The screenwriters don't have much perception of the industry's emphasis on high-quality products, at least in their work, the logic of content production has not fundamentally changed. In the decreasing approval rate and compressed manuscript fees, they feel more about the emergence of industry bottlenecks.
Author |He Jing (Beijing).
In 2023, micro-short dramas will sweep the entire film and television industry like a tornado, and Hengdian will become a vertical store, in the words of film and television practitioners, the world has become a huge short drama set. 」
According to Yien data, in 2023, more than 1,400 micro-short dramas will be launched in the market, and the market size of micro-short dramas will be nearly 40 billion yuan, close to 70% of the volume of the film market, and the market size is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan within 5 years.
In addition to platforms, production agencies and other entities, screenwriting is one of the specific types of work that we believe are worth paying attention to in the short drama industry chain. Our focus on short drama screenwriters comes from two industry development trends: one is in the field of mini program short dramas with user payment as the core business model, beyond the level of sophistication, the setting of story hooks is the core of attracting users to pay, which means that the person who writes the hook is one of the core forces that determine the performance of short dramas; Second, under the slogan of "high-quality and diversification" of the platform, higher requirements are put forward for script innovation, which has generated new demand for short drama screenwriters.
It seems that screenwriters are becoming more and more important seems to have become an industry consensus, and our curiosity also comes from this, it seems to be the core creativity of the industry, and it seems to be more and more valued by other links, do screenwriters feel this change?
But in the dialogue with a number of short drama screenwriters, we found that, in fact, the screenwriters did not have much perception of the industry's emphasis on high-quality products, at least in their work, there was no fundamental change in the logic of content production, nothing more than more integration in the theme and setting, in the words of the screenwriter, another year of patching and mending. This conscious emphasis on content is not projected into the income and treatment of specific screenwriters, and in the decreasing approval rate and compressed manuscript fees, they feel more about the emergence of industry bottlenecks.
The only consensus is that the era of micro-short dramas lying down and counting money is over.
Three-legged
After the supervision of mini program micro-short dramas became stricter, screenwriter Xiao Chen's biggest feeling was that there was less cake.
In the circle of mini program micro-short dramas, there is an unwritten habit that whenever there is a hit, the platforms will celebrate with a cake with a war report written on it. In the first half of 2023, Xiao Chen can find two or three cakes in the circle of friends almost every week, but recently, she has rarely seen cakes.
Xiao Chen, who entered the industry in 2022 and became a screenwriter of micro-short dramas, can be regarded as a senior. Before becoming a screenwriter of micro-short dramas, she was an online writer for Zhihu. Most of today's micro-short drama screenwriters have changed careers from similar industries such as online writers, online screenwriters, online drama screenwriters, and even script killing screenwriters.
Although the origins are similar, after entering the micro-short drama industry, due to the large differences in the content styles of micro-short dramas on different platforms, the small program micro-short dramas, the jitter-fast micro-short dramas and the horizontal screen micro-short dramas of the long** platform are three-legged, and the screenwriters are also divided into three groups according to the platform, and there is rarely cross-platform writing.
Compared with most liberal arts jobs, the income of a screenwriter for a short drama is quite considerable. Taking the screenwriter of a small program as an example, usually the creation cycle of a micro-short drama is about a week, and the manuscript fee is 1w-15w。In the past, when it was good, the manuscript fee could sometimes reach 2w, but now the highest is 15w, Xiao Chen said that she writes four scripts a month, and her income can reach 5-6w.
The screenwriter of the mini program, Balloon, also confirmed this statement, and the micro-short drama is currently just her side business, with the frequency of writing 3 books per month, the balloon can receive at least 30,000 manuscript fees per month on the micro-short drama.
Although the average monthly income of Mini Program screenwriters is higher, compared with Mini Programs, horizontal screen micro-short dramas have more room for creation, which is why many people choose to write horizontal screens.
Generally speaking, the cost of a mini program micro-short drama from the pre-script to the shooting and editing is about 500,000, which also means that the plot of the story can only be unfolded in a limited number of scenes, and the plot should be closer to minimalism when designing the plot. You can only have five scenes in 100 episodes, and you can't have snow or rain, which can be very limiting for your writing. Xiao Chen said.
The production cost of horizontal screen micro-short dramas is usually between 2 million and 5 million, although higher requirements are put forward for the script, but the restrictions on script creation are also relaxed.
Compared with the mini program micro-short drama, the creation cycle of the horizontal screen micro-short drama is calculated in months, as short as two months or as long as half a year, and correspondingly, the manuscript fee of a single script is much higher than that of the mini program micro-short drama. However, the manuscript fee is not linked to the number of words, and the screenwriters who write horizontal screen micro-short dramas have a consensus - the script is well written, and it is not as good as the circle.
Most of the production of horizontal screen micro-short dramas are film and television companies, and when looking for screenwriters, they often start with acquaintances. Changed careers from engineering to a small online drama company, and then to the grapefruit of horizontal screen micro-short dramas, the manuscript fee for a micro-short drama is usually 5-80,000 yuan, and Benben, who changed from film planning, has accumulated a lot of film and television resources with her previous work experience, and the manuscript fee can be up to 120,000.
However, this is all written in the contract**, in fact, it is difficult for most people to get the full manuscript fee. The manuscript fee is usually settled in several stages, before the official start-up, it will be settled to 70-90%, and as for the remaining 10-30% of the final payment, it is not a rule in the industry that the default balance payment is not settled.
More senior screenwriters, in addition to the manuscript fee, can also get a share. Xiao Chen hasn't written a mini-program micro-short drama for a few months, I've been grinding a horizontal screen recently, and there is a high probability that I can get it. In addition to the 100,000 guaranteed manuscript fee for the script of 24 episodes, the share ratio that Xiao Chen talked about is 10% of the net profit, which is a very high proportion in the industry.
And the share of the mini program micro-short drama only exists in the contract. According to the screenwriter of the mini program, Balloon introduced that the share base of the industry is usually 3 million, and the proportion is basically 5 to 2 percent per 1,000. The reason why 3 million is used as the base is because there is a saying in the industry that most users of a single micro-short drama can recharge more than 3 million in order to return to their original cost. However, very few screenwriters can get a share, and my screenwriter friends and I basically haven't gotten it, even if the top two small hits on the list will hide data because the platform is not transparent. Xiao Chen said.
Whether the settlement is stable or not is the most important consideration criterion for screenwriters to choose scripts, which is also the reason why most freelance screenwriters are reluctant to take on shaking, fast and micro short dramas.
Different from the mode of mini programs and horizontal screen micro-short dramas that sign contracts according to the whole drama, Doukuai micro-short dramas are often promoted in the mode of trial shooting and trial broadcast. Xiao Chen has also tried before, At the beginning, he said that he would write 100 episodes, but he would ask me to write a few episodes first and shoot them online, and if the traffic was not good, he would directly replace the screenwriter. Even some immature accounts will pay the manuscript fee according to the episode, usually the industry ** is 2,000 yuan per thousand words, and the manuscript fee for a single episode is about 4,000, but once the market feedback is not good, the effort spent by the screenwriter on the script is equivalent to a waste.
The screenwriting system of Shake and Kuai micro-short dramas is independent of mini-program micro-short dramas and horizontal screen micro-short dramas. The latter two are mainly freelance screenwriters, while most of them are sitting screenwriters, which is mainly related to the platform ecology. Since 2023, Douyin micro-short dramas have attracted many professional film and television companies to enter the game, and Kuaishou micro-short dramas are mainly based on MCN institutions such as Gumai Jiahe and Malt Media, which have their own plot creation foundations, and it is more cost-effective to recruit screenwriters on duty.
Boss Zhipin shows that the monthly salary of the micro-short drama screenwriter position of Ningmeng Film and Television's micro-short drama label is 10-15k, the monthly salary of the screenwriter of the perfect world micro-short drama is 9-13k, and the monthly salary of the screenwriter of Gumai Jiahe is 5-7k.
This kind of income is obviously very different from that of mini program micro-short dramas and horizontal screen micro-short dramas, but for creators who are more content pursuing, the creative pressure is much less.
Recently, the skillful micro-short drama "Save My Family" has been on the TOP1 of the hottest list of Douyin micro-short dramas, using the setting of infinite flow + ** to convey a warm family story, and its screenwriter Sun Man is a skilled screenwriter.
In August 2023, Sun Man has just transformed from an online drama screenwriter to a micro-short drama screenwriter, in the past few years, affected by the big environment, the film and television industry has declined, online dramas have gradually declined, the project cycle is long, the discount rate is high, and there is no feedback for a long time, which is a very anxious thing for content creators. The micro-short drama has a greater degree of freedom in the script, a short feedback cycle, and more direct communication with users, which allows Sun Man to get more positive feedback. I don't like to do things that so-called producers like, what I want to do is not what he thinks the C-side will like, but to talk to users more authentically and directly. 」
Micro-short dramas don't make money anymore?
Since the second half of 2023, the writers of micro-short dramas have the same feeling, it is becoming more and more difficult for micro-short dramas to make money, and an obvious change is that the turnover of micro-short dramas is declining sharply.
Taking the mini program micro-short drama as an example, public data shows that the micro-short drama "Wushuang" has been launched on the WeChat mini program since August 25, and the revenue has exceeded 100 million yuan after 8 days of broadcasting. The 24-hour user recharge amount of "The Queen Mother Comes to Work" exceeded 12 million yuan, and the 24-hour recharge flow of "After the Flash Marriage, Mr. Fu's Vest Can't Be Hidden" exceeded 20 million yuan.
And now the standard of the industry's popular models is decreasing, and the micro-short drama "Wandao Dragon Emperor", which is evaluated as the dark horse of the industry, shows that the daily list of micro-short drama consumption and streaming of adxray data on December 29 shows that 72 hours after it was launched, its turnover has just exceeded 10 million yuan.
Another change is that in the past, the male frequency of themes such as God of War, crossing, counterattack, and rebirth gradually declined, mainly because of the stricter supervision of micro-short dramas. In November 2023, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced the launch of a one-month special rectification work for online micro-short dramas, and accelerated the formulation of the "Detailed Rules for the Creation, Production and Content Review of Online Micro Short Dramas".
However, rectification is not the core factor that makes it difficult for micro-short dramas to make money, and the increase in the cost of streaming is the reason why mini-program micro-short dramas do not make money. With more and more entrants in the micro-short drama market in 2023, the market tends to be saturated, with five or six hundred new micro-short dramas released every month, and the life cycle of a micro-short drama is usually only one week. In order to seize the market in this week's time, streaming is an indispensable part of small-scale micro-short dramas, and it is also the most consumed part.
The production cost of micro-short dramas is only hundreds of thousands, and the default turnover in the industry can only be recovered until 3 million, precisely because most of the costs are used in streaming.
Li Tao, founder of Xi'an Fengxing Culture, the producer of the popular micro-short drama "Wushuang", said in an interview with ** that although the turnover exceeded 100 million, the traffic cost exceeded ninety percent, and the real profit was only a few million yuan.
The reason why the cost of streaming is so high is largely due to the increase in customer acquisition costs after the market is saturated. Xiao Ya, the editor of Kyushu Film and Television, a mini program micro-short drama platform, said that the cost of pulling a paying user was dozens of yuan before, and now it takes hundreds of yuan to attract a paying user. 」
At the end of last year, a long-** platform held a project meeting, and only two of the seventy or eighty micro-short drama projects were passed, and I have not seen the horizontal screen return to the original at present. Such a statement may be absolute, but the profits of horizontal screen micro-short dramas are indeed not optimistic.
The business model of horizontal screen micro-short dramas such as Aiyouteng mainly relies on the cooperation model of platform membership + account sharing. According to Yunhe data statistics, in 2023, among the top 10 new micro-short dramas at the box office, a total of 13 micro-short dramas will be tied, of which 6 will have a box office of more than 10 million. Judging from the industry's production standard of 2 million to 5 million, plus the cost of publicity and distribution, only the head micro-short drama can achieve profitability.
It is especially worth mentioning that most of these 13 micro-short dramas will be launched in the first half of 2023, and only two will be launched after October, which shows that the scale of the industry is shrinking. On January 26th, iQIYI APP also dropped the navigation in the top navigation bar that specializes in providing vertical screen micro-short dramas Micro Short Theater .
In addition to the platform's traffic incentives and account sharing, commercial implantation and even brand customized micro-short dramas have been the focus of the development of Doukuai micro-short dramas since 2023. In 2023, Douyin will sell 25 micro-short dramas, and the revenue from brand cooperation will increase by more than 270% year-on-year; Kuaishou micro-short dramas have cooperated with 13 brands and launched 32 micro-short dramas, and at the same time, it has tried to customize micro-short dramas for the first time.
How to implement the high-quality micro-short drama?
In 2023, high-quality products will become a new theme for the entire micro-short drama industry. On the one hand, the saturation of the micro-short drama market has led to the survival of the fittest gradually becoming prominent, and on the other hand, the tightening of supervision is also forcing the industry to produce better content.
It is not difficult to see from the latest list of micro-short dramas for the Spring Festival released by Doukuai that this trend will continue in 2024. Most of the 10 micro-short dramas in Douyin's Spring Festival file are from professional film and television companies, adapted by their film and television IP, and Kuaishou invited a group of professional actors such as Zhang Xiaolong, Huan Xi, Guo Xiaoting, Yin Zheng, etc., to focus on star micro-short dramas.
Although the industry shouts that "volume content is not produced", in the eyes of many screenwriters, if they do not upgrade their production, the quality of micro-short drama content is just a pseudo concept.
The reason why I say this is because the creation of a micro-short drama is actually a formulaic thing. The core of micro-short dramas to attract users is the explosive point and cool point, the theme and plot are just flesh and skin, all micro-short dramas basically change the soup without changing the medicine, and the space for upgrading the content is limited.
Kyushu editor Xiaoya's biggest feeling about the creation of micro-short dramas is that most of the creation of micro-short dramas is to follow the trend. The renovation rate of micro-short dramas is very high, and basically a new theme will become popular in two months, such as flash marriages that were everywhere in the first two months, but no one wants them anymore. 」
Although Xiaoya also thinks that the high-quality of micro-short dramas is the current trend, this kind of high-quality is just a shell of the theme, in fact, it is to use the previous popular film and television settings to put it into the sinking framework, in fact, the cool point and the explosive point are still the same. At present, most of the so-called innovative scripts in the industry are superimposed elements, such as the boss + White Rabbit, and the big heroine scripts are sexually converted male frequency dramas. For example, using Gao Qiqiang's character design in "Hurricane" to write the male protagonist's counterattack, or the setting of Mr. Bao in "Flowers" to write an entrepreneurial drama, this month's malt's top-ranking micro-short drama "Shuangjiao Couple" is called the micro-short drama version of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".
The content mode of micro-short dramas is determined by user needs. Screenwriter Sun Man broke through the reason why micro-short dramas quickly seized the market - accurately hitting the sinking market, and the vast sinking market users are a group of people who have been ignored by the drama market before.
In 2018, Shanghai Prospect Media released a "220 Drama Crowd Portrait Revealed", which showed that from the perspective of the types of dramas loved by different age groups, young and middle-aged people are the main viewers of TV dramas, and the overall trend is that the higher the education, the higher the aesthetic of the drama, and the higher the requirements.
In other words, the target audience of traditional dramas is young and middle-aged people with high educational qualifications. Over the years, the drama market has been pursuing quality, and there are few dramas that serve the sinking market, and the emergence of micro-short dramas has filled this gap.
Most of their users are people from fourth- and fifth-tier cities, and even eighteenth-tier counties, such as commissary bosses and contractors, they are the kind of big brothers who will reward in the live broadcast room, and they are thousands for a game, and it is not worth mentioning spending hundreds to watch a micro-short drama. 」
The preferences of these sinking users are simple, and the counterattack cool film will always attract the attention of these male users, and the shortcomings of parents such as splitting legs and cheating are also eternal topics for female users, and the screenwriter summarized that these are called real pain points.
Despite the spurt growth of the market in the past two years, micro-short dramas are a new format after all, and no one knows how long its life cycle can last.
Some people are optimistic about this market and plan to devote themselves to it, and Balloon, who is currently living in Finland, plans to return to China in a few months and make short-form drama playwriting his main businessAfter tasting the sweetness of skits, one of Xiao Chen's pharmacist friends also quit his originally stable job and devoted himself to micro-skits.
However, most screenwriters don't plan to bet on micro-short dramas in the future, Xiao Chen will still write online articles in Zhihu, she feels that online articles in her 20s are more stable;Even those who remain in the mini-drama industry do not see screenwriting as a key job, and some screenwriters have begun to try to turn to production-related work in addition to writing scripts.