Cinemicrography--the capture of moving cellular sequences through the microscope--has been influential in revealing the dynamic nature of cellular behavior. One of the more dramatic cellular events is mitosis, the division of sister chromatids into two daughter cells. Mitosis has been extensively studied in a variety of organisms, both morphologically and at the molecular level. With the advent of time-lapse imaging, researchers have begun to directly examine and test specific models of how the spindle assembles and mediates proper chromosome segregation. Video microscopy has been fundamental in understanding these dynamic events, including the behavior of the spindle fibers (microtubules), movement of chromosomes, and the cell cycle feedback mechanisms that monitor proper attachment of the chromosomes to the spindle. The interest in the author's lab lies in understanding the regulation of mitotic spindle assembly and how cells exit from mitosis. Because their experimental manipulations often delay mitosis for several hours, the author and his colleagues have developed methods to image cells over long periods of time, on the order of days. To directly examine the dynamics of spindle assembly in living cells, he and his colleagues have generated a line of epithelial cells constitutively expressing [alpha]-tubulin-GFP and use a new slide preparation that allows for imaging of cells over the period of several days. These time-lapse images can reveal much about the dynamic behavior of cells as they transit over multiple division cycles and, as a result, should provide interesting information for students in a laboratory course. The methods presented in this article will allow instructors and students to critically analyze how the experiments were done in order to interpret the results. In addition, an extensive description of the imaging techniques used is presented, should laboratories wish to conduct these experiments. (Contains 2 figures.)