LIFE : Monarch Butterfly Migration : Scene Analysis :Discovery Channel

Scene Analysis: Monarch Butterfly Migration

Written by Robert Lamb, HowStuffWorks

Watch the "Monarch Butterfly Winter Migration"

FILMING IN THE TREES

The Life team embarked on two separate trips to the forests of central Mexico to film the monarch butterfly sequence. Each shoot lasted a grueling two-and-a-half weeks, but just reaching the location proved a challenge in itself.

"The butterflies occur at about 10,000 feet in just a few places amongst a big area of forest in Mexico," Barrington said. "So to get up there is quite a hassle. You can drive part of the way, and then you have to take the rest of the way on donkey or horseback. We had quite a lot of weighty kit to get up there."

Although onlookers can certainly appreciate the phenomenon from the ground, the Life team decided that only a cable-suspended camera could capture the sheer density of insects.

"We used a homemade cable rig, which we could string between two trees," Barrington said. "The cable was tensioned off by various other cables strung to other trees, so we created a kind of spider web with other cables strung through the forest."

This setup enabled the film crew to run their high-definition camera along that central tensioned cable on a wheeled dolly, capturing the smooth sensation of soaring 164 feet (50 meters) above the forest floor. Installing and fine-tuning all this heavy equipment, however, presented an additional hurdle.

"We had two very experienced climbers to rig that up," Barrington said. "But the bigger challenge, in a way, was that we wanted to fly the camera past groups of roosting butterflies. They kind of hang off branches like leaves. And you get thousands and thousands packed together on the branches, and they're very fragile. If you make any sudden movements around them, the whole lot will take off and they go and roost somewhere else."

Due to this delicate arrangement, the crew had to take special care not to disturb the butterflies.

"I mean if the guys set the butterflies off, you could waste two or three days of filming time," Barrington said. "Then you have to find another location, and there were very few places because that cable system is so complicated to rig up. There are very few configurations of trees that we could work with."

Luckily, the team was able to film the monarchs without disrupting the insects' delicate position in the trees and their brief rest from a lifetime of activity.

MORE SCENE ANALYSIS: Darwin's Beetle Tosses Rivals | Orca Hunts Elephant Seals | ALL SCENE ANALYSIS

CONTENT