 " The Dreamscape " was written by series staff writers Julia Cho and Zack Whedon , and was directed by Fred Toye . To create the opening scene , they " relied entirely on actor performance , " with guest actor Ptolemy Slocum <unk> being cut , freezing for the crew to apply prosthetic make @-@ up , and then <unk> to continue shooting the scene . VFX coordinator Christopher Stollard wished the computer generated butterflies to look as realistic as possible , and modeled them after mounted butterfly specimens his team studied . 
