Pollen's Journey

Author

Emily Friswell

Computer Animation Arts

Year 1
Story
Fantastic Voyage
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EXT. NATURE ENVIRONMENT. DAY

Establishing shot showing the sky. Appearing in the sky is
the animation title: 'A Pollen's Journey'. Camera moves up
through/past the title, and down towards the ground where
some flowers are growing. Nothing else is seen in the shot
except the green (grass) floor, blue sky and flowers which
have grown up from the ground
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Welcome! Here begins the process
of flower pollination... these
particular flowers are lilies.
Camera is moving in closer and closer to the lilies. You
can also start to see a bee buzzing around the area where
the flowers are growing. The camera focuses in on the
yellow lily.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Come in closer... come on... the
different parts of the lily will
become clear.
Action freezes on a frame once the camera has an extreme
close up of the lily showing the different parts of the
flower. The stamen and carpel are clearly visible.
(Possibly some petals disappear when the frame freezes, so
the inside of the flower is more clearly visible.)

Arrow pointing to the stamen with an annotation appears on

screen when "stamen" is said.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Here you can see the stamen, which
is the male part of the flower.
Arrows pointing to the anthers and filament with
annotations appear on screen when "anthers" and "filament"
are said.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The anthers and filament are what
make up the stamen. Also, did you
know the pollen, which is the male
gamete, or male sex cell of
flower, is found on the anthers.
Stamen, anthers and filament annotations disappear. Arrow
pointing to the carpel with an annotation appears on
screen when "carpel" is said
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NARRATOR (V.O.)
The female part of the flower is
called the carpel, who knew
flowers had both male and female
parts!
Arrows pointing to the stigma, style, ovary and ovule with
annotations appear on screen when "stigma", "style",
"ovary" and "ovule" are said.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The carpel comprises the stigma,
style, ovary and ovule, with the
ovule being the female gamete of
the flower.
Annotations disappear, action unfreezes and the bee flies
into shot. Starts by flying around the outside of the
flower and then works its way into the flower, brushing
past the anthers multiple times before trying to get the
nectar located inside the flower.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
This bee is attracted to the lily
because of its brightly coloured
petals and sweet nectar, pretty
isn’t it...?
Action freezes on a frame where the bee can be seen inside
the flower with pollen all over its body.
Arrows pointing to anthers and pollen on bee with
annotations appear on screen when "anthers" and "pollen"
are said
NARRATOR(V.O.)
The bee is inside the flower trying
to get to the nectar. The anthers
are positioned inside the flower,
so the bee has no choice but to
brush past them on its way to the
nectar. This means the pollen will
transfer onto the bee ready to be
transported to another flower...
very clever how it all works out
isn’t it?
Action unfreezes as the bee finishes with the nectar and
begins to fly out of the flower and away from it.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The pollen is attached to the bee
and... yes... now the bee is going
to leave the lily... let’s follow,
shall we?
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Camera follows the bee with a TRACKING SHOT showing the
bee's movement from the lily on its way to find another
lily. The camera pans its way around the bee as it flies,
keeping pace with it and showing off the surroundings of
more grassy areas with flowers growing all around.
The bee flies towards another patch of flowers that have
grown up from the ground. The bee chooses the red lily to
land on, and also the camera also focuses on this
flower.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The bee has found itself another
lily; I’m interested in what’s
going to happen to the pollen that
came with it, are you?
The bee once again tries to get to the nectar in this lily
and in doing so brushes past the stigma.
Action freezes on a frame that shows the bee at the nectar
having brushed past the stigma and so pollen has
transferred onto the stigma.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
See how the stigma is in the bee’s
way? The pollen transfers from the
bee onto the stigma. The stigma is
sticky so the pollen sticks to it
easily… just amazing isn’t it!
Action unfreezes as the bee finishes with the nectar, and
leaves the lily, flying out of shot.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Let’s see what happens next... but
we might need to go in a bit
closer... come on!
Camera goes in closer to the flower, meaning some petals
etc. have disappeared in order to give a clear view of the
inside of the flower- predominantly the carpel.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Once the pollen is transferred onto
the stigma the pollen tube starts
to develop, lets watch as it
grows...
The pollen tube is seen to be both growing up the style to
the stigma and down into the ovary where is stops once it
reaches the ovule.
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NARRATOR (V.O.)
This small tube grows up the style
to the stigma and down into the
ovary where is stops once it
reaches the ovule, don’t you think
it’s just incredible that it knows
when to stop!
Action freezes once pollen tube is fully formed. Arrow
pointing to the pollen tube with an annotation appears on
screen when "pollen tube" is said.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The pollen tube acts as a passage,
down which the pollen's nucleus
travels to reach the ovary,
speaking of which, here comes the
pollen’s nucleus now...!
Action unfreezes as one pollen nucleus emerges from a
pollen particle that is on the stigma. The nucleus moves
towards the opening of the pollen tube and starts to decent
into the ovary.
Action freezes when the pollen nucleus is about half way
down the pollen tube. Arrows pointing to the pollen nucleus
and ovule nucleus appear on screen when "pollen nucleus"
and "ovule nucleus" are said.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The pollen nucleus is then able to
travel down the pollen tube to
fertilise with the ovule nucleus...
which is what is about to happen
now!
Action unfreezes, and the pollen nucleus carries on
moving and once it reaches the bottom of the pollen tube
it moves towards the nucleus of the ovule. They fuse
together which is shown by the pollen nucleus going into
the ovule nucleus.
The action freezes on a frame once the two nuclei have
fused together. Arrow pointing to the fertilised ovule with
an annotation appears on screen when "fertilised ovule" is
said.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The male pollen nucleus fuses with
the female ovule nucleus to form a
genetically complete fertilised
ovule. Now, as we’re about to see,
once formed the fertilised ovule
goes through a process in which it
transforms into a seed.
Action unfreezes to show the fertilised ovule turning into
a zygote. The word "zygote" appears on screen when said.
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NARRATOR (V.O.)
When the fertilised ovule first
starts to develop it is known as a
zygote.
The zygote then turns into an embryo. The word "embryo"
appears on screen when said.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
When it develops further it is an
embryo.
Embryo develops further into a seed. The word "seed"
appears on screen when said.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
When fully formed it is a seed...
and ah ha, now the process is
complete...

Cut to a shot of a flower starting to grow from the seed

which is now in the ground.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
... two lily flowers have
reproduced and created a seed. This
seed will go on to become a flower
of its own once it has been
transported to a suitable location
in which to grow. And then, yes,
you guessed it the process will
start all over again!

Flower continues to grow into a similar looking flower is

the previous ones.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
But, for now we shall part ways, I
hope you enjoyed this explanation,
and I hope to see you soon!
Goodbye!