The Orchid and the Bee
2020 | Canada | Directed by Frances Adair Mckenzie | Produced by NFB | With music and without words
5 min.
Licensing
« An immersive ode to nature’s struggle for existence »
- Frances Adair Mckenzie
Nature is wondrous and clever. As Darwin taught us, those who improvise most effectively prevail. There are species who under threat revert to earlier forms, others who cultivate parasitic relationships with neighbouring beings, while the most inventive ones transform their bodies to mimic and seduce unsuspecting companions. The Orchid and the Bee is an expressionistic VR ode to life’s struggle for existence, explored through a chain of genetic love affairs.
Synopsis (Extended Version)
Nature craves balance and is capable of just about anything to achieve it. When under threat, adult immortal jellyfish revert to a sexually immature polyp form, restarting their life cycle through the process of transdifferentiation. Bee orchids, meanwhile, have evolved their lip to resemble the abdomen of the female bee, and release a bouquet of sex pheromones to trick the male bee into making love and therefore pollinating the flower. As for humans and pigs, the relationship has become far more sinister—from genetic modification to extreme factory farming, and all for the love of bacon.
This never-ending cycle of growth, disintegration and transformation is constantly unfolding all around us, although the process is not always observable. Nor is it always what we expect it to be. But what if we could get a cell’s eye view of this evolutionary dance of give and take? Would we perceive it as a sterile series of steps, or as messy mayhem?
Flowing freely between unsettling disembodiment and empowering creation to offer an uplifting vision of our evolutionary future, The Orchid and the Bee is an expressionistic VR ode to life’s struggle for existence, explored through a chain of genetic love affairs.
Interdisciplinary artist Frances Adair Mckenzie brings her mischievous sense of play to the realm of virtual reality by combining the tactile materiality of old-school stop-motion animation and stereoscopy with cutting-edge technology. The result is a beautifully crafted five-minute immersion into a reimagined primordial soup of life—where the survivors are not the strongest or most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change.
Technology
The Bee and the Orchid is a five-minute virtual reality experience that skillfully blends tradition with modernity. It is primarily based on stop-motion animation, featuring clay puppets set within real, motorized 3D plexiglass environments. The sequences were captured using a 42.4-megapixel DSLR camera mounted on a small motorized motion-controlled track, creating a stereoscopic 3D effect that simulates human vision. The entire visual composition was assembled using Nuke, a node-based digital compositing software, immersing the viewer at the heart of a swirling 8K high dynamic range (HDR) visual spiral, animated at 60 frames per second.
The auditory experience is enhanced by second-order ambisonic spatial sound, deepening the sense of immersion. Although designed to be experienced standing for full effect, the work can also be enjoyed while seated.
Awards and Festivals
- INNOVATION AWARD | SAT Fest, Canada (2022)
- BEST IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE – FICTION | Canadian Screen Awards (2023)
- OFFICIAL SELECTION | Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Annecy, France (2020)
- OFFICIAL SELECTION | Mutek – XR Salon (2020)
- OFFICIAL SELECTION | Ottawa international Animation Festival, Ottawa, Canada – VR Competition (2020)
- OFFICIAL SELECTION | Spark Animation Festival (2020)
- OFFICIAL SELECTION | Fantoche – International Animation Film Festival, Geneva, Switzerland (2020)
- OFFICIAL SELECTION | Bucheon International Animation Festival (BIAF), South Korea (2021)
Credits
Written and Directed by
Frances Adair Mckenzie
Producer
Jelena Popović
Executive Producer
Michael Fukushima
Based on the idea by
Frances Adair Mckenzie, Michael Juretic & Luka Sanader
Design + Animation
Frances Adair McKenzie
Brandon Blommaert
Fred Casia
Elise Simard
Compositing and Stereoscopy
Fred Casia
Frances Adair Mckenzie
Technical Director
Eloi Champagne
Online Editing
Serge Verreault
Set Fabrication
Dany Boivin
Frances Adair Mckenzie
Set Dressing Assistant
Eva Cvijanović
Maquette – Maya
Noncedo Khumalo
Technical Consultant
Dominic Mercier
Technical Advisers
Frank Nadeau
Frédéric Sauvé
Music
Jennifer Castle
© 2019 National Film Board of Canada –
Office national du film du Canada (SOCAN)
Sound design
Catherine Van Der Donckt
Immersive Sound Design
Headspace Studio
Re-recording
Geoffrey Mitchell
Foley and Music Recording
Geoffrey Mitchell
Foley
Karla Baumgardner
Foley Assistant
Rod Thibeault
Titles and Credits
Brandon Blommaert
Fred Casia
Technical Coordination
Randall Finnerty
Luc Binette
Maud Chayer
Studio Administration
Victoire Bessette
Rosalina Di Sario
Senior Production Coordinator
Dominique Forget
Studio Coordinators
Barry Ahmad
Faisal Moula
Special thanks
Charlotte Fisher
Astroplastique
Marketing
Laurianne Désormiers
Sophie Thouin
THE ORCHID AND THE BEE
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada
© 2020
Distributor
Hubblo
Frances Adair Mckenzie
Director
Frances Adair Mckenzie is an interdisciplinary artist based in Montreal. She creates immersive works that blend sculpture, animation, and emerging technologies to explore nonlinear narratives, hybrid forms, and interdependent ecosystems. Notable projects include The Orchid and the Bee, a stop-motion virtual reality animation about co-evolution, and Glossed Over & Tucked Up, an augmented reality book exploring speculative storytelling. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, Europe, and Asia.