How did I get involve in this?
I had been using both ChatGpt and Gemini for a while, and towards the end of 2025, I had upgraded both accounts to the higher tier, to access to more features and having no restrictions in most of the Ai generated graphics.
At the same time I also started using Suno Ai to create music, when there was a need to go further to publish copyright music content, I upgraded to a full Pro account. At that time there was a need to create some content for one of my Alumni reunion, so for some of the Suno produced music, I decided to create Videos for the music, and publish them on Youtube, so that they can be view by some of my friends.
The Video production tools that I was using for lip-sync to my Suno generated music is just enough to do a single shot video, i.e. one person lip-sync from start of a song to end, single angle, and single camera. To do multi scenes shots, I have to product different angle shots and join all the smaller pieces video up to be the final video.
To explore more, I eventually signed up a much premium Ai Video tool, Kling Ai, with a Pro account. I also use Capcut Pro for final editing.
Since most of the Ai tools that I had signed up with are premium paid edition, I have to fully utilise these paid account, and spend even more on buying credits / token to produce better quality videos.
James Richie’s Sarawak Tribune Article
At the end of February 2026, just after end of Chinese New Year, stumbled upon an article written by James Richie on Sarawak Tribune – https://shorturl.at/nyTXo
The story looked interesting, as it has lots of mythical tales from the Iban, flying tigers and river dragon.
So I decided to make a Documentary Series using whatever Ai Tools that I have at that time, spend 3 weeks on it to develop a story line, do some story board and divided the story into 8 Episode of short videos, each 6-7 minutes long, and will launch them over a week’s, one by one.
Episode 1 – The Birth
Episode 2 – Growing Up
Episode 3 – The Warrior Years
Episode 4 – The Dream of Ramaung
Episode 5 – Dream of Nabau
Episode 6 – 1924 Kapit Peace Meeting
Episode 7 – The Friendship
Episode 8 – The Departure
You can access the Series on Youtube here, by clicking on the Playlist and watch all 8 Episodes, including the trailer in one shot – https://shorturl.at/5i9p0
What is the Temenggong Koh Series about?
The Temenggong Koh Series is an AI-created historical documentary-style cinematic series that tells the life story of Temenggong Koh, a respected Iban leader from Sarawak.
It explores his journey from childhood to warrior, peacemaker, and legacy figure in Borneo history.Yes. The series is inspired by real historical accounts of Temenggong Koh and events such as:
- Tribal conflicts among Iban and neighboring groups
- The Kapit Peace Agreement (1924)
- The Brooke administration era in Sarawak
Some scenes are creatively reconstructed for storytelling purposes.
Why do I write this “The Making of”
I write this “The Making of…” Post to explain the steps, mishaps, and limitations of some of the Ai tools in generation of contents, it is more on my understanding and unfamiliarity of these new Ai tools, which I had just starting to use for a week, especially Kling Ai, as well as video and film productions, which I had never done so before.
I am using the development of this Ai documentary series as a learning curve to get familiar with all these steps.
Thinking back, I should have done proper planning on film making and story board development, and costume and character planning, before actually start work on generating all these videos.
As the Kling Ai video generating tool can only generate 15 seconds of video per scene, so I need to plan these scene carefully, so that the screen flow can be smooth, in the overall video editing.
There are altogether 240+ scenes in the 8 Episodes, and maybe another 80 scenes go to waste, as I did not get the prompts done properly, some are due to the Ai system hallucinations, i.e producing a wrong characters.
I spend around USD500 for the KlingAi credits, to get the necessary scene done.
The following will explain some of the developments, how some of the scenes are created from actual real black and white photos, some are created new, as I can’t find any online achieve on the character’s look, e.g. Rentap, which I can only find sketches that are credible, and recreate using Ai on how would he look like.
The Iban War Boat Boat – Bangkong
When I first started, I just use “Iban war boats and Iban warriors” in my “Prompts”, and since Kling Ai do not have much database on Iban and Iban war boat (Bangkong), it created boat that looked very much like spanish or Viking boats, and the warriors look very much like South American
So I look online for whatever resources available on Iban War Boat Bangkong, threw 4 sample sketches to ChatGpt, and it produced the prototype look.
This is the prototype created, with the actual dimension, crew capacity and other details, so I developed an Ai protype
Then get another prompt to produce the scene for Koh and his Iban warrior on the Bangkong
And I use this to add my motion prompts for the video Ai to produce this 15 seconds video scene
Remaung
In Iban mythology and folklore, the Remaung (also spelled Ramaung) is a terrifying, mystical creature of the land, often described as a were-tiger, a beast with a human-like body and a tiger’s head, or a giant black winged creature. It is known to terrorize villagers by preying on them, especially in the deep, untamed jungle. James Richie originally describe Ramaung as “Flying Tiger”, so my first version produced is an actual tiger, but instead of “flying with wings”, I make it “float” in mist instead of flying
Then one common friend show this to DS Alex Nanta, he said Remaung is supposed to be mythical and therefore can’t use a real tiger. So I dig further and also realised Borneo do not have tigers, and most interpreted Remaung as a a spiritual creature that sometimes appears in the form of a mythical black cat, so I generated a version of a “big black cat with glowing eyes”.
Nabau
The Nabau is a water dragon among the Iban of Sarawak. Nothing much can be traced for a picture or sketch of Nabau, so I settled with this sketch of Drawing by Monica Freeman with annotations by Derek Freeman, published in The Encyclopaedia of Iban Studies, p. 1174 (Tun Jugah Foundation 2001).
This is what I had developed, which according to James Richie’s writing, Nabau is a water dragon measuring 200 feet long that emerged from the river. So I came up with this version, when Koh retrieved the Batu Gemala from its mouth.
Why Young Koh Can’t perform a Nyajat
In Episode 3 – The Warrior, there is a scene where James Richie’s article wrote as
“As a teenager, Koh made a name for himself after joining some infamous warriors in small headhunting skirmishes to obtain heads to impress potential lovers.”
So my story board developed as Young Koh was performing a Nyajat after the first trip for battle to celebrate Gawai Festival and Courtship with young ladies in the longhouse. But I failed miserably, can’t develop any prompts to get the Ai system to perform a proper Nyajat, after a few tries, I gave up.
Why is Koh dressing like that in 1924 Kapit Peace Making?
As I can’t find any archive photos of the 1924 Kapit Peace Making, not even sketches or drawing. There is only one black and white photo available
So I use Ai to recreated an extended photo of the original Black & White
Which I later converted it into full HD color
As the description given for the B&W photo was Koh was among the chief that were standing and seated in the middle with Rajah Vyner Brooke, and the later Koh photo were always with a robe on his head.
So my guest is Koh should be the person with the robe on his head, just standing behind Vyner.
So I get Ai to develop the Koh character at the time of Kapit Peace meeting in 1926, and get Ai to predict how Koh would look like in 1926, when he should be 56 years old, and match that face onto the generated cloth, together with the head robe, which often resembles a turban or a decorated cloth wrapped around the head, which is called a Labong, and use this throughout the whole Episode 6 – 1926 Kapit Peace Making
Why all Native have features
Most of the Dayaks, be it Iban, Kenyah, Kayan or Kajang, would tends to have “feathers” on their head, I only learned later that I need to build from scratch on Kling Ai for my characters, so that they will be more like “Iban”, but despite that, whenever I have scenes of multiple tribes, e.g. Iban, Kayan, Kenyah etc in a single scene, the Ai again get confused. I need to pick up and build proper character sets on my next project.
Koh also have different faces in a single Episode
Yes, this happen when the episode was not made in a single day,
What are the Ai Tools Used
Ethnographic realism, historically accurate, cinematic lighting, volumetric mist, ultra-detailed textures.
① Story Idea Generation | ChatGPT
② Image Generation | Gemini × Nano Banana
③ Video Generation | Kling Ai 3.0
④ Background Music | Suno
⑤ Final Editing and Integration | CapCut
Why are there birds in the opening of every Episode?
The Iban people of Borneo recognize seven primary omen birds as messengers of Sengalang Burong, the god of war and agriculture. These birds (Ketupong, Beragai, Bejampong, Pangkas, Embuas, Kelabu Papau, Nendak) are considered sons-in-law to the deity and guide daily life, agricultural activities, and rituals through their calls. So I created each of the omen birds, and use them in the opening scene of each episode
Many of the scenes were created from a single old photos
Brooke Centenary Celebration 1941
Restoring The Peace Making Ceremony Jar presented to Koh
I found a photo of the jar that Rajah Vyner Brooke gave to Temenggong Koh Jubang as a token of peace during the peace-making ceremony on kajomag site, together with A memorial to commemorate the 1924 peace-making ceremony.
I get Chatgpt to restore the jar and gong
Then use it to create a scene where Rajah Vyner Brooke presented the jar to Temenggong Koh as a token of peace during the peace-making ceremony
Special Note – I was informed later by one viewer after the Youtube videos were published, that the real jar is ”Labang” . It was given to Koh’s youngest daughter Segura. The tajau labang is actually now kept by one of Temenggong Koh’s grandson.
The character of Rentap
Rentap was a chief commander of Iban warriors in the Skrang and Saribas regions. He earned the name “Rentap”—meaning “Earth-tremor” or “World-shaker”—after cutting off his first enemy’s head, representing his strength.
In James Richie’s Article
According to Temenggong Koh’s youngest son, the late Datuk Kenneth Kanyan, his father was born at Pulau Ensulit in the headwaters of the Batang Kanyau in West Kalimantan to Jubang Kutang.
Jubang was one of 24 brave warriors who defended the fortress of Rentap of Bukit Sadok against Charles Brooke’s army of several thousand soldiers in October 1861.
After they were defeated, Rentap retreated to Julau while Jubang fled across the border to West Kalimantan — the original home of the Iban.
Temenggong Koh’s full name is Temenggong Koh Anak Jubang, so the Jubang mentioned is his father. That would make him the son of a warrior who had fought along with Rentap against the Brooke army
So I looked for reference photos and sketches of Rentap online, ignoring some of the photo characters that was created by others, I submitted some of these sketches that seemed to be genuine, together with some description to Chatgpt, and it produced a prototype character
Rentap’s character appeared in the Temenggong Koh series as “Tales of warrior” that Iban elders primarily passed down through an rich oral tradition within the communal, open-verandah setting of the ruai in the longhouse.
Some of the Narrations sounds funny
Yes, as the narrations was using Capcut, some of the voice can’t really pronounce
Yes, as the narrations was using Capcut, some of the voice can’t really pronounce certain names, and I have to create special names, so that the pronunciation can be acceptable.
E.g
Iban ->Ee-bun
Rayjang ->Ray-jiang
Orang Ulu -> oh-run Ulu,
Dayak -> Dar-yak
Leave a Reply