Film Info3 minutes per episode
Available for Free Screenings Only Synopsis: Deep Look is a 4K short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Get a new perspective on our place in the universe and meet extraordinary new friends. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. |
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Filmmaker Q&A
Elliott Kennerson
Producer of the caddisfly episode that was submitted as part of the Deep Look series.
● What inspired this story?
A scientist from UC Berkeley approached us with the idea when we were doing a screening at the university. Little did we know that these caddisflies were such prominent locals! They are everywhere in Northern California’s rivers and streams just after the snowmelt.
● Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
We brought specimens into our studio and tried to replicate natural conditions to induce the behavior. The biggest challenge was keeping those conditions up…especially the clean, cold, turbulent water. Without these conditions the caddisflies weren’t likely to build their little houses at all. It was a nail-biter for a good 24 hours as we watched them doing very little!
● How do you approach storytelling?
Since our show is poetic in nature, I try, frankly, to imagine what it would be like to be the animals that we film and see the world through their eyes. What would it be like to live at the bottom of a turbulent stream? How would I survive?
● Anything else you would like people to know?
We edit in Premiere and finish in After Effects. I was very proud to be the one to do the full AE phase on this episode myself. I may have earned my After Effects badge here!
● What next?
The series continues! Next I’m tacking bats, black widow spiders, and cactus spines.
--
Gabriela Quirós
Producer of “How Mosquitoes Use Six Needles to Suck Your Blood”
● What inspired this story?
In early 2016, Zika was in the news. An unusually high number of babies were being born in Brazil with small heads and a host of health problems like convulsions and persistent crying suspected of being caused by a Zika virus infection early in their mother’s pregnancy. The virus is transmitted through a mosquito bite and there were fears that it would spread. At KQED’s web science series Deep Look we wanted to tell a story about what makes mosquitoes such good disease vectors.
Our intern Lisa Potter and I interviewed a handful of top mosquito researchers looking for an angle. What about mosquitoes’ anatomy and evolution made them able to spread human diseases? I came across a scientific paper with a drawing of a mosquito’s mouth that showed its six needle-like parts spread apart like a collection of tiny swords. Then I found dramatic footage from researchers at the Pasteur Institute in France that showed one of the mosquito’s needles probing for a blood vessel beneath a mouse’s skin. That’s when I knew we had our story. We’d focus on the mosquito’s six needle-like mouthparts, each of which has a distinct job that helps the insect suck our blood. Mosquitoes use two needles to saw into our skin, two more to hold the tissues apart as they saw; they drool saliva into us with a fifth needle and suck our blood with the sixth.
Using 4K macro photography, microscopic images and dynamic, colorful animations, we created a video that gives viewers surprising new insights into the workings of an insect they’re already familiar with. This Deep Look episode went viral immediately after we released it in June of 2016. The video received one million views during its first three days on YouTube and has since accumulated more than six million views. It’s Deep Look’s most popular video.
● Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
We knew we wanted to film mosquitoes biting into human skin. We located one biologist at the California Academy of Sciences and three more at the University of California, Davis, who had a total of four different species of mosquitoes available for us to film. We were fortunate that three biologists allowed their mosquitoes – which were all uninfected with any viruses or parasites – to bite into their arms and suck their blood.
● How do you approach storytelling?
I try to gather as much information as possible on the animal or plant we’re going to film before going out into the field to film. That way I know what to look for when we have our main characters under the lens. For this story, one of the mosquito researchers I interviewed had told me that while they’re feeding on blood, female mosquitoes expel water through their butts to make room for more red blood cells – the nutritious part of the blood. Sure enough, when we pointed the lens at a feeding mosquito, we saw pink water droplets coming out her rear end. That made it into the video.
● What impact do you hope this film will have?
I hope that after watching the video, viewers are compelled to walk around their homes and backyards and clear any trash and empty containers that could provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The mosquito that transmits the Zika and dengue viruses only needs about a bottle cap full of water in which to lay its eggs.
● Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share?
I grew up and began my career as a journalist in Costa Rica, surrounded by mosquitoes. As a health writer for newspapers there in the early 1990s I covered malaria and dengue fever, both mosquito-borne diseases, for more than two years. And yet I never knew that mosquitoes’ mouthparts were this complex until I started working on this Deep Look video. It’s exciting to be able to reveal something that viewers very likely don’t know about an animal that’s so familiar.
--
Joshua Cassidy
Producer for Squid Skin
● What inspired this story?
I knew they could change color by contracting or expanding sacks of colored pigment in their skin, but that was just the beginning. I was curious, how do squid do it? How do they control such a complicated light show? I contacted Hannah Rosen, then a PhD candidate at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station to find out.
● Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
Filming ocean-dwelling creatures is always a challenge. Saltwater and electronic camera equipment are not an easy combination.
● How do you approach storytelling?
I like to take the audience on a voyage where we take a really close-up look at the familiar to show the bizarre and beautiful in nature.
My favorite nature stories to tell are about the creatures you might not notice at first glance. Stories about bears and wolves are exciting, but there are dramas filled with sex, violence and intrigue going on between blades of grass too.
● What impact do you hope this film will have?
The species that I filmed for this episode is commonly referred to as “market squid.” That’s a pretty sad name for such a spectacular life form! I hope that Deep Look will give our audience a new way to look at nature in and maybe find new reasons to appreciate it too.
● Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share?
Although I was mesmerized by the dazzling streaks and waves of color that flicker and radiate across squids’ skin, what really struck me was their ability to change how reflective they are. All of that allows squid to nearly vanish into the pattern created when the sun shines through the waves.
● Anything else you would like people to know?
It’s a huge honor for Deep Look included in the 2017 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. JHWFF is also a great opportunity to meet up with the far-flung wildlife filmmaking community and keep tabs on the newest production tech tailored toward natural history film production.
● What next?
Why do earwigs have those big pincers on their butts? Do they really crawl in your ear and lay eggs in your brain? I’ll be filming in backyards and shorelines around the San Francisco Bay to find out in an upcoming episode of Deep Look.
Producer of the caddisfly episode that was submitted as part of the Deep Look series.
● What inspired this story?
A scientist from UC Berkeley approached us with the idea when we were doing a screening at the university. Little did we know that these caddisflies were such prominent locals! They are everywhere in Northern California’s rivers and streams just after the snowmelt.
● Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
We brought specimens into our studio and tried to replicate natural conditions to induce the behavior. The biggest challenge was keeping those conditions up…especially the clean, cold, turbulent water. Without these conditions the caddisflies weren’t likely to build their little houses at all. It was a nail-biter for a good 24 hours as we watched them doing very little!
● How do you approach storytelling?
Since our show is poetic in nature, I try, frankly, to imagine what it would be like to be the animals that we film and see the world through their eyes. What would it be like to live at the bottom of a turbulent stream? How would I survive?
● Anything else you would like people to know?
We edit in Premiere and finish in After Effects. I was very proud to be the one to do the full AE phase on this episode myself. I may have earned my After Effects badge here!
● What next?
The series continues! Next I’m tacking bats, black widow spiders, and cactus spines.
--
Gabriela Quirós
Producer of “How Mosquitoes Use Six Needles to Suck Your Blood”
● What inspired this story?
In early 2016, Zika was in the news. An unusually high number of babies were being born in Brazil with small heads and a host of health problems like convulsions and persistent crying suspected of being caused by a Zika virus infection early in their mother’s pregnancy. The virus is transmitted through a mosquito bite and there were fears that it would spread. At KQED’s web science series Deep Look we wanted to tell a story about what makes mosquitoes such good disease vectors.
Our intern Lisa Potter and I interviewed a handful of top mosquito researchers looking for an angle. What about mosquitoes’ anatomy and evolution made them able to spread human diseases? I came across a scientific paper with a drawing of a mosquito’s mouth that showed its six needle-like parts spread apart like a collection of tiny swords. Then I found dramatic footage from researchers at the Pasteur Institute in France that showed one of the mosquito’s needles probing for a blood vessel beneath a mouse’s skin. That’s when I knew we had our story. We’d focus on the mosquito’s six needle-like mouthparts, each of which has a distinct job that helps the insect suck our blood. Mosquitoes use two needles to saw into our skin, two more to hold the tissues apart as they saw; they drool saliva into us with a fifth needle and suck our blood with the sixth.
Using 4K macro photography, microscopic images and dynamic, colorful animations, we created a video that gives viewers surprising new insights into the workings of an insect they’re already familiar with. This Deep Look episode went viral immediately after we released it in June of 2016. The video received one million views during its first three days on YouTube and has since accumulated more than six million views. It’s Deep Look’s most popular video.
● Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
We knew we wanted to film mosquitoes biting into human skin. We located one biologist at the California Academy of Sciences and three more at the University of California, Davis, who had a total of four different species of mosquitoes available for us to film. We were fortunate that three biologists allowed their mosquitoes – which were all uninfected with any viruses or parasites – to bite into their arms and suck their blood.
● How do you approach storytelling?
I try to gather as much information as possible on the animal or plant we’re going to film before going out into the field to film. That way I know what to look for when we have our main characters under the lens. For this story, one of the mosquito researchers I interviewed had told me that while they’re feeding on blood, female mosquitoes expel water through their butts to make room for more red blood cells – the nutritious part of the blood. Sure enough, when we pointed the lens at a feeding mosquito, we saw pink water droplets coming out her rear end. That made it into the video.
● What impact do you hope this film will have?
I hope that after watching the video, viewers are compelled to walk around their homes and backyards and clear any trash and empty containers that could provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The mosquito that transmits the Zika and dengue viruses only needs about a bottle cap full of water in which to lay its eggs.
● Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share?
I grew up and began my career as a journalist in Costa Rica, surrounded by mosquitoes. As a health writer for newspapers there in the early 1990s I covered malaria and dengue fever, both mosquito-borne diseases, for more than two years. And yet I never knew that mosquitoes’ mouthparts were this complex until I started working on this Deep Look video. It’s exciting to be able to reveal something that viewers very likely don’t know about an animal that’s so familiar.
--
Joshua Cassidy
Producer for Squid Skin
● What inspired this story?
I knew they could change color by contracting or expanding sacks of colored pigment in their skin, but that was just the beginning. I was curious, how do squid do it? How do they control such a complicated light show? I contacted Hannah Rosen, then a PhD candidate at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station to find out.
● Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
Filming ocean-dwelling creatures is always a challenge. Saltwater and electronic camera equipment are not an easy combination.
● How do you approach storytelling?
I like to take the audience on a voyage where we take a really close-up look at the familiar to show the bizarre and beautiful in nature.
My favorite nature stories to tell are about the creatures you might not notice at first glance. Stories about bears and wolves are exciting, but there are dramas filled with sex, violence and intrigue going on between blades of grass too.
● What impact do you hope this film will have?
The species that I filmed for this episode is commonly referred to as “market squid.” That’s a pretty sad name for such a spectacular life form! I hope that Deep Look will give our audience a new way to look at nature in and maybe find new reasons to appreciate it too.
● Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share?
Although I was mesmerized by the dazzling streaks and waves of color that flicker and radiate across squids’ skin, what really struck me was their ability to change how reflective they are. All of that allows squid to nearly vanish into the pattern created when the sun shines through the waves.
● Anything else you would like people to know?
It’s a huge honor for Deep Look included in the 2017 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. JHWFF is also a great opportunity to meet up with the far-flung wildlife filmmaking community and keep tabs on the newest production tech tailored toward natural history film production.
● What next?
Why do earwigs have those big pincers on their butts? Do they really crawl in your ear and lay eggs in your brain? I’ll be filming in backyards and shorelines around the San Francisco Bay to find out in an upcoming episode of Deep Look.
