MODEL RELEASED. Optical microscopy. Quincy Russell (using microscope) and Thierry Berrod (using the computer) while filming Cannibal Mites. This film (52 minutes) actually used environmental scanning electron microscopes (ESEMs). Optical microscopes would have been used to prepare the mites before scanning them with electron beams. ESEM techniques are less destructive than normal SEM methods, and so allow live mites to be filmed (one on screen). The ESEM sequences took 5 weeks to film. Colouring of the images took 3 months. The mites were cooled to slow their movements for the 1999 film, part of a series by Mona Lisa Productions. Mites are arachnid parasites on many plants and animals.