Paper Hands

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  poster

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  poster

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  film still

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  film still

Paper Hands — Project Notes

1. Inspiration

Paper Hands began with a simple question: In an age shaped by AI images, am I drifting away from the way I once created?

To face that feeling, I returned to a childhood gesture—cutting small paper figures—and placed them into scenes from a live-action short I filmed years ago. The paper people “re-performed” what once felt familiar.

2. Approach

The project moves between handmade craft and AI generation:

The opening shows my real paper-cutting process, keeping the warmth of the hand.

In Midjourney, I replaced real actors with “paper people” based on the original compositions.

In Runway and Kling, I generated motion so the figures could “act” inside the old scenes.

I extracted a few lines from the original film and distorted the audio, making the dialogue abstract and distant.

This blend created an image world that feels both tactile and disconnected.

3. What I Learned

When AI reenacts past images, a thin layer of distance appears—like a transparent membrane.

Revisiting old footage became a way of revisiting an earlier version of myself.

4. Challenges

Balancing the texture of real paper with AI’s smoothness.

Avoiding over-polished outputs that erased the handmade feel.

Confronting the emotions tied to my past live-action work.

5. Reflection

As I put the paper figures away in the final shot, I realized:

I, too, exist on a boundary between the real and the virtual.

Paper Hands is both an experiment and a self-gaze—an attempt to see whether, within the intertwined worlds of film and AI, I can still find the shadow of the filmmaker who once believed in warmth.

Built With

• klingai
• midjourney
• runwayai