The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2023
Samsung Micro-Miracles: sub-0.3mm dioramas shot with a scanning electron microscope
To show what semiconductors make possible, Samsung built scenes under 0.3mm tall and filmed them with a scanning electron microscope — a world first.
Samsung
What it had to solve
Samsung wanted a film that showcased the wonders of semiconductors, made at the same astonishingly small scale as semiconductor technology itself.
How it works
Samsung wanted a film that showcased the wonders of semiconductors, and chose to make it at the same astonishingly small scale as the technology itself. The production featured dioramas depicting scenes that semiconductors make possible, each less than 0.3mm high.
The detailing was nanoscopic — smaller than the wavelength of visible light — which meant no optical camera could capture it. So the crew 'shot' the film with a one-of-a-kind scanning electron microscope, a tool built for microscopy rather than cinematography.
The result was a filmmaking first: moving images of scenes that exist below the resolution of an optical camera. The dioramas translated an abstract technology into recognisable moments, while the method of making them proved the scale claim the film was making.
The work is preserved in D&AD's Visual Effects archive, and the page records no view figures, so the case rests on the technique itself.
Why it lands
- Matching the film's scale to its subject made the invisible visible: semiconductors' effects are everyday, but the technology operates below what light can resolve.
- The world-first method became the story — audiences had never seen a film shot through a scanning electron microscope, so the making demonstrated the claim.
- The dioramas kept a technical subject watchable by depicting the moments semiconductors make possible instead of the chips themselves.
What it did
The result was a world first in filmmaking: moving images of scenes no optical camera could resolve, made at the subject's true scale. The work is preserved in D&AD's Visual Effects archive, which records no view figures.
What you can take
When the thing you promote is invisible at human scale, build the telling at the thing's own scale — the technique becomes the proof of the claim.
Since then
The work is preserved in D&AD's Visual Effects archive, and the page records no view figures, so the case rests on the technique: a film made at the physical scale of its subject using equipment built for microscopy, not cinematography. It stands as an example of letting the medium carry the message about scale.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card