Filming a short drama about zombies and spiritual beasts—the first thing that changes (or gets cut) is the budget spreadsheet.
The most interesting thing about AI short dramas is not that they can immediately replace live-action short dramas, but that they turn genres that were previously considered “too risky to bet on” into viable subjects for experimentation.
Zombies, armies, spirit beasts, fantasy—these elements are incredibly difficult to execute in traditional live-action short dramas. It’s not a failure of screenwriting; it’s that every single step requires funding: extras, costumes and makeup, sets, special effects, staging/choreography, safety measures, and post-production. Furthermore, the commercial logic of short dramas demands speed, low cost, and high-frequency uploads. The greater the imaginative scope of a theme, the easier it is for costs to spiral out of control.
AI first revised this budget sheet. It doesn’t guarantee that every shot will be high-end, but it manages to constrain elements that previously required building sets, hiring massive crews, or doing elaborate special effects, down to a feasible/experimental scope. Zombies no longer need to organize 100 extras; mythical creatures don’t automatically drain a cinematic-level VFX budget; and army scenes don’t necessarily have to start with costumes and locations.