The single episode has surpassed 300 million views. Who is creating the overseas hit short drama?

"Isn't that my useless sister? Why is she begging for money like a beggar? If you are willing to marry Bastian for me, then we can give you money."

And so begins a modern version of the Cinderella story, where the poor female protagonist, in order to pay for her mother's medical expenses, reluctantly agrees to her sharp-tongued stepsister's demand for a proxy marriage, marrying a wealthy man she has never met.

Screenshot from Reelshort TikTok account.

The short drama "The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband," which incorporates various popular elements such as "malicious stepsister," "marriage before love," and "domineering CEO falls in love with me," gained popularity overseas in the latter half of last year. It has now surpassed 300 million views on ReelShort.

With a series of overseas hit short dramas represented by this show, Chinese Online's overseas short drama app ReelShort quickly gained fame. The myth of "CEOs going overseas and making millions a day" has returned to China, driving leading online literature platforms and other platform operators to accelerate their layout in the overseas short drama market.

The popularity of overseas short dramas has continued to rise over the past six months. According to Sensor Tower data, as of the end of February 2024, there have been over 40 short drama apps testing the overseas market, with a total of nearly 55 million downloads and in-app purchase revenue reaching 170 million US dollars.

Behind the increasingly fierce market competition, the trend in overseas short drama production is moving towards localization and refinement. It is widely believed within the industry that the key to ReelShort's success in breaking into the overseas market lies in its use of overseas production teams and Western actors, combined with familiar Western themes such as werewolves and vampires, creating explosive short dramas that cater to local culture and aesthetics.

As ReelShort ventures overseas, more and more platforms are choosing to expand their production capacity overseas, forming an overseas short drama production ecosystem consisting of platform operators and production companies. The production companies are responsible for the actual production of the short dramas, including adapting the scripts for local audiences, coordinating overseas resources, completing filming, and post-production work.

Amidst the overseas short drama trend, what kind of cooperation models do platform operators and production companies typically adopt? Who is creating overseas hit short dramas? Is there a formula for creating a hit? We spoke with several frontline industry professionals and project leaders from relevant production companies to find out.

01 Who is Creating Hit Overseas Short Dramas?

In mid-March, ShortTV, an overseas app under Jiuzhou Culture, surpassed ReelShort for the first time and topped the US iOS entertainment free chart.

During the same period, the short drama "Reborn to Revenge: The Betrayed Luna," with a werewolf theme produced by Gao Weina, a producer based in Los Angeles, was launched on ShortTV.

"Reborn to Revenge The Betrayed Luna" promotional poster, image provided by the interviewee

"This drama has an average ROI of 1.4-1.6, which is considered healthy," Gao Weina told the editorial department of New Rankings. "For short dramas, it usually takes three days to a maximum of one week to determine the fate of a drama."

The fate of a short drama is determined by its viewership, collection numbers, as well as the application downloads and net revenue it generates. Both the platform and the production company are betting on a hit. Especially for the production company, additional revenue beyond the production cost heavily depends on the market performance of the work.

According to Zhao Tao, co-founder of Multi-Space, the common cooperation models between the platform and the production company are as follows:

1. Co-investment: The platform and the production company invest in a 50%:50% ratio, and after the project goes online, the proceeds are split according to the pre-agreed ratio.

2. Production: The production company produces short dramas according to the platform's requirements in specific regions, and mainly undertakes the production tasks, with the copyright belonging to the platform.

3. Joint development: Production companies independently incubate topics and intellectual properties (IP), and jointly invest in production with the platform or other investors, with the copyright belonging to the production company or shared according to the investment ratio.

"The myth of a short drama making a billion in 8 days is often not closely related to the production company. In the entire ecosystem of short dramas, most of the funds are used for streaming and marketing activities, and the funds that can ultimately return to the production company are relatively small. The basic fees provided by the platform usually only cover the production cost, and only in the case of particularly good market performance of the work, the production company may receive a certain percentage of the profit," Zhao Tao added.

Currently, Multi-Space is participating in the "Riding the Wind Plan" of Jiuzhou Culture, and is producing local short dramas in multiple regions, with the Korean project already completed and entering the post-production stage.

"Multiple stills of the Korean production team in various settings, provided by interviewees.

Gao Wei Na and her team have already collaborated with top domestic online literature export companies such as Jiu Zhou ShortTV, Dian Zhong DramaBox, and Xin Yue Shi Dai GoodShort. Several co-produced works have already been released online."

In 2019, Gao Weina, with nearly 31 years of experience in the domestic film and television entertainment industry, moved to the United States and founded the company "Forest Dream". She focuses on operating TikTok MCN business while continuing to produce local films and documentaries.

In the latter half of last year, she began to venture into short film production.

As a producer, she is responsible for assisting director Xiang Sinin in handling external communication and cooperation. "At that time, Xiang Sinin and I were preparing for a horror film. The project cycle for theatrical films is relatively long. During this period, he took on a short film project for ReelShort, which became popular, and then took on another one, which also became popular. Many people came to us for co-production, and we began to intensively undertake projects as a team."

According to Gao Weina, ReelShort has three major hits, with Xiang Sinin directing two of them, namely "The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband" and "Married at First Sight". The former has reached a viewership of 300 million, and the latter has also exceeded 100 million views.

Here's the translation:

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Screenshot of ReelShort's Explosive Short Drama Directed by Xiang Sinin, Supplied by Interviewee

Overseas short film production sees significant involvement from Chinese creators and teams.

The team led by Gao Weina is a typical example, with its main creative team being "half foreigners, half Asians."

Apart from members of the main creative team such as producers, directors, and writers, other crew members will rotate according to the schedule. Among these crew members who follow the project, there are Chinese students who have graduated from film and television majors abroad, as well as professional film and television practitioners affected by Hollywood strikes. Gao Weina has encountered them all in projects. "At first, some people looked down on short films, but later they all got involved."

New Rankings' Scriptwriting Department has learned from various sources that currently, most overseas short film production teams are mainly composed of Chinese people who handle crowdfunding, core creative work, and platform coordination. Among these teams:

Some are temporarily formed by international students with backgrounds in film and television;

Some, like Gao Weina, have locally established production studios and extensive experience in overseas production;

There are also some teams, like "Multiple Spaces." Although the main creative team responsible for planning and selecting projects is concentrated in Beijing and Los Angeles, experienced producers organize shoots in various overseas locations. At the same time, directors and teams with experience in vertical screen shooting in China also go overseas to impart their experience and guide local teams.

2. How are overseas hit short films born?

According to a report by Guohai Securities, as of January 15, 2024, ReelShort has released 31 short films, with main themes including love, vampires, werewolves, etc. According to the criteria of having over 30 million views and over 500,000 collections, 6 short films have reached the level of explosive hits.

Among the 6 explosive hit short films, Xiang Sinin directed two of them.

One hit can be attributed to luck, but multiple hits undoubtedly have "traces to follow." According to Gao Weina, behind Xiang Sinin's high hit rate as a director lies firstly in the "fusion of Chinese and Western" internal team cooperation model.

According to her introduction, Xiang Sinin was born in Inner Mongolia and later studied abroad in the United States, graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), majoring in directing and production, and has been living in the United States for more than ten years.

As an Asian director, Xiang Sinin "understands Chinese scripts," but his writing partners are usually Americans. "The scripts provided by the platform need to be localized, including character settings, scene selection, dialogue modification, etc. Among them, dialogue is very important, it needs to be down-to-earth, close to local culture, and local expressions. This is also the reason why we have in-house American writers in our team."

For example, the explosive hit short film "Married at the First Sight" is the result of collaboration between Xiang Sinin and locally renowned writer Patrick Boyd for local adaptation.

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Let me know if you need any further assistance!

Xiang Sining directs on the set, as shown in the photo provided by the interviewee.

Next, localization should not only be reflected in the script but also involve aspects such as actor selection and set design. Gao Weina mentioned that excellent foreign actors are mostly concentrated in the United States, especially in Hollywood. In China, the foreign actors that can be found are often not professional actors; they may be Chinese-speaking international students or part-time models. These non-professional actors are prone to breaking the immersion for the audience.

In terms of set design and costumes, the differences between domestic and foreign productions are not solely dependent on budget. Gao Weina explained, "Even if we find a luxury mansion in China that fits the scene, it is difficult to completely simulate the authenticity of foreign luxury mansions. For example, in China, we may only be able to use imitation picture frames, whereas abroad, we can film with genuine antique picture frames."

Whether it's the script, actors, or set design and costumes, they are all aimed at making the short film more in line with local culture and more appealing to foreigners.

Zuo Yigao and the actors are shooting on the set, and the interviewee provides the picture.

Overseas short dramas are becoming more refined, and production costs are also rising. "Generally speaking, the budget for a short drama is around 180,000 to 220,000 US dollars, but now the budget for ReelShort is generally around 300,000 US dollars," revealed Zuo Yigao.

In addition, Xiang Sinin's experience and resources in film production are applied to short drama production, which Zuo Yigao sees as a "reduction in dimensionality."

"As a film director, he has strict requirements for the quality of the work. From the early preparation of the script to shooting and post-production, he will be involved throughout and control the final quality of the work."

However, Zuo Yigao stated that this reduction in dimensionality is only at the production level. The real test of the production team's skills is how each episode cleverly sets up "hooks" to attract the audience. In this regard, Xiang Sinin and the screenwriting team spent a long time adjusting.

Regarding the transition of professional film and television practitioners from traditional backgrounds to short dramas as a reduction in dimensionality, Zhao Tao, who has years of experience in film and television content planning and distribution, believes that whether it is a movie, web series, or vertical short drama, each has its own budget, ecological rules, creative logic, and business model. Different product forms require different crew and production thinking to correspond to.

"Although both movies and short dramas are art forms that tell stories, in movies and TV series, the audience is more concerned about the story itself, while in short dramas and short videos, the audience values whether it provides emotional value in a short time. For example, the rapid change in emotions from being suppressed to overcoming opponents is very important."

Therefore, Zhao Tao believes that short dramas have higher requirements for the script.

First, in terms of creative logic, short dramas focus more on immediate emotions and sensory stimulation, rather than the long process of development, and need to capture the audience's attention in a short time.

Second, unlike traditional film and television, short dramas are more like an internet product. The production of short drama content cannot be considered solely from the perspective of traditional film and television, but also needs to combine the distribution logic of the information age. The information flow logic of short dramas increases the difficulty of script creation, and each episode needs to have a strong sense of identification to capture the audience.

Third, a hit short drama is not a game of probability; short drama production is a "hard work."

The birth of a hit short drama mainly consists of two important stages: production and promotion.

Unlike the traditional film and television industry that focuses on production, even in the current trend of intense competition and refinement in short drama production, the cost of large-scale promotion for a hit short drama to gain more clicks and paying users may reach several million or even tens of millions of yuan, and the promotion investment for hit short dramas in China may even reach the billion-yuan level.

To achieve a hit effect, the promotion cost far exceeds the production cost.

In this case, short dramas seem to be highly dependent on "probability" and traffic.

"The short drama market also follows the Pareto principle. Out of ten short dramas, only two or three can become hits, and I even think the probability is that out of ten, only one won't lose money, and out of one or two hundred, there will be a hit," Zhao Tao admitted. The short dramas seen in the market are often a few hits.

In his view, whether a short drama becomes a hit is the result of the comprehensive effect of "right time, right place, and right people." The birth of a hit drama, from topic selection, script, production, to final promotion, is interconnected. Only when all aspects meet certain standards is it possible to become one of the few hits.

Zuo Yigao and her team, as the production side, have successfully created multiple hit overseas short dramas. She believes that the production side is responsible for creating good content, just like carefully completing an exam paper. As for how well this exam paper will perform in the market, it still needs platform promotion and verification, but the quality of the content is a key factor affecting the promotion effect. Hit short dramas are by no means purely a matter of luck.

"There are certainly cases where the quality is not very good, but it unexpectedly becomes a hit, but the probability of this is very low," Zuo Yigao said.

Looking to the future, Zuo Yigao plans to expand her team and train more directors and screenwriters in a "mentorship" manner to meet the growing demand for short drama production.

For Xiao Mengyuan, the co-founder of Multi-Space, producing short dramas is a labor-intensive activity with thin profits. Especially in overseas production, uncertainties often lead to exceeding the budget, and production companies need to bear this risk.

"Firstly, the cost of living abroad is very high. The crew's meals, accommodation, and transportation are much higher than in China. Secondly, the working habits of staff in different countries are different. For example, Koreans are used to working for a while and then taking a break, unlike Chinese crews, which work very intensively from morning to night. In addition, finding shooting locations and renting equipment abroad are also significant expenses."

However, high risk does not bring high profits.

Therefore, Multi-Space is shifting from pure production to the development stage, developing original short drama projects independently. According to Xiao Mengyuan, Multi-Space's original projects will adopt a more localized story structure and narrative style, directly producing English or Korean scripts, rather than writing in Chinese first and then translating. In terms of selecting screenwriters, they also prefer to collaborate with local writers to refine high-quality content.

"The creative team's energy and time are limited, so it's better to spend time on distinctive projects. Short dramas themselves are not a high-profit business line, so there's no need to pursue quantity," Zhao Tao added.

Whether it is persisting in production or transitioning to become a full-service production company for short drama content development, operation, and production, it is certain that with more professional production companies and film and television practitioners entering the scene, the competition for short dramas going overseas is not just a competition of promotion numbers, but also a competition of content quality.

Author: Shi Lai

Editor: Zhang Jie