Will skit actors and screenwriters be replaced by AI?
Author/ IT Times reporter Shen Yibin
Editor/ Sun Yan
Dick silk counterattack, tearing scumbag, God of War crossing...... With the plot of catching horses and exaggerated performances, many audiences instantly "went up", and even the great director Stephen Chow joined in. In recent years, the development of the short drama industry can be described as "running all the way". In late March, a reporter from IT Times visited Hengdian, China's largest film and television base, and found that short dramas not only attracted a large number of crews and production companies, but also became the starting point for many group performances of "actors' dreams".
According to iResearch's "2024 China Micro Short Drama Industry Research Report", 3,574 will be planned and 584 will be filed online in 2023; In 2023, the market size of the micro-short drama industry has reached 35.86 billion yuan, and it is predicted to grow to 48.46 billion yuan in 2024.
Since the beginning of this year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has paid more and more attention to the development of short dramas, and while increasing the supervision of the quality and compliance of short drama content, the "short drama +" model has continued to penetrate into all walks of life. In the current technology circle, with the enhancement of AI's ability to generate graphics, texts, videos, etc., AI has also empowered thousands of industries.
If these two tracks are combined, what kind of sparks will collide? On July 25, the newly added 2024 China Joy Short Drama Innovation Forum of the China International Digital Entertainment Industry Conference (CDEC) was held in Shanghai, and experts from the film and television industry and the technology industry said that "short drama + AI" can reduce the cost and increase efficiency of creation, and become a new quality productivity.
"AI scripts" will be the focus of the creation of short plays
Short dramas in the explosive period, because of the time limit, often pursue "extreme characters" to meet the audience's psychological expectations and achieve resonance. In terms of plot, the relationship between the characters is often only focused on the relationship between the male and female protagonists, which is streamlined, and the high-strength reversal setting makes the audience "can't stop". Therefore, many short dramas such as Dick Silk counterattacking the boss and strong women tearing up scumbags were born.
With the new policies of short dramas continuously issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the development of short dramas has entered a standardized period, which not only allows major platforms to introduce corresponding short drama support plans, but also continuously improves the content quality of works. At the forum, Chen Xiaoda, deputy dean of the Vancouver Film School of Shanghai University, shared a set of data that since the trial implementation of the new regulations, the number of "other micro-short dramas" below 300,000 yuan has increased significantly, accounting for about 50%. At the same time, in the analysis of the 3,309 micro-short dramas approved on the first day, it was found that the more common keywords such as "president", "lady", "wife" and "divorce" in the title of the play have been greatly reduced, and realistic works have become the mainstream.
The quality of production and the theme of the plot are the key indicators that affect the success of online micro-short dramas. Judging from the audience survey, 54.14% of netizens will be attracted by the excellent production quality of the short drama; 43.90% of netizens will be attracted by the theme of the plot.
However, whether it is the outbreak period or the standard period, speed and batch are still the core characteristics of short drama production. In Hengdian, a number of short drama producers and directors once told the "IT Times" reporter that an average of one week to 10 days is the shooting cycle of a short drama, and two of the 10 hits will make money.
So, how can we make the quality of short dramas more and more refined in a limited time?
In Chen Xiaoda's view, "AI script" and "post-production" are the focus of short dramas. "AI script" does not refer to AI writing scripts or human-computer collaboration to complete scripts, but refers to the screenwriter needs to be familiar with AI technology knowledge, and in the creation of the script, the AI technology that may be used in the play should be set and synthesized, or the plot content synthesis should be pre-set. This creative mode greatly fronts the overall and overall effects of creation, which is conducive to early detection of creative problems and timely correction, shortening the production cycle, so as to reduce costs and increase efficiency in short drama production.
AI has reduced the cost of skits by a quarter
When Sora came out earlier this year, the one-minute video generation was enough to make an impression, and in the past five months alone, the wave of AI generation has "swept through" the entire skit industry.
On June 28, the three AI short dramas "Hero", "Love Never Ends" and "Fantasy Store" produced by the China Central Radio and Television Film and Television Drama Documentary Center were launched on CCTV together. It is reported that these three short dramas are combined with content creation through AI generation technology, among which "Love Never Ends" is a dramatic short drama combining "AI + real people", and "Fantasy Store" realizes AI generation of the whole film.
As the two leading platforms for short dramas, Douyin and Kuaishou began to focus on "AI + short dramas" this year after successively launching short drama plans in 2021. Douyin cooperated with Bona Film to establish AIGC Studio; Kuaishou launched the Wensheng video model Keling. The AI short dramas "Sanxingdui: Future Apocalypse" and "Mountains and Seas Wonderland: Splitting Waves" led by these two platforms respectively were officially launched in July.
"The number of daily active users of short dramas on the Kuaishou platform will increase from 270 million in 2023 to 300 million in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 11%; The number of heavy users increased from 94 million to 146 million, a year-on-year increase of 55.3%. It can be said that nearly 8 percent of short drama users have to watch short dramas every week. Wang Haiyue, head of the short drama business of the Kuaishou Entertainment Business Department, said at the forum that in the face of such a huge market demand, AI has become a tool to improve the efficiency of short drama production, and Kuaishou Xingmang will also launch a creator incubation plan for the AIGC track and content developers.
Chen Kun, director of "Mountains and Seas Wonderland: Splitting Waves", said in an interview with the media that if a real person makes a short drama of about 10 minutes, it needs a team of hundreds of people at every turn. But with the blessing of AI technology, a team of more than a dozen people can complete it, and put it in the film and television industry, and the cost will be reduced by at least a quarter.
"Good content is good business." In terms of commercial monetization, Wang Haiyue said that relying on the huge traffic of the Kuaishou platform, content payment and brand cooperation are the main ways to monetize short dramas. On the one hand, AI can fully show what creators want, making short dramas such as fantasy and science fiction more imaginative, and creating high-quality content and innovative themes to attract users to pay. On the other hand, AI short dramas can realize more diverse "gameplay" such as customization, implantation, and theater, helping brand partners achieve commercial monetization. At present, Kuaishou has completed more than 150 commercial short dramas.
Will actors, screenwriters lose their jobs?
The short drama was very popular, giving many unknown group actors the opportunity to act. In March, when the reporter of "IT Times" visited Hengdian, a college student group performed NINI from a "background board" with no lines to a special role, and the skit also became the beginning of her dream in the entertainment industry.
However, when the "three nos" AI short drama with no actor interpretation, no scene construction, and no green screen special effects came to the market, the crisis of the actors also quietly came. "For the main actors in "Sanxingdui: Future Apocalypse", we made a star development plan for them to create a personal account to share some knowledge of ancient civilizations." Qu Ji Xiaojiang, deputy general manager of film and television production of Bona Film Group, introduced at the forum that the three-step plan for the development of AI short dramas: from short dramas to long dramas and then to games, and to create popular personal IPs for characters.
As for whether AI will become a competitor for actors and screenwriters, Qu Ji Xiaojiang said that AI is more like a catalyst for the short drama film and television industry. First of all, AI will achieve technological equality, so that the threshold for entering the short drama film and television industry will be lowered; secondly, the possibility of the birth of super-individuals and groups increases; The IP field will also be further expanded, and star digital avatars, virtual human performance training, etc. will promote the development of the short drama industry.
Chen Kun believes that if an order is given to generate a script related to "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", AI can provide details from the title of "Wonderland of Mountains and Seas" to each script, then it is the AI that can truly replace people. But the current large model just converts the question into a prompt word, retrieves the answer from the database that matches the prompt word label, and then combines the answers.
In addition, in order for AI to achieve traditional film and television effects, it needs character consistency and scene consistency, which means that the characters and scenes in the previous shot should be consistent with the next shot, which is very dependent on the recognition of 3D by large models. Therefore, AI can only be used as a tool at the moment, and cannot be over-relied upon.
"At present, what we need is talent who can use AI to complete the greatest possible creation with limited computing power." Yang Sheng, CEO of Bule Technology, said. Chen Xiaoda also said that the technology itself is important, but it is first necessary for users to master standardized industrial processes, so that a new technology application can be implemented in the skit industry for a long time.