From the voice-over of Juqing to the hot drama plan, a huge number of engines are built to create a “good story” ecosystem for the short drama industry Author| Mia

Short plays are everywhere now.

The main theme of positive energy drama "I Open a Supermarket on the Long March" that was liked by the People's Daily Entertainment Official Weibo account has become a hit. The explosive short drama once again dominated the hot search on the entire internet; from the older generations in the countryside holding their phones and laughing heartily, to the post-95s in first-tier cities who are fond of the short drama, the drama is sweeping through various regions and all age groups.

People in the film and television industry are all talking about short dramas. So, how can one create a high-quality short drama that becomes a sensation?

The answer may be hidden in this interview short film. In August of this year, the "Drama King" special IP successfully hosted the 2024 Drama King Sound Industry Scriptwriter Salon in Chongqing with the theme of "empathy and nostalgia, walking new paths with heart". On October 16, the short film of the Drama King Sound Scriptwriter Salon, produced by JuLi Engine, "Empathy and Nostalgia, Walking New Paths With Heart", was released online, further revealing the "premium code".

Cast your gaze across the entire short film industry, where vast changes are taking place in all aspects.

First and foremost, shoddy works are being gradually eliminated, and the audio-visual language has become more sophisticated, with higher production costs and longer production cycles. The industry has shifted from its earlier period of "barbaric growth" and chaos to a focus on producing refined content and standardized creativity. On June 1st of this year, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television officially implemented the "Latest Work Tips on Filing for Micro Short Dramas" to guide the industry towards standardization.

The platform has become a major driving force in promoting the upgrade and transformation of short dramas, with TikTok as a representative, releasing a series of support programs one after another to support creators from multiple dimensions such as funding, traffic, and business empowerment, and opening platform capabilities to partners.

In addition, short dramas are still in a period of rapid development with immense potential. According to the "China Internet Audiovisual Development Research Report (2024)", 39.9% of users regularly watch micro-dramas, and 31.9% of users have paid for micro-drama content. Data from iMedia Research shows that the market size is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan this year and may surpass 100 billion yuan by 2027.

"Sound Up Script" was born in the above background, and it is one of the contents of the "Promising Play Plan" released by Douyin's open platform for short drama operation support. Every month, "Sound Up Script" releases a list of excellent scripts, providing a platform for communication and sharing for the production team. It has created the industry's first communication event focused on script content creation, promoting the emergence of more high-quality scripts.

As a project jointly initiated by Kuaishou Search Engine and Douyin, the "Sound of Drama" Chongqing playwright salon event was full of practical content. Industry professionals discussed future trends, clarified the concept of "what is a high-quality work", established standards, and collided to generate a series of methods for creating high-quality works.

What is a high-quality short drama? According to screenwriters, the characteristics of a high-quality short drama include "fresh themes and stories, precise production from costumes to editing, professional actors, good acting skills, and high aesthetic value in cinematography editing." They also believe that it should "touch upon sensitive issues while also having enjoyable elements" and be "emotionally compelling, triggering audience empathy and thoughts." He Yujie, the client manager of the mass engine interactive film and television industry, cited the short drama "Downsizing to the Main Artery" as an example, stating that it directly hits the pain points of the working class while also bringing moments of enjoyment.

The rule of explosive products is summarized as "fast, refreshing, new", emphasizing attention to "hot topics and memes that emerge in society, the hot life of ordinary people", communicating with the audience, and making good use of platform tools.

Innovative scriptwriting requires "to write the script in the streets and alleys, in the hustle and bustle of life. A good script also needs to balance storytelling and commercial appeal, like a multi-line puzzle," and also "fully utilize the marketing science's product capabilities to create works that resonate with the audience and keep them coming back for more, thus gaining critical acclaim and commercial success."

What value and significance does "Voice Drama Engine" generate as a platform that aids in the innovative creation of upstream content?

"The 'Screenwriter Center System' has been proven to promote the film and television industry multiple times overseas. The release of its list marks a return to the original source of content creation, reflecting the idea that content is king. The salon exchanges promote the industry's inspiration and creativity, sharing the fruits of development. Scientific analysis can reduce accidental uncertainties, making each creation less of a gamble, accelerating industrialization, continuous replication of explosive hits, and elevating the industry's development potential."

As the quickest in terms of iteration speed among content products, short dramas can pioneer various innovative possibilities. The uneven quality in recent times has hindered the viewing interest of more users. The platform entering the market and accelerating standardization is conducive to removing the dross and preserving the essence, accelerating the innovation and breakthroughs of excellent short dramas, expanding the market, and bringing positive effects to ecosystem improvement and industry breakthroughs.

The value of short plays can cross boundaries and overflow, and high-quality short plays bring irreplaceable spiritual energy. They also provide inspiration for the creation of long plays and films. "Drama with Sound" advocates for creating from the heart, deeply empathizing with the audience, and demonstrates a consistent insistence on and orientation towards good storytelling as well as long-termism, showing a sense of responsibility for the entire entertainment content industry.

Having a "good story" is just the first step. The second step is how to make these good stories shine on the business level.

Currently, the short video industry exhibits a typical "Pareto Principle", with 20% of projects making money or breaking even, while 80% of projects incur losses. Recognizing the pain points in the industry as mentioned above, therefore, Jovi Engine has deliberately launched the "Fire Drama Plan". After enhancing the value of content, it helps film companies fully explore the commercial value of high-quality short dramas, achieving a win-win situation for creators.

"The 'Fire Drama Plan' refers to the brand elements being subtly integrated into short mini-program dramas, utilizing the release of the dramas and traditional box office advertising to gain brand exposure. The production company can obtain additional revenue and increase profits through brand integration partnerships."

Taking the example of the "Rising to the Queen" collaboration between X Han Shu, the drama has topped the DataEye short drama power list for 6 consecutive days, breaking into the top 20 of over 200 short dramas with a time-travel theme. The total views across all platforms have exceeded 200 million, making it the first experimental work of a beauty brand collaborating with a paid short drama. The platform has built a bridge, empowering both the brand and the production company in multiple ways, recognizing the high overlap between brand and drama audience - with over half of the audience being female users and nearly 80% being young viewers. Ultimately, the work has achieved breakthroughs in 5A assets, advertising traffic, and e-commerce traffic.

The talent show and the inspirational plot of musical dream's counterattack are deeply integrated with the brand spirit. The competition that the female lead participates in is sponsored by Han Shu's Red Waist. The drama places the brand name ahead in the comment section, successfully attracting traffic through multiple channels.

This cooperation helps Han Shu to effectively occupy users' minds during the big promotion period, seamlessly connecting the purchasing links to the end terminal with a single click. After users watch the drama, there is a significant increase in sales volume, achieving both brand and sales growth, securing the top position. This also adds to the reputation of Han Shu as a "short drama marketing model."

In addition to receiving income from production fees, platform support, and standard resources in the package, one party also received additional income from outside the package, such as custom-made small theaters for brands and videos featuring lead actors promoting products. Brands place orders with the party through Star Map, thereby increasing the party's income. It is reported that the revenue from the popular drama contributes to 21% of the party's income.

As a practitioner in the field of short dramas, the "Fire Drama Project" has unique advantages in commercial cooperation: selecting top-tier partners, selecting the top 15% of copyright holders in the industry, providing a large supply of content with a high hit rate, and integrating the most exposure resources; 80% of short dramas are modern/near-modern themes, with rich and close-to-life scene insertions, high exposure and topicality, cultivating user interest extensively; with strong platform capabilities, it continuously provides revenue gains, wide-ranging business partnerships, heat enhancement, amplifying brand awareness and conversion rates; diverse and efficient gameplay, empowered by big data capabilities for brands and production companies, providing marketing channel support, reducing risks, flexible and low entry barriers with high ROI.

Replaying a series of business cooperation cases, it can be seen that high-quality products receive incentives at the commercial level, which can motivate more outstanding talents to invest. Audiences "eat better," accelerate market prosperity, and form a positive cycle. This is a law that has been repeatedly verified in the content industry: allowing good works to fully embrace the market, boost commercial value, is an indispensable part of refined creation.

Looking back on the whole "road to refinement of short dramas," as the main soil of short dramas, Douyin platform has always been deeply integrated with the industry, closely relying on and continuously enhancing platform capabilities, becoming the most important supporter of industry transformation and upgrading.

Official data shows that in 2023, the number of users actively searching for short micro-dramas on Douyin doubled every day. The daily viewership of short micro-dramas also doubled, with 500 micro-dramas reaching over one billion views, including 12 works with over 1 billion views. The vast and diverse user base, along with the increasingly mature content ecosystem and commercialization pathways, have become the cornerstone that fuels the industry for Douyin.

As early as 2022, Douyin short films had integrated and upgraded the original "New Series Plan" and "Multi-Million Explosive Drama Club" to launch the "Attractiveness Plan". At the beginning of this year, they also introduced the "Chenxing Plan" and "Sailing Plan". In the middle of this year, they once again launched the "Promising Drama Plan" including "Drama with Sound", providing comprehensive support in terms of cash, traffic, and commercial empowerment to inject vitality into the creator ecosystem continuously, and assist the emerging trend of short films to sail towards limitless possibilities.

The platform continues to witness the evolution of short dramas into various forms such as mini-programs, profit sharing, and native app terminals, helping reduce the cost of short dramas. By constantly innovating, data becomes more transparent, empowering creators' product thinking with big data. As the screenwriter put it, "The tools of massive cloud data provide a better source of inspiration and data support for content creation."

Actively promoting the entry of major film and television companies such as Ningmeng and high-quality creators, in recent years, many explosive hits that have swept the entire network have emerged, such as "Escape from the British Museum" which inspired patriotism, "There is Wind on My Way Home" which drives cultural and tourism consumption with its content, "Observant Cat" which popularizes cultural and historical knowledge, and "Twenty-nine" which focuses on women's mutual assistance.

The transformation of celebrities into theater layouts has attracted widespread attention online, accelerating the creation of word-of-mouth works. Examples include the launch of the 9527 Theater in collaboration with Stephen Chow, the Rose Story Theater in collaboration with Li Ruotong, and the "Hong Kong-style Theater" in cooperation with TVB. The flagship effects are significant, contributing to the overall "content consumption upgrade" of short drama creation.

A series of initiatives to promote the refinement transformation of the industry reflects the sense of responsibility of Douyin and Toutiao platforms towards the healthy development of the short video industry, as well as their sense of responsibility towards cultural values.

Focusing on "Drama Q Plus" and "Fire drama project," this can be seen as a dual-track upgrade of platform content models and business models. It is conducive to the evolution and upgrade of various links in the industry chain, continuously expanding the market, accelerating the elimination of inferior products with superior ones, meeting the increasingly sophisticated aesthetic needs of users, and continuously promoting the construction of a healthy content ecosystem.

Encouraging the creation of high-quality works and ensuring that quality creations receive greater rewards means shifting the industry's focus from the early emphasis on traffic to a focus on quality. With more abundant funds for creation, it is conducive to the exploration and application of new technologies such as AIGC and virtual filmmaking. Increased creative freedom allows for the development of various forms of content, potentially leading to the emergence of "micro-short dramas+" and expanding new possibilities for content creation. This series of measures will ultimately raise the overall level of the industry, enhancing its long-term vitality.

The platform continues to focus on cultivating high-quality content, leading to a surge in excellent works. This not only generates content value and commercial value but also brings various dimensions of social value. For example, it evokes the audience's patriotic feelings, promotes culture through travel, drives cultural and tourism consumption, draws attention to the senior citizens group, and helps heal users' inner selves, and so on.

It is worth mentioning that at the end of October, "Dramatic Sound" will invite senior short drama directors and representatives from the production field to hold an offline exchange meeting in Hangzhou with the theme "Adding Color to Dreams, Telling a Good Story", aiming to shape a better, more professional, and captivating ecosystem by collaborating with the industry upstream and downstream. The second round of salon will focus on visual expression and production, connecting the entire industry chain, and sharing the "secrets of mastery" that will pique the curiosity of practitioners. It's truly something to look forward to.

Of course, we can also look forward to the next report card of "Drama Engine" and "Fire Drama Project".

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