Blurring Reality and Fiction: Ina Chen’s Work on the Film Here

Ina Chen, a creative technologist and artist, is at the forefront of blending real-time technology with visual storytelling, creating immersive experiences that push the boundaries of both art and film. Ina worked in the recently released film Here, directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire. The movie explores themes of time, memory, and space, featuring an all-star cast including Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, and Kelly Reilly. While the film boasts a singular, continuous shot, its production is a sophisticated interplay between practical sets and digital environments, where Chen’s expertise was crucial.

As part of the Unreal Engine team working alongside DNEG and Dimension, Chen helped create the expansive digital backgrounds for Here, using virtual production to seamlessly blend the physical and digital worlds. Her work allowed the film’s production team to manipulate environments in real-time, adding an innovative layer to the on-set experience. While the film's physical elements, like the foreground and props, were crafted traditionally, everything in the background was digitally constructed using Unreal Engine, offering flexibility and control over the film’s various time periods and locations.

Chen’s role began early in the previsualization stage, where she was involved in the quick layout and blockout phases, working closely with concept artists to develop initial drafts of the film’s environments. Then she moved into refining these digital spaces, focusing on perfecting lighting, atmosphere, textures, and shaders to elevate the virtual environments to a cinematic level. Chen’s meticulous attention to detail helped create a seamless visual experience, and a unique aesthetic of the film enabling real-time adjustments to be made during filming.

This combination of technological expertise and artistic vision has become a hallmark of Chen’s work. Over the years, she has embraced the intersection of game art, digital environments, and computer-generated visuals to explore new forms of narrative storytelling. In her personal projects, she has consistently deconstructed traditional storytelling techniques, creating hybrid worlds that challenge the boundaries of fiction and reality. Her experimental film Vesak is a prime example. Blending real-life interviews with game-driven environments, Vesak explores Southeast Asia’s largest Buddhist festival, offering a meditative exploration of Buddhist philosophy while questioning stereotypical narratives. The film's hybrid-documentary approach bridges fact and fiction, allowing Chen to create an immersive experience that shifts fluidly between both.

Her work has not only been recognized in the commercial film and visual effects industry but also in the art world. Vesak has garnered international attention, having been exhibited at renowned platforms such as Art Basel Hong Kong in 2024 and nominated for multiple prestigious film festivals such as European short Film Festival; New York Shorts International Film Festival, LA shorts, or Glasgow Short.

Ina Chen was part of the New Inc incubator community and will soon join CultureHub as a resident artist. Her work has been showcased on ONX Studio, the History Channel, Hulu, and MTV, among others.

Chen’s ability to blend art with cutting-edge technology has positioned her as a leading voice in the conversation around immersive storytelling, whether through her experimental projects or high-profile collaborations in the film industry.