Secrets of Monarch Butterflies Revealed in 3D Dalya Alberge - The Observer
go to original September 21, 2012

The official teaser for the 3D film 'Flight of the Butterflies.' (fobutterflies)

The extraordinary 2,000-mile journey made by millions of butterflies each autumn from Canada, through the USA to Mexico is revealed in minute detail for the first time in a multi-million pound 3D film. The insects' hair, scales and body movements in flight can be seen with a clarity that moved scientists at a preview screening to tears.

Filming the migration of the monarch butterfly took five years and was made possible by the development of new technology. The film's British director, Mike Slee, used the pioneering 3D "snorkel system" which can film insects in 3D "like nobody else before".

Micro CT and MRI scans for medical purposes have also been adapted to view inside a chrysalis, showing a caterpillar transform into a butterfly over a period of two weeks.

It is thought that Flight of the Butterflies 3D – which has its world premiere tomorrow – could do for butterflies what the feature documentary March of the Penguins did for penguins.

Monarchs have orange and black wings with distinctive veins and spots, but so detailed is the technology that every butterfly looks individual.

The scales on their wings and "punk" hair-styles on some heads stand out vividly. So too hundreds of tiny breathing tubes feeding air into the pupa, "like shredded wheat," Slee said. "Nobody's ever seen in 3D inside a chrysalis as it changes from caterpillar to butterfly."

He added: "You watch a caterpillar morph into a butterfly, one of nature's most extraordinary moments. I still can't believe it when I watch it … It's rather like when they first brought out ultrasound and you could see a baby in the womb."

Almost all the butterfly footage is shot in slow motion – 120 frames per second rather than 24.

Tomorrow's premiere takes place at the Smithsonian, Washington, one of the world's most respected educational institutions, with a UK cinema release to follow. Scientists were overwhelmed by the footage at a preview.

One of them, Chip Taylor, said: "The film is … truly extraordinary … I have been amazed by the overwhelming emotional reaction that revealing the scientific secrets of the butterfly has had – even the eminent board of science advisers had moist eyes when the lights went up."

Slee made his name as a film-maker of natural history programmes and directed the film Bugs! 3D, about two rainforest insects, narrated by Dame Judi Dench: "But Bugs was almost wholly shot on film, whereas Butterflies uses digital technology that has changed natural history film-making. Digital allows you to be closer," said Slee.

Bugs' success prompted cinemas and several foundations to support this new production, a collaboration between Britain, Canada and Mexico, which follows the quest of one man, the late zoologist Fred Urquhart, to uncover the secret of the butterflies' annual migration. After 40 years, Urquhart discovered their hideaway in remote central Mexico where they spend the winter before returning north.

Read more at The Guardian

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