From Scientist to Film Presenter: My part in creating a science documentary

When I began my PhD in 2020, I imagined my daily work would revolve around experiments, scientific writing, giving talks, and mentoring students. Little did I know that I’d soon be part of something quite different—a science documentary. I had the opportunity to collaborate with a team of scientists from the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB) and The Company of Biologists to create a film to promote UK developmental biology. As someone with no filmmaking experience, it was an exciting and daunting challenge. It was sure to be a steep learning curve full of science and fun.

We started by mapping our vision for the documentary. In film language, this included creating a film brief and storyboards. The storyboards laid out how each section of the documentary would unfold. We all pitched in with topic ideas, witling it down to four which would form our film vignettes: morphogenesis, cell migration, human brain development, and eye development. While it was hard to imagine at first how these ideas would translate into a polished documentary, we trusted the process. A crucial step in this was selecting a film production company. We wanted a collaborative team that could provide creative input whilst ensuring scientific accuracy. Fortunately, we teamed up with Cambridge Filmworks, who made the entire experience memorable.

My initial role in the documentary was to be an extra brain in the planning process. Especially since we were aiming to target a broad audience, including younger students. When the idea arose for me to help present the documentary, I couldn’t resist the opportunity. Despite my lack of on-camera experience, I’m passionate about science communication and developmental biology. The chance to work alongside brilliant scientists and collaborate with TV presenter and author Alice Roberts, who agreed to introduce and close the film, made the opportunity even more exciting.

Once we had our team of scientists and presenters on board, we focused on writing the script and drafting interview questions. The scientific team took the lead on script writing to give the documentary structure and direction. The script was then refined between our team and Cambridge Filmworks over numerous meetings and edits. This collaboration ensured that we included the relevant scientific information in a way that would be understood and be engaging to our audience. We also formulated questions which the scientists would answer throughout the documentary. The interview questions were designed to guide the scientists’ responses, keeping the flow natural and engaging. In most cases, multiple responses were filmed so that there were alternative options during the film editing process. We also had to ensure that the answers would be understood by a broad audience. With our scientific planning team and the filming team overlooking the filming, mistakes and jargon could be identified and corrected in the retakes.

Filming was an entirely new experience for me. On the first day, I learned what B-roll was and found myself awkwardly trying to walk naturally for the camera—it felt a bit robotic at first. As time progressed, I became much more confident and relaxed. I also watched Alice Roberts in action and took away some tips and tricks. During the latter stages of filming, I was recording voice over and performing solo pieces to camera, so I was thankful for the days leading up to this to hone the skills of presenting.

The main aim of the documentary is to showcase the wonder, importance, and applications of developmental biology. With that in mind, we invited a team of scientists who fitted into the selected vignettes. Helen Weavers kick starts the morphogenesis vignette by discussing her work on wound repair in fruit flies (Drosophila). Shankar Srinivas and Emily Noel follow with insights into how a small cluster of cells transforms into the complex, functioning heart. Tom Bennett rounds off the vignette by discussing plant development, offering a fascinating comparison between plant and animal development.

Next, the documentary explores neural crest cells, chosen for their remarkable migration abilities and their capacity to differentiate into a wide range of cell types. Karen Liu talks about the origin and migration of neural crest cells. We then have Elena Scarpa who brings a mechanical angle to the topic and highlights neural crest cell derived cancers.

In our vignette on human brain development, Katie Long explains how the brain folds during embryonic development and the differences between identical twins’ brains. My identical twin, Chloe Lancaster, joined the documentary to add a real-life twinning element. Laura Pellegrini discusses brain evolution and expresses her fascination for understanding the uniqueness of human brain development. She also introduces the audience to organoids and highlights their valuable contribution to understanding human development. 

Finally, we dive into eye development with Pete Coffey and Rodrigo Young. Pete talks about his lab’s contribution to the treatment of eye diseases. His team has managed to surgically replace cells in the back of the eye with lab grown cells which enabled a patient to regain sight. He was taking a patch of cells to a patient on the day of filming which he was very excited about! Rodrigo delves into eye development with a key element being how two eyes of the same size and shape develop independently from each other.

What surprised me most during the filming process was how naturally the scientists adapted to the camera, despite not being accustomed to it. It turns out that all those conference presentations prepared them well for documentary interviews.

With the filming complete, it was time for Cambridge Filmworks to put the pieces together. Without being intimately involved in the editing, I can only say that this was some sort of self-organisation with constant feedback between the film editor and our team. We were also lucky enough to be invited to the Cambridge Studio to view the movie and provide feedback. It was surreal to see all the filming in a documentary for the first time.

I have been incredibly lucky to be involved in such a fun and exciting project with an incredible team of scientists and film creators. Brainstorming ideas and then seeing them in action during filming and editing was extremely rewarding, but the most valuable part of this experience has been all the people I met along the way. I interacted with scientists from all over the UK and picked their brains about different topics, science and career related. I might not have crossed paths with such inspiring people if I had not stepped out of the lab to embark on something completely different from my day-to-day scientific life. We also had a lot of fun along the way, laughing through retakes and mishaps.

I hope you enjoy watching the documentary as much as we enjoyed creating it. Please share it with your friends, family, and colleagues—let’s inspire the next generation of developmental biologists!

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