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China’s ultrashort-drama boom built a sprawling live-action industry of actors, directors, crews, and filming bases. Now, as AI drives down production costs, shoots are disappearing and companies are cutting staff. In Zhengzhou, filmmakers reckon with the slowdown; in Wuxi, former film and animation workers are building AI production systems that can turn scripts into finished videos with only a handful of people. Sixth Tone follows both sides of the shift to see how AI is changing not just how short dramas are made, but what filmmaking work itself is becoming.
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I prefer to watch with live actors playing rather then ai. Kinda sad how the industry is turning out
I mean short-dramas are slop even before the AI, so it's kind of poetic.
Making somehting that was already slop into MORE SLOP
My brother has been saying he doesn't like A.I, but lately he didn't realize he has been watching A.I short films until I pointed it out.
the workers at the AI firm look miserable
Slop evolves into Ultra Slop that captures every Auntie, Mother and Grandma on this side of Asia.
What we really needed A.I. for was doing boring stuff for us – not to push humans out of creative, fun industries! Nor to help people steal designs from other people (See how one of those AI videos totally stole the little girl character design from Wreck-it Ralph!) I think that that live-action director is on the right path: she's going to just let it do some VFX stuff. But personally I'd still prefer the A.I. industry to crash so some poor VFX artist can pick up some work.
I was in Guangzhou last Aug 23 and on the train, you will see a lot of chinese people watching AI shorts from young adults to older people
These dramas are great at capturing your attention but then fizzle out in a few episodes. Plus they’re all duplicates of each other with a different setting.
i actually feel the renaissance of Documentary Filmmaking.
It is not about whether AI drama is good or not. It is more about the ecosystem that bond everyone in front of computer. No more people to people connection on set
短劇團隊要堅持，因為還是有人不愛AI劇（沒有人類的呼吸、溫度、彈性），以後標注真人演出
It’s bizarre how an entire industry (AI slop short drama) started, became viral, stagnated, and died, all within the span of 4 to 5 years or so. It’s seriously bizarre, unfathomable even, how fast AI keeps revamping itself and changing people's life, for better or worse, so constantly within such short timeframes.
Chinese BL and Korean BL are so popular in YouTube now. It’s addicting! ❤❤❤
when the bottom of the barrel of filmmaking says it’s bad, you know it’s BAD 🥲
One thing is I guess there will no longer be people obsessing over celebrities because they won't exist lmao.
Very well produced documentary. Nice job.
Maybe this will make short dramas have better quality because producing pure slop could just be done with AI, only shoot the content that is worth watching
China's government can bans producing CEO themed short drama, why they don't ban AI drama.. for filming industry economic reasons
Wow very interesting video