Golden Eagle Festival micro-short drama discussion: reuse the long drama team, first make AI samples and then shoot

 After the script is finalized, a version of the AIGC preview is completed first. When the official shooting starts, the sample film is compared, focusing on recording the actor's expressions, lines and performances, and then integrated with the generated picture.This process that Mango TV is exploring appeared in the discussion on micro-short dramas at the 16th China Golden Eagle TV Arts Festival.

This year's Golden Eagle Festival has set up the "Micro Short Drama Honors Unit" for the first time, selecting 25 annual micro short dramas, and announcing honors such as director and screenwriter.Realistic themes and traditional cultural themes account for a large proportion.Focusing on this new unit, practitioners discussed how projects are developed, how technology is introduced into production, and what difficulties are faced in high-quality creations.

With a team, we can continue to write side stories

In the past, micro-short dramas were often independently produced, with one film completed before starting the next one, relying on intensive reversals and conflicts to gain traffic.There is a lack of connection between projects, making it difficult to accumulate a long-lasting character and story brand.Zhou Qiu, general manager of Mango TV's Damang Project Studio, said that after filming a long drama or variety show, the scenes, costumes, props and actors can be reused to continue filming supporting micro-short dramas.The story has the opportunity to unfold along the lines of prequels, extras, and branches, supplementing the original worldview, extending the timeline of the same IP, and reducing the investment in re-building the production system.

《Civet Scholar》is a work derived from variety shows.It follows the suspense experience of secret room programs, invested less than 2 million yuan, and received 360 million views on Mango TV. It won the first place in Maoyan's 2025 suspense micro-short drama list, and entered the National Radio and Television Administration's 2025 micro-short drama recommended film list for the Spring Festival.Another attempt comes from the classic work: - Return of the Pearl - adapted from Qiong Yao's - Return of the Pearl -, using a light comedy tone, combining classic plots with "Collision of Ancient and Modern", and entered the honorary unit of short dramas in this Golden Eagle Festival.Familiar characters and stories become the entrance, while new narratives revolve around the life choices of ordinary people.

Bai Yicong, founder and CEO of Linghe Culture, said that the cycle from writing, filming to broadcasting of original projects is very long, and the cost of trial and error is high.The combination of mature IP and production technology is a way to lower the threshold.Long plays can undertake the story structure and character accumulation, while short plays try to unfold an experience. The two types of works complement each other.

After AI enters the production process

The method of “production first and then actual shooting” requires the micro-short drama director, AIGC director and editor to complete the preview together.The actual shooting selects key content based on the samples, and then puts the live performance into the generated picture to reduce the need for full-angle shots.The actor's performance is still a part that needs to be captured on-site.

Relying on the “Mango Spirit Creation” platform, Mango TV has launched - Later Journey to the West - Taiwan Island Chronicles - Eternity: The Life of Xin Zhui - three works, which respectively involve the star AIGC long drama, academic documentaries and the historical restoration of the Western Han Dynasty.

iQiyi’s Nadou Pro is also expanding its functionality.Wang Zhaonan, vice president and editor-in-chief, said that this professional production platform initially covered script evaluation, storyboarding, special effects generation, dubbing and promotion. Now it further provides the ability to control scenes, light and shadow, scheduling and performance. It has launched more than 200 functions and has more than 20,000 active creators.

These tools undertake a large number of repetitive and high-cost production links.Small and medium-sized teams have the opportunity to reduce space and financial constraints and devote more energy to characters and stories.However, there are still uncertainties in the generated results: character deformation, transformation and inconsistency of characters are all problems that practitioners actually encounter.

Technology can generate scenes, but new life experiences still have to be discovered by people.Gao Changli, vice president of the China Federation of Radio and Television Social Organizations, said:

“AI's capabilities are based on existing data. Its corpus is the part of the world that has been written down and photographed; and life is the part that is happening and has not yet been recorded. It is the only corpus that has not been trained.”

In addition to honors, scripts and talents still need to be accumulated

Micro-short dramas have entered the mainstream honor evaluation, which means that in addition to the number of broadcasts, the ideological value, character texture and realistic care have received more attention.Inertia in production takes longer to change.

Some practitioners said that among the scripts received now, there are still a large number of "Rebirth" and "Revenge". If you change the name, it will become a different drama.Space is limited, and producers hope to capture the audience quickly, so they tend to rely on familiar thrills and twists.If similar scenes appear repeatedly, the audience will become tired, and it will be more difficult for creation to leave the old template.

Creative supply and talent pipeline is another recurring problem in discussions.A producer lamented that in the past, it was about who could go online quickly, but now it depends more on who can think up and write.The filming process can be speeded up. To continue to produce works with both reputation and content value, scripts and creators still need to accumulate.