A stomach the size of a seven storey building really eats up the screen. This and other magnified bodily marvels star in the Human Body Imax movie opening in UK and US IMAX cinemas this week. The 45-minute film explores the inner workings of the body through 'a day in the life' of a family.

Using a camera the size of a mini "you had to break rules," says executive producer Jana Bennett. Scientific and medical imaging techniques normally used to film cells or body parts do not produce high resolution images fit for large format film. "This baby has taken three years," says Bennett - and $9 million.

Working out how to translate scientific shots into film "we essentially went through the same process [as the researchers]," says director-producer Peter Georgi.

For example, the team developed widened endoscopes, fiber-optic tubes that probe the body's innards, to get sufficient light to the heart, stomach and lungs to film.

Footage of sperm and egg nuclei fusing just after fertilisation is the most technically advanced. The crew took single frames with a high-definition digital camera and pieced them together in a time lapse sequence.

Other highlights include the squeezing of a giant pimple and a sound-sensitive cell in the inner ear bopping in time to rock.