Americans Are Obsessed With Watching Short Video Dramas From China
Several people have told me that the whole of a short drama does not necessarily seem different from an independent film or a commercial shoot, except that everything is produced much faster to save on costs. While a traditional shooting of weeks or months, the whole season of a vertical show is generally filmed within two weeks.
Nicole Mattox, one of the vertical stars working with Reilshort in Los Angeles, told me that she generally reserves two to three filming in a month, with only two days in both. An actress of vocational training from Texas, she had only been in a few small film productions before tripping on the short dramatic industry in 2023. But she said that she quickly learned to remember all her lines – an impressive feat, since platforms generally draw a dozen pages of scenario per day, while a traditional film can only shoot three.
Mattox says that his acting coach told him that his performance should not be unrealistic dramatic; It is rather that each development of the plot is incredibly significant for its characters. For example, in the fictitious world of a vertical drama, a romantic break can be your whole life. “There is nothing else for you to pass. There is no more future for you. Everything is ruined,” explains Mattox.
Create global stars
Hao, who works in the recruitment of talents for Reelshort, says that many players in the company come from modeling or advertising and have never had any speaking roles before. Now they can play in a dozen shows in a single year and quickly develop their career.
The third production of Reelshort Mattox played in a romantic comedy on professional ice hockey called Break the ice. Mattox played the personal assistant of an NHL player, who, of course, was also his secret baby mom. The show has become a successful success, with more than 300 million views on Reelshort.
Mattox says that she was surprised by the dedication of her fans, many of whom are in the Philippines. In May, some of them paid to put a photo of his face on a display panel in Times Square to celebrate his birthday. Earlier this month, they praised another display panel in Manila to announce its latest production. Your program “had had me in a Storivl,” wrote a commentator on his personal Tiktok account, where she has raised more than 130,000 subscribers.
What Reelshort did after Breaking ice cream Become a success demonstrates the true secret of its success. The company quickly adapted it to the Spanish -speaking and Japanese markets, but rather than double the existing dialogue or simply to exchange the actors, it changed the key aspects of the plot. In the Spanish version, the male protagonist became a football player, while in the Japanese version, he was a baseball star. The original series made its debut in July 2024; Locally filmed adaptations fell in September and December the same year.
In Hollywood, this kind of speed is unfathomable. Four years after Netflix Korean show Calmar game Having become a global feeling, American adaptation is still only that of work. The short theater industry can evolve much faster not only because its production costs are low, but because startups like Reelshort have mastered the art of location – after all, they first had to export the genre from China. While Sensor Tower claims that the American public still represents around 49% of world income, half of the downloads of short dramatic applications this year come from Latin America and Southeast Asia. This explains why Reelshort produced his successful English show The double life of my billionaire husband In five other languages, and why he started working with Telenovela Legacy production companies in Colombia.
Chinese roots
Redshort’s mother company, Crazy Maple Studio, was previously controlled by the majority by Col Group, one of the largest publishers of digital novels in China. The startup now indicates that its founder, Joey Jia, owns the company, although Col Group continues to hold 49% of the shares. Even if the genre becomes global, most people who make short dramas in the United States always seem to be Chinese immigrants or Chinese Americans, largely because they know better the way it works.
Jay, a short producer of a short dramatic based in Los Angeles in China, says that industry is still turning to China to get advice and inspiration. One of the main lessons she learned from China is the importance of collecting extremely granular user data. What episode stopped people to watch a program? Which one has made them register for a subscription?
