Focus:
- 1 Normally, there is no lack of experience in filming plots, there is no shortage of business resources for monetization, and it should not be so difficult to do short dramas. But there are mainly two thresholds for short dramas, one is the capital threshold and the other is the professional threshold. "Boutique short dramas" is already a relatively recognized trend.
- 2 short drama players mainly earn two pieces of money, one is to take advantage of the wind platform wool, the other is to earn traffic and share accounts, doing short dramas is more like a natural iteration on the basis of the previous plot paragraphs, the core purpose is to enrich the character and content of their accounts.
- 3 Short dramas have explored some cases in terms of traffic sharing, advertising placement, and live streaming goods, but the commercialization of short dramas is still not fully mature.
From 2019, Kuaishou took the lead in laying out short dramas and establishing the "Kuaishou Small Theater", to Douyin, B Station, and Youai Tengmang, etc. have entered the game; From popular short dramas such as "The Long Princess is On" and "Night Shift Diary", to short drama masters such as "Ancient Style Royal Child" and "Yilu", they took the lead in taking the commercial path of "short drama rising fans - live broadcast with goods".
Many people think: short drama, wind outlet, quick coming.
According to public data, by the end of 2022, the daily active users of Kuaishou short dramas exceeded 260 million, and the number of daily deduplication users of Douyin short dramas was also more than 100 million, including MCN institutions such as Gumai Jiahe and Silver Earth, as well as traditional film and television companies such as Ningmeng Film and Tangren Film and Television, which have successively launched short drama works.
Drama blogger Ouyang (pseudonym) is one of them. In January 2022, after feeling the popularity of the short drama, Ouyang invested 1 million yuan and filmed 10 Douyin short dramas. But after 4 months, Ouyang decided to give up. He felt: "There are definitely people who can do the skit, but it is no longer suitable for most people." ”
Is the skit worth doing? Are skits already a game for the few?
Recently, the editorial office of the new list chatted with drama blogger Ouyang, content partner Li Qingling of Gumai Jiahe, and short drama entrepreneur Zhang Wumao, providing you with another dimension of thinking.
Youku's results, while confirming its own strength, also let us see from it: after the long video is washed away, it can win the favor of many brands at the moment. If we sort out Youku's content and commercialization performance from a more complete perspective, we can also find that long video platforms also have stronger capability reserves and more mature strategic layout when helping brands find more certain growth from uncertainty.
01 "Invest 1 million to earn 1.6 million, it's better to make a short drama than to make a video"
In 2019, because he caught up with the popularity of short videos, Ouyang started by shooting plot segments, not only having four accounts with 5 million fans on Douyin and Kuaishou, but also establishing his own small team. Relying on advertising, the net profit of Ouyang team can reach more than 10 million in one year.
Normally, there is no lack of experience in filming plots, there is no shortage of business resources for monetization, and it should not be so difficult to do short dramas. But the reality is that making skits is not simple.
Ouyang said that the short drama players at that time mainly earned two pieces of money, one was to take advantage of the wind to get the platform wool, and the other was to earn traffic and share the account. The former is not mentioned, for the latter, he made 10 short dramas, but only 7 were sent, of which 3 have not yet been paid by the platform, which is equivalent to saying that only 4 of the 10 short dramas have made money.
"In 4 months, I invested 1 million yuan and earned 1.6 million yuan, so it's better for me to directly accept advertising." Ouyang calculated an account, at that time (before April 2022) the average episode broadcast more than 5 million, almost can get the platform 300,000 yuan of the account reward, but if according to this number of views, if he receives advertising, a video can earn 100,000-200,000 yuan, and a short drama has to shoot at least 12 episodes.
The figure below above is the billing rules of Kuaishou and Douyin
For Ouyang, the same traffic, the CPM of receiving ads is about 20-30 yuan, but Douyin's platform division is basically 5-10 yuan. "It's not worth it."
Of course, short dramas can also be implanted with advertisements, advertising, and sharing accounts to earn two copies, but Ouyang complained: "The plot that can not only have traffic, but also meet the needs of advertisers, and pass the review, at least we can't do it." We're not a head blogger who can make advertisers rush to send money and don't mind the plot. ”
Ouyang believes that in addition to the issue of income, there are mainly two thresholds for short dramas, one is the capital threshold and the other is the professional threshold.
In terms of funds, Ouyang took the recently popular "Twenty-Nine" as an example, "I estimate that the production cost of this short drama will not be less than 500,000 yuan, and if the traffic is better, it may be able to get a reward of 3 times the cost of the platform." He feels that for ordinary creators like him, this production threshold cannot be crossed, and in the face of ordinary creators and well-known film and television teams, the platform will also have a certain inclination in the introduction threshold and support policies.
The production cost of each short drama of Ouyang is only about 100,000 yuan, which is because his team is in a small city, and the cost in all aspects is relatively low.
In addition, compared with shooting short videos, the time period for shooting short dramas is longer, and the financial pressure is greater. "Considering the review period of the platform, the cycle of a short drama takes at least 15 days." Ouyang complained: "My cost of more than ten hundred thousand yuan went out, and I don't know if I can get the money in the end." ”
Professionalism is a more complex issue.
Ouyang revealed that if a traditional film and television company comes to make short dramas, some can directly cooperate with the platform with original scripts, and as long as the traffic reaches the standard, they can get a platform subsidy of 3 times the cost; Some don't even consider the number of plays, even if 1 million broadcast platforms will give money. "Similar policies are out of reach to ordinary creators."
After this round of analysis, Ouyang officially decided to give up the short drama and prepare to shoot his own plot jokes with peace of mind. He said that since June last year, the ordinary creators he knows around him, even if they are tens of millions of fans, as long as they do not have a background in the film and television industry, they basically do not touch short dramas.
02 "Tens of thousands of short dramas a year, have you made money?"
It is better to make money by shooting short videos and advertising, you must have a background in the film and television industry, has short drama really become a game for a few? To this end, I consulted with two skit practitioners with different identities.
Li Qingling is from the head MCN institution in China, Gumai Jiahe, and has many tens of millions of fan plot bloggers such as "Bankrupt Sister and Brother", "City Seven Diary" and "Detective Xiaoyu". Since entering the short drama in 2020, more than 70% of the short drama works produced by Gu Mai Jiahe have exceeded 100 million views.
A skit filmed by "Bankrupt Sisters and Brothers"
Zhang Wumao comes from the film and television industry, and he wrote the public account "Beijing, 20 million people pretend to live" in 2017, which was well known to many people, and later transformed into a film and television screenwriter. Since 2020, Zhang Wumao has participated in the production of 4 films in 3 years. By this year, because of optimism about the traffic potential of short video platforms such as Douyin, it is currently preparing to transform into short dramas in Beijing.
Regarding the cost of revenue, Li Qingling believes: "If the number of short dramas is not enough, or the operation skills are not enough, and they cannot get enough platform accounts, the benefits of higher-cost short dramas are indeed not so considerable." ”
But for Gu Mai Jiahe, making short dramas is more like a natural iteration based on the previous plot paragraphs, and the core purpose is to enrich the character and content of its accounts.
Li Qingling said that at present, the general cost of short dramas in the industry is 200,000-500,000 yuan per film, and million-level investment is not uncommon.
In Zhang Wumao's view, the purpose of making short dramas is to make an account, "If you start from scratch, you must be mentally prepared that the first few short dramas will lose money." It doesn't matter if you lose money, as long as the account can get up, it's worth it. He feels that to make a commercially valuable account, it costs money in itself, and short dramas are one of the best ways to make an account.
Therefore, to make short plays, you must have the ability to continue to invest. "I'm optimistic about the future of skits but need to have a long-term plan. At least 10 million yuan of funds must be prepared to make it possible to stick to the end. Zhang Wumao thought.
The short drama company Tuqi Culture has revealed in public reports that its internal S-level project investment is 6 million yuan and above, and the A-grade investment cost is about 3 million yuan.
Obviously, the cost of revenue is a relative concept, some people can only accept low-cost quick returns, and some people want to put a long line to catch big fish, even if it is more expensive. At least for the film and television industry, which has invested hundreds of millions at every turn, short dramas are too cheap.
Ouyang said that for grassroots creators, making short dramas is not to achieve self-worth, the pursuit is profit and production ratio, but for people in film and television companies, in order to realize their dreams, if they can't do movies, they will do big nets, and if they can't do big nets, they will do short dramas, not only with small investment, but also may earn money.
"These are two kinds of people."
Li Qingling added that from the perspective of commercial returns, the short drama industry is also a typical rule of 28. "There is definitely nothing comparable to the success rate of comparing the head plot account and a zero-fan account to a short drama."
Regarding the professional threshold, Zhang Wumao also gave a completely different answer from Ouyang. Ouyang feels that making short dramas does not have the freedom to make short videos, but Zhang Wumao feels that short dramas are much more free than movies.
Zhang Wumao said that the movie is too difficult to do. Because the gameplay of the movie is to sell the copyright to the platform first, and then take the account, it is the gameplay of first to B and then to C. "Creators need to put a lot of effort into dealing with platform processes and relationships."
"TikTok and Kuaishou are obviously friendlier to content creators because their traffic distribution relies more on algorithms than on editors. Jitter skits are more like a to C business. ”
It is understood that short dramas that are jitter fast generally have two tracks: one is for ordinary creators, which requires ordinary filing, and has lower production requirements, but stricter review and lower shares; One is for film and television companies and head creators, which need to focus on filing, with larger creative space and higher share, but higher production requirements and longer review cycles.
Because it involves a series of processes such as submission, project establishment, approval, online launch, and publicity, some institutions in the industry are mainly short and fast, and are unwilling to choose key filings, while others do not have the ability to do key filings.
Ouyang admits that his experience must have a lot of limitations, after all, "everyone stands in a different position."
As a passer-by, Ouyang pointed out the risk of short dramas from his own experience: "Now several major platforms can produce tens of thousands of short dramas a year, except for the head short drama can get the cash reward of the platform, what about the rest of the short drama?" ”
03 Conclusion
Who is better suited for skits? Who can play the game of skits well?
First of all, "short drama boutique" is already a relatively recognized trend. This means:
First, short dramas already have a considerable threshold. In terms of funds, the cost of 200,000-500,000 yuan per unit is already a common situation in the industry; Professionally, short dramas such as "Su Wuming from the Great Tang Dynasty", "Alley" and "Twenty-Nine" have begun to have a large number of professional film and television personnel and production companies join.
Second, short dramas still have considerable room for improvement. In Zhang Wumao's view, short dramas are essentially spiritual entertainment consumer goods, without much artistic value, and short dramas have many theme dividends.
For the average creator, skits are a bit difficult. They must upgrade their dimensions and make up for their shortcomings in funds and profession; For film and television practitioners, short dramas are a bit tender.
But it should be added that in order to eat the bowl of rice of short dramas, film and television practitioners also need to carry out adaptive transformation. Director Ren Changzhen once mentioned the shortcomings of film and television practitioners: "When directors do not take the subway, take taxis or even special cars, there is no life, traditional film and television creators cannot get the details of life, but every shot taken by short video creators is a detail of life." ”
Zhang Wumao believes: "Short drama is a new thing, it has its own particularity in creation, to really do a good job in the content of short drama and achieve good commercial results, creators need to have both traditional drama theory and Internet traffic thinking." Simply put, more traditional drama theory is needed at the script outline stage, and when it comes to episode scripts, Internet thinking is needed. At present, the short drama market is not yet finalized, and there is a lack of talent, if the platform can continue to support, the future of short dramas is still worth looking forward to. ”
Secondly, although short dramas have explored some cases in terms of traffic sharing, advertising implantation, and live streaming goods, the commercialization of short dramas is still not fully mature.
Li Qingling mentioned that the commercialization potential of short dramas has not been fully developed, such as investment customization and the exploration of paid membership system.
In addition, some insiders believe that compared with big dramas such as "Crazy", the influence of short dramas is far from enough, and can only be classified as "caulking dramas"; Compared with IP dramas such as "Bright Sword", short dramas do not have enough life cycles and are themselves immortal. This means that short dramas can only further enhance their commercial value if they do a good job of "internal strength".
Therefore, sufficient commercialization ability and the ability to continue operating for a certain period of time will be the key to whether short drama practitioners can cope with industry competition.
Ouyang finally concluded that if a creator has a background in the film and television industry and cannot make money by short videos, live broadcasts, etc., then short dramas are a relatively executable project.