Inner Life of a Cell

Okay, here is a set of videos that we can all live to shoot for. Biovisions with Harvard finished this lovely rendition of the Inner Life of a Cell. I love the depth of space accomplished within this video. Also, it's interesting as to when a fade-to-black, a cross-fade, or a zoom is used during the video. Some of the choices I don't necessarily agree with, but how the shots are divided vs. what type of fade used can be intriguing. The lighting used really highlights the area that is in focus, whether by spot-lighting, back-lighting, or a combination of depth of field and a lighting technique.

The long video has a great golgi apparatus - very fluid and floaty. It also has an interesting take on the fusion of the vesicle to cell membrane. Rather than actually showing the fusion, it has a shape change that alludes to the fact that something joined. At one point, vesicles are budding off of a surface as well, but far in the background. What can be really nice, is that something new catches your eye almost every time it is viewed.

It was created in LightWave 3D and Adobe After Effects.

"The idea with this was to make something different, and there was definitely an effort to make it as cinematic as we could.

In some instances, that meant sacrificing literal accuracy for visual effect. “What we did in some cases, with the full support of the Harvard team, was subtly change the way things work,” Liebler says. “The reality is that all that stuff that’s going on in each cell is so tightly packed together that if we were to put every detail into every shot, you wouldn’t be able to see the forest for the trees or know what you were even looking at. One of the most common things we did, then, was to strip it apart and add space where there isn’t really that much space.”

And a shorter, "demo reel," version. (higher quality option)




High Res version with a good article.