Micro-drama seminar spotlights diverse storytelling, AI challenges

With the unprecedented expansion of micro-dramas, a seminar was recently held in Beijing by the network audiovisual program management department of the National Radio and Television Administration, gathering creators of eight live-action and four AI-generated works.

Wang Zhi, producer of The First Sight of Nanyang Overseas Chinese, revealed that the creative team traveled to Fujian, Yunnan and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Malaysia and Singapore, to collect firsthand material, interviewing the descendants of the Nanyang Volunteer Drivers and Mechanics — a 3,200-member group who transported internationally donated supplies to China during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931–45).

Wang said that most of the volunteers were in their 20s, with comfortable lives and families in Southeast Asia. "Yet they chose to return to their homeland in China to support their compatriots at a time of national crisis," Wang said. "The more we dug into their stories, the more we felt that they were not just records left in historical archives, but revered and vivid young people who deserve to be remembered."

The VI Group of Fatal Case, the latest relaunch of a classic crime franchise, endeavored to make plotlines as realistic as possible while condensing twists into 26 episodes, each lasting 20 minutes.

"Through one case after another, we see the stories behind the police profession — their daily lives of facing danger and hardship while upholding justice," said Ma Zhenzhen, the drama's producer. "We hope that sincere storytelling can pay tribute to the countless criminal investigators who are rooted in the front lines, safeguarding the lights of every household, and tell the public security stories of our times well."

For AI-generated micro-drama makers, technological progress makes it easier to visualize fantastic scenarios, but there is still much room for further exploration before AI can be truly integrated into the official film and TV production process.

As AI-generated content has an element of randomness, the biggest challenges were to consistently test character consistency, performance continuity, and stable camera movement, said Yang Nian, chief director of the adventure drama Bei Pai Bi Ji (Northern School Notes), about a young man from a poverty-stricken village who embarks on adventures in the tomb-raiding world.