I can send my resume when next I go on the job hunt.

~L~

[PhilOsirus]

Maybe you're right, I remember some of the higher executives at Square that blew up everything because of their big egos (this has been going on for the past 3 to 4 years at Squaresoft, and it shows a lot in their videogame production). In case you didn't know, they got in so much trouble not just with the movie but with game making that they merged with another big game company called Enix, so now Squaresoft doesn't really even exist anymore, it's Square Enix.

Some of the top executives were also switched around, and we no longer hear at all about Hironobu Sakaguchi since he was demoted to another position after the movie. Others among his team had even said that the movie would beat Titanic. In the end it is the artists that ended up paying for a the elite egoist attitude. I thought that would be gone now, but if Sprite is not made up of the artist themselves and instead of some of the same executives, then their attitude probably didn't change if that is what they meant.

Too bad, because they made the same dumb mistakes with their onlinegame service, trying to emulate what others had done, and failing. The exact same pattern that they went through with the movie.

Oh well, I sitll hope for some diversity int he market.

[Boone]

The only thing I have against Square is that Legend Of Mana wasn't released in Europe.:mad:

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