Sym•bee•osis

Sym•bee•osis (2021) is a short film produced by Day’s Edge Productions for Seeker and Tangled Bank Studios

My roles: Cinematographer • Motion Graphics

When you imagine a bee, what do you see? If you’re envisioning an industrious, black and yellow fuzzball, you’re not alone — thanks to domestication and the human sweet tooth, honeybees are one of the most widespread species in the world. But did you know there are other bees? North America has more than 4,000 native species, and most of them are in decline. Why?

It’s a complex question, and there isn’t a single answer. But a team of researchers may have discovered one contributing factor. And it could change everything we know about bees and their ecosystem, starting with a microscopic world that we never knew existed, until now.

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01. Bryan Danforth patrols an apple orchard in search of bees
02. No idea what species this is...
03. A tractor applies fungicide to blossoming apple trees at the Cornell experimental orchard.

Sym•bee•osis is a great example of the snowball effect in filmmaking. The project began as a “broader impacts” line item in a USDA research grant. Bryan Danforth, Shawn Steffan, Quinn McFrederick, Rachel Vannette, and Prarthana Dharampal had decided to look into the effects of various fungicides on microbial communities in the pollen provisions of native ground-nesting bees. We tagged along on fieldwork in Ithaca, NY; Madison, WI; and Bodega Bay, CA, filming the team as they collected and analyzed samples from several species. 

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04. We rigged our high-speed camera on a jib to film this seaside aggregation.
05. A member of anthophora bomboides arrives at its dwelling.  
06. These extremely charismatic bees are solitary nesters, but they form large aggregations in cliffs near the ocean.

HHMI’s Tangled Bank Studios provided the funding for post-production, and my colleague Angel Morris tackled the edit. Our friends at Root House Studio handled most of the character animation, and I did the layouts and compositing for the split-screen animations that appear throughout the film.

  • Neil Losin

    Director • Producer • DP • Writer

  • Nate Dappen

    Producer • Camera Op

  • Alex Dainis

    Narrator

  • David Hutchinson

    Camera Op • Animator

  • Alex Wiles

    Camera Op • Colorist

  • Angel Morris

    Editor • Sound Designer • Mixer

  • Georgia Krause

    Editor

  • Kori Price

    Production Manager

  • Root House Studios

    Animator

  • Christian Schmidt

    Original Score

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