Making Taiwan in Ink: Behind the Scenes of Our Latest Hybrid Documentary

We didn’t go to Taiwan with the intention of making a film. It started as a vacation. We brought our camera and gear — just in case — but we weren’t sure we’d actually use it. Then we arrived, and immediately felt it: Taiwan is a place where ancient traditions live alongside high-speed modernity. Temples stand in the shadows of glass towers. Street vendors burn incense in front of neon-lit shops. And we thought — what if we captured this feeling in a film?

We were experimenting with our DocuFusion style — blending real interviews with AI-generated visuals — and wanted to find someone who could embody this cultural fusion in their own story. That’s when we found Teresa.

She’s a calligrapher. A teacher. A mother. A thinker. A woman deeply rooted in the ancient art of Chinese calligraphy, but also modern in her perspective — working to bring this meditative practice to the Western world. Like yoga, she believes calligraphy has the power to calm the mind and reconnect people to something deeper.

We reached out, and Teresa immediately said yes. From our first video call, it was clear she had reflected deeply on her own path — migration, change, fear, growth — and that her story had something universal in it. We met in her studio in Taipei and filmed the interview and some shots of her working.

Back home, I watched the footage and transcribed the interview. Then I opened ChatGPT and started brainstorming:

What narrative threads could hold this story together?

What questions could we ask to go deeper?

How could we visualize inner peace in the context of political uncertainty?

The story evolved into three main themes:

– Teresa’s personal transformation through calligraphy

– The practice of Chinese calligraphy as a mindful, meditative tool

– Taiwan as a place of both beauty and tension, marked by the quiet fear of an uncertain future.

We built a rough cut with the real footage. Then I explored how to deepen the story visually using AI. Unlike our last project (Whose Child Are You?), where I mainly used Runway, this time I wanted to try everything. I used MidJourney for imagery, GPT-4 for script suggestions, and video tools like Luma, Kling, Helio, and Runway for animated scenes. Some worked. Some didn’t. One of the biggest struggles was how to represent Teresa visually. Even when I trained models to look like her, something felt off. It didn’t feel true — so I chose to represent her more abstractly, through animation, color, and rhythm instead.

The last step — and maybe the most important — was showing Teresa the film before releasing it. Ethically, I believe this is non-negotiable. Even though she had agreed to participate and knew we’d be using AI, I felt a deep responsibility to include her in the final step. She had every right to request changes, and she did — just a few. And honestly, her feedback made the film stronger. This was a collaboration in the truest sense.

In the end, Taiwan in Ink became more than just a short film. It’s a reflection on how ancient practices can help us stay grounded in a chaotic world. It’s a visual experiment in storytelling. And it’s proof — to ourselves, at least — that taste, intuition, and human connection still matter in an AI-driven creative landscape.