''Flutter'' is a 2006 Canadian

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

-style animated short by Howie Shia, co-produced by PPF House and the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

Awards

''Flutter'' received the Open Entries Grand Prize at the Tokyo Anime Awards — the first work from outside Asia to win this award. ''Flutter'' also received the award for best Quebec short feature at the

Fantasia Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

and a Jury Award from the Golden Sheaf Awards.

Plot

A quiet film without color, a boy and a girl must abandon their friendship to pursue their dreams. In this short animation, a young boy takes a flying leap away from normal, waves goodbye to his classmates, and disappears into the cityscape and beyond. At the same time, a young girl is inspired to reinvent her space with art.

Production

Shia, who grew up in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

, was in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

when he was approached by NFB producer Michael Fukushima and asked if he had any ideas he wanted to present. He offered a few ideas before remembering some earlier art work he had done of a "kid with wings on his feet" while working with the NFB on his first project, a 30-second short ''Ice Ages''. This artwork became the inspiration for ''Flutter''. ''Flutter'' is animated in black and white. It took Shia and his team 10 months to complete and was animated using

Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...

, which the filmmaker used because of his unfamiliarity with

animation software Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refer ...

at the time, and because he wanted the film to "look as hand-drawn and gritty as possible." Several people who had grown up with Shia in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...

worked on ''Flutter'', including his brothers Leo and Tim, who played music for the film, and friends Kelly Sommerfield ( background art) and Ryan Patterson (

sound engineering An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproductio ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Watch ''Flutter'' at NFB.caFilmmaker's website for ''Flutter''
includes development artwork and deleted scenes 2006 films 2000s animated short films Anime-influenced Western animation Canadian black-and-white films Computer-animated short films Animated films without speech National Film Board of Canada animated short films Quebec films Films directed by Howie Shia 2000s Canadian films