became popular in the second half of 2023, vertical screen short dramas officially entered the public eye. Wealth stories such as "the revenue exceeded 100 million in 8 days of broadcasting" and "investors earned 200,000 per month" began to shift from live broadcasts to vertical screen short dramas.
All walks of life are eyeing this golden field. Half a year later, what is the current situation of the short drama industry?
The protagonist's daily salary is 3,000, and the crew works more than 15 hours a day.
Although the Spring Festival has been less than two weeks, most of the short drama crews are still working hard.
actor rita seamlessly joined a modern drama crew after finishing the ancient costume short play in Hengdian. Since the short play does not pursue exquisite scenery and emphasizes plot and emotion, prefecture-level city office buildings in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai may become The location of the short play.
rita's new drama is a female workplace drama. Most of the scenes were shot in an ordinary office building in Jinhua. The company rented half of the work area to the crew for filming, and the remaining area was still used for normal offices. Because of this, the sound from the work area next door often interrupted the filming during the filming process.
In addition to employees, the source of noise is also the air conditioner.
Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai experienced a cold wave in January this year, with temperatures often below zero. This was a real problem for the crew who needed to shoot summer scenes. The actress was shivering with cold but could not turn on the air conditioner for warmth. For the crew who used live sound recording, the sound of the air conditioner directly affected the shooting effect.
Live recording is regarded as a sign of "pursuing quality" in the long-form drama world, but in the short-play world, live recording is to avoid post-dubbing, which is a better choice in terms of cost and timeliness.
corresponds to the long production cycle of long-form dramas, while short-form dramas still pursue low cost and fast pace.
The crew size of most short dramas is about 20 people (excluding actors), and the shooting cycle of about 80-100 episodes is about 5-7 days. This means that almost everyone on site is performing an overload of work. The daily work of the
rita crew starts before dawn. Filming needs to be done after midnight, and it is normal to work more than 15 hours a day. Coffee and energy drinks are the most common things for the crew, and even the gifts brought by the platform to visit the crew are A full case of Red Bull.
Actor Lily, who often joins Hengdian crews, told Blue Whale reporters that staying up late is normal in the short drama industry. "I used to work on a crew and started working at 8 a.m. one day. One day, I filmed until 5 a.m., with only two or three hours of rest in between. , all the people lying on the floor of the crew are sleeping people, everyone is too tired."
It is understood that the current short drama market still adopts a daily salary method, among which the daily salary of the protagonist actors is around 2,000-3,000 yuan, and some The daily salary of leading actors in many successful films even exceeds 5,000 yuan/day, and it is difficult for top actors to earn tens of thousands of yuan/day to get a schedule.
The price has increased somewhat compared to the early stage of the short drama. Wang Zijiao, general manager of Judong Weiying and short drama producer, told Blue Whale reporters that the daily salary of such an experienced protagonist actor will be about 800 yuan around May 2023. "It has increased 3-5 times in half a year, and production costs have still increased significantly. When this industry first emerged, it might cost 100,000 to 800,000 yuan to make a movie, but now projects with 600,000-800,000 yuan have already It’s everywhere.”
Dimensionality reduction attack by dramatists? Schrödinger's premium
In the second half of 2023, short dramas will gradually enter the public eye, which has also made the film and television industry that has been silent for a long time become restless again. Many practitioners in the traditional film and television industry have also entered the vertical screen short dramas, including many well-known directors and film people.
Before that, Hong Kong director Wong Jing micro-short drama was launched in Hengdian. Later, Stephen Chow officially announced that the first season of his first work "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves" is expected to be launched in May this year. These incidents are regarded as a sign that the short drama industry has entered the stage of quality, but in fact this view is still based on the "long drama center theory". Both are video content, but the underlying logic of long dramas and vertical screen short dramas is very different. Premium quality may not even be a "good thing". In the six months since
micro-short dramas became popular, Wang Zijiao has seen a lot of new people and new money pouring in, and also seen many people fail. “One of the characteristics of this industry is that you can earn several times a project. profit, or may lose everything.Unlike long-form dramas, it is a completely TO C content. If the content of your project cannot be invested, your advertising money cannot be consumed. If it is not consumed, there will be no recycling, and it will be completely unsaleable. ”
The current discussion on short dramas in the market is still very broad. It is not accurate to simply use short time as a classification criterion. The more critical method of differentiation is business logic. Although some short dramas have obtained brand naming or implantation to obtain Income, but this is similar to the business logic of long dramas. What really makes short dramas "make money" is the payment model of mini program short dramas.
A certain short drama mini program interface
"It is actually more like fast moving consumer goods. Consumer goods are How to hit users? They all need to grasp the user's psychology, so long dramas may pursue critical thinking or educational significance, but short dramas require emotions. For example, when photographing rich people, what we photograph is not what wealthy people in real society actually look like. What we photograph is what the target audience imagines wealthy people to be like. Be sure to know who your audience is. " Wang Zijiao said.
Therefore, the "dimensionality reduction attack" of long dramas does not exist. The quality of short dramas is not simply the production of quality. Wang Zijiao said: "At the end of 2023, many high-quality short dramas will be launched. In fact, in the end It's a very powerful one. The fundamental reason is that the quality of short plays must be based on the accuracy of short plays. Accuracy is the foundation and excellence is the superstructure. Being only excellent but not accurate is like a castle in the air, but it is not as good as making a product that is average but has a solid foundation. Therefore, emphasizing drama theory and shooting techniques is still the logic of the film and television content industry. Sometimes too much emphasis on these may lead to a high probability of failure. The key to the short play is to accurately find the emotional point, and then put a 'hook' to be effective, and users will have the urge to top up. Your emotional points are drawn accurately and in place. On this basis, you can improve your production, which is useful. "
Is there still a chance for the short drama market in 2024?
The popularity of short dramas has brought new opportunities to many people, including a large number of low-level actors who have no roles to film in the cold winter of film and television.
A horizontal drifting actor told Lan Whale reporter, there will be more and more short drama projects after October 2023. “In the past, you might only be able to play a supporting role in a long drama, but in a short drama, you can have a very formal role, and the key short dramas are also settled. Very fast, because their whole rhythm was like double speed.
Wang Zijiao said that there are two main sources of actors for short dramas. “Part of them are some actors who used to shoot information flow advertisements. They came in when this industry emerged, and gradually over a year or two, they have become Able to master the skills of skit performance. On the other hand, there are indeed former actors in the film and television industry, as well as some recent graduates from professional colleges and extras from Hengdian. They may have been very marginalized in the past, but they can have more opportunities in the short drama crew, such as some martial arts stand-ins. , if his image is acceptable in all aspects, he can definitely be the starring role in some God of War dramas. "
As an emerging industry, short dramas have indeed created a lot of opportunities. Both investors and producers are actively involved in it. But on the other hand, the explosion of any industry in China means that they will flock to it and become a red ocean." .
According to Securities Daily, there will be more than 1,400 short dramas launched in 2023, with a year-on-year growth rate of more than 50% for two consecutive years; the number of short dramas registered annually is nearly 3,000, and has remained at this high level for two consecutive years. iiMedia Consulting data shows , the domestic short drama market size will be 37.39 billion yuan in 2023. Correspondingly, the total box office of the domestic film market in 2023 will exceed 54.9 billion yuan. From the data point of view, short dramas have reached nearly 70% of the film market.
Wang Zijiao believes , there will still be opportunities in the short drama industry in 2024, “The cards will definitely be shuffled in 2024 and it will be clearer, so there are still opportunities. Douyin has more than 800 million daily active users. There is a lot of room for imagination in this market, and the short drama concept stocks are so popular in the secondary market. People with follow-up resources and funds will definitely enter the market, and this market will get bigger and bigger. "
For example, in the first year when short dramas broke out of the circle, short dramas have already appeared in the Spring Festival. On January 18, Douyin's 2024 Spring Festival premium micro-short drama list was released. 10 works will be online during the Spring Festival, including 4 This is a spin-off of a popular film and television IP.The Internet Audiovisual Department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has also recently highlighted 16 high-quality micro-short dramas that will be launched during the Spring Festival.
This means that during the Spring Festival of 2024, micro-short dramas will become another new content consumption option in addition to movies and long-form dramas.
Wang Zijiao and his colleagues have been preparing for the Spring Festival release of the short drama for a long time. “During the Spring Festival, basically all the work is put into production. But before that, we have actually been preparing for a long time in terms of reserving content. We Like theater chains, there will be analysis of schedules, user psychology and behavior before the movie is released. For example, we will definitely not release new movies when everyone is playing mahjong, all in order to seize users' time."
