What's a filmmaker to do when he needs to film an epic battle for a low-budget micro-short drama, but has a small cast and even more limited time? This was a concern of the past, now that artificial intelligence (AI) can summon entire armies of digital performers.
This is what post-production technician Zhang Shiyu recently experienced. “Especially with AI's leap forward in large-scale language models this year, the process has become smoother, more accurate, and incredibly efficient. What used to take long days to create, AI can now deliver in minutes with even greater continuity and realism,” said Zhang, who works at Dongyang Gewuzhizhi Culture Media.
High-quality visuals generated by AI are seamlessly integrated into your editing pipeline. Through techniques such as precise texture mapping, AI-enabled visual effects blend virtual elements with live-action footage for realistic and visually impressive results.
Zhang is not the only person at the company using AI to streamline the production of micro-short dramas. “AI plays an important role in every stage of post-production,” said Chairman Lu Caijian.
The company's base is Hengdian World Film Studio, also known as “China's Hollywood,” and it has now built a strong industrial chain. “This year, we have prioritized integrating technology into film and television and promoting industry growth,” said Lu Pingping, deputy director of Hengdian Film and Television Cultural Industry Development Service Center.
As an example, Lu pointed out that technology service company Dongyang Yuanying Technology Co., Ltd. set up an office in Hengdian in October and has since participated in the production of more than 20 short dramas.
Lin Ju, operations manager at Yuanying, said AI is currently being used to create epic scenes, science fiction and fantasy genres, and to add special effects to footage that has already been shot.
For companies like Yuanying that are developing original series, the next challenge is to find and bring winning stories to life. Here, the role of AI is expanding into upstream script writing and project evaluation.
According to a report by the China Film and Television Engineers Association, AI is reshaping industry workflows in everything from scriptwriting to marketing. Its influence goes beyond the role of a mere tool to actively redefine creative practices, industry structures, and cultural values.
“AI will greatly improve production efficiency. But more importantly, AI is expanding the limits of visual expression. AI has the potential to create completely new film styles and storytelling techniques that are unimaginable today,” said Li Zhenlin, director of the film department at Shanghai Theater Academy.
Some companies are developing their own large-scale language models to improve proficiency. For example, Huace Group, a Chinese media company based in Hangzhou, has developed an in-house AI model for script summarization, evaluation, and creation.
Huace's resources, including 50,000 hours of film and television copyright assets, and 30 years of accumulated data such as screenplays, evaluation reports, and industry data, are the core training data for the model.
Quickly create preliminary assessments of novels of up to 1.2 million words. Tasks that previously took a human team 10 to 14 days can now be completed by AI in just 1 to 2 hours. Combining AI screening and manual assessment increased overall efficiency by more than 50%.
“This model helps us efficiently identify suitable projects at an early stage and inspires creators by optimizing their scripts,” said Fu Binxing, president of Huace Group, noting that the company has improved the model's accuracy, which reaches around 90%, and is following industry trends and enhancing the tool by expanding its target genres.
“AI will not replace humans. AI has changed certain production processes, but in the short term, humans will still be at the center of creation,” Lin said. “The key is the ability to leverage AI. Screenwriters still need to control the visual language and final presentation of each shot.”
“For new directors, AI lowers the barrier to entry into the industry. They can use AI tools to translate their creative vision into a visual presentation for investors and potential collaborators. Innovation is at the heart of filmmaking. By offloading mundane assistant-like tasks to AI, people are free to focus on real innovation,” said Hu.
As AI dramatically increases the accessibility of creative works and accelerates content output, protecting intellectual property with AI is also becoming a parallel frontier. In response, the industry is deploying AI as a guardian.
This year, Hengdian launched an AI-powered surveillance system that automates the entire process of identifying and collecting evidence of copyright infringement online, effectively addressing the long-standing challenges of low efficiency and limited coverage in manual surveillance.
East China's Jiangxi province has established the first institution to protect the copyright of micro-short dramas by using AI to protect their production and distribution. From its establishment in 2024 to May of this year, the agency has resolved eight infringement cases and recovered tens of millions of yuan in losses.
