Private Project

Up in the Clouds

A teenage girl falls in love with flying while taking a driving lesson with her dad.

  • Ed Moy
    Director
  • Ed Moy
    Writer
  • Ed Moy
    Producer
  • Timothy Tau
    Producer
  • Katherine Park
    Key Cast
  • Raymond Ma
    Key Cast
  • Ruby Chen
    Illustrator
  • Chris Trinh
    Animated Effects Editor
  • David Cu
    Sound and Music Editor
  • Nicole Echegoyen
    Graphic Artist
  • Birdie Sawyer
    Trailer Video Editor
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short, Web / New Media
  • Genres:
    Historical, Family, Comedy
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Catalina Film Festival
    Catalina Island
    World Premiere
  • San Jose International Short Film Festival
    San Jose, California
    Northern California Premiere
  • Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    East Coast Premiere
  • Asians On Film
    Los Angeles, California
    Best Animation Summer Quarter 2015
  • Kids Film Festival
    Dallas, Texas
  • Miami Independent Film Festival
    Miami, Florida
    Monthly Screening Series
  • Hollyshorts
    Hollywood, California
    Monthly Screening Series
  • DisOrient Asian American Film Festival
    Eugene, Oregon
  • Asian Pacific Islander Film Festival
    San Jose, California
  • Kraken Con
    Oakland, California
  • Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival
    Sacramento , California
  • CayFest
    Grand Cayman
    Cayman Islands
    International Premiere
  • KWebFest
    Seoul
    Korea, Republic of
    Nominee for Best Animation
  • Boston Asian American Film Festival
    Boston, Massachusetts
  • Davis International Film Festival
    Davis, California
    Semi-Finalist
  • Hsin-Yi Chidren's Animation Awards
    Taipei
    Taiwan
  • Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival
    Los Angeles, California
  • DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival
    Washington, D.C.
  • Sprrkle Collective Short Film Showcase
    Los Angeles, California
Distribution Information
  • Amazon Video
    Country: United States
    Rights: Video on Demand
    Country: United Kingdom
    Rights: Video on Demand
    Country: Japan
Director Biography - Ed Moy

Ed is an award-winning journalist. He was recipient of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's National Print Media Award in 2000. He has also appeared as a background actor in dozens of Hollywood films and television shows. He plays the role of Professor Zhao in the indie film Cardinal X. Up in the Clouds is his first animated short film.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Up in the Clouds was inspired by the story of Chinese aviatrix Katherine Sui Fun Cheung, who became one of the first Chinese women pilots to earn a license to fly in the United States.

We wanted to create a simple but fun cartoon to depict the story of how she first fell in love with flying while learning to drive a car with her dad next to a dusty airfield in 1921.

The illustrations were completely hand drawn in an 1920s cartoon style meets modern anime caricature by student artist Ruby Chen. We then sent the illustrations to student visual effects editor Chris Trinh who animated the illustrations with motion and movement.

Sound design and sound editing were done by student filmmaker David Cu who used 1920s Jazz music samples as comedic music cues in the short film.

We brought in voice actors, Raymond Ma ("Fresh off the Boat" and "Lethal Weapon 4") as the father and Katherine Park ("Red Dress") as the daughter to record dialogue. The audio was recorded at Voice Traxx West Studio in Los Angeles.

To me this was very much an international project of sorts because Chris Trinh is a high school student living and working remotely via internet from Canada and Ruby Chen is an art student from Taiwan who studied in the United States. Finalized 2D animation was rendered by Space Animation Studio in India.

Hopefully, audiences will find the mix of animated caricatures, comedic music cues and sound effects, refreshingly fun and amusing.

Our goal was to create something simple, whimsical and fun that both adults and children could enjoy watching but also learn something about Katherine's story.

We have plans to expand the story into an animated webseries for children.