Oscar and Emmy winner Andrew Ruhemann (of The Lost Thing and Love, Death + Robots) has adapted the book The Day I Became a Bird — about a boy’s first love — into a sweet and tender new animated short. We take flight for this Animation Scoop Q&A. (This was conducted as an Email Interview and was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: What do you love about the book you based this on?

Andrew Ruhemann: I love the quirkiness of it. The charm and simplicities of the designs. First and foremost I love the title. I am a big fan of all things to do with birds in the first place and I also like stories about transformation. So the title drew me in right away. Add to that the beautiful designs and I was completely sold from the front cover.

JM: What were your goals with what you wanted to say about first love?

AR: It was important to me that this wasn’t just a boy meets girl romantic love story. Frank (the boy), is drawn to Sylvia (the Girl) by the fact that she seems to have access to some extraordinary world that nobody else seems to have – the world of birds and all that they represent. In this regard Sylvia is like a portal to a mystical new realm — very different from the boy world that he inhabits. I like the fact that Frank’s story reminded me of that time in childhood when kids are all moving and discovering things at different times and different stages. Somebody was falling in love, someone was discovering a new passion or hobby and often there would be some kind of sacrifice involved.

JM: You very nicely establish this theme of him suddenly, and openly, wanting to be into what she’s into (birds).

AR: It was important to me that this wasn’t about him objectifying her and being overtly drawn to her physical appearance. He is entranced by her special relationships with the natural world and the birds. He wants to be a part of that world.

JM: Sometimes your other friends just don’t understand or see the connection that two people have with each other.

AR: That is very true and sometimes they don’t and there can be a sacrifice in pursuing one’s own path. It can feel really threatening to others if they feel like they are being left behind and are not moving with you in that direction.

JM: There’s a gracefulness to the music; it just feels right. What do you love about the music for this short?

AR: I love the fact there is a sophistication to the music, that it is multi-layered and plays with edges where music and sound meet. I really wanted something that gave some depth to the film in contrast to the simplicity of the visuals and I think that Mara and Max really understood this. I also love working with repeated themes and leitmotif and I also asked that the music and bird song were related. There are various whistles and bird songs sampled and mixed into the track throughout – some more recognisable than others. Also, the whole sound mix is geared to the narrative so that we experience the same ‘awakenings’ as Frank. The bird song becomes more audible and the dominant sound as the film progresses as do the colours and the vibrancy of the film in general.

JM: What were the challenges of creating the spiritual light show of birds in his dreams?

AR: The whole dream sequence is inspired by a brilliant young Russian animator called Anastasia Melikhova. I loved the lyricism and whimsey of her backlit scratched film animation. It seemed perfect. The challenge was to get that effect without using scratch film for budgetary and time reasons so we had to replicate it in cinema 4D. Luckily we had a brilliant 4D artist who was able to do this.

JM: What was most interesting about animating the giant bird outfit?

AR: I just wanted to get the homemade, crafty nature of it across and that it would be a cumbersome costume to manage. I wanted to make sure that the animators captured this. We actually built a real one out of cardboard out of paper feathers and we filmed one of our artists running around in it and this was very helpful.

JM: You’ve been through the awards season before, winning an Oscar for the great “The Lost Thing” and an Emmy for “Love, Death + Robots”. Are you ready for the awards season with this?

AR: I think it is hard to be ready and keep one’s balance, humility and ultimately sanity.