(Yicai) Sept. 4 -- Artificial intelligence is restructuring the logic of film and television production. While streaming platforms have been involved with AI for quite some time, established film studios and production companies are only now entering the AI+content field.

Anhui TV Station broadcast AI-generated costume drama series ‘A Tale of Taohuatan.’ Television Broadcasts aired AI-generated short drama ‘Yes, Boss’ and developed an intellectual property-based business model. A senior visual effects technology manager launched a project to make AI animations based on Hong Kong classic comic IPs.

‘Journey to the West: The Sequel’ made its way into China’s prime-time TV on Aug. 31, as Hunan Satellite TV became the first Chinese broadcaster to air an AI-generated long-form drama.

Mango TV, the producer of ‘Journey to the West: The Sequel,’ said in an investor relations event on Sept. 2 that compared to traditional live-action dramas, the changes in the production for ‘Journey to the West: The Sequel’ are structural, and the total production cost is much lower than similar dramas.

The first batch of ‘Journey to the West: The Sequel’ merchandise has already been sold out, with more new products already on sale, Mango TV noted, adding that this way, it can expand the drama’s IP derivative volume.

TVB, a well-established leading film and TV production agency in Hong Kong, signed a memorandum of understanding with ByteDance’s cloud computing unit Volcano Engine in June to use Doubao’s video generation model Seedance 2.0 for intelligent production of film and TV content, digital production of short dramas, exploration of IP commercialization, and cloud infrastructure construction.

“We just finished airing an AI-generated short drama called ‘Yes, Boss,’” Lu Silin, director of TVB Plus and FF Studio, told Yicai. “Although some short dramas on the market are homogeneous, we believe that we should produce high-quality ones, even at slightly higher costs.” TVB will hire voice actors to dub the AI short dramas it produces to make the audience feel the sincerity of the creators, Lu noted.

In 2019, famous Hong Kong cartoonist Feng Zhiming authorized Shenzhen Mali Technology to develop a special effects film based on the Swordsmanship IP. But with the rise of AI, Mali’s Chief Executive Officer Ma Wenxian adjusted his special effects movie plan to focus on creating an AI universe in 2024.

In July, Mali launched ‘Magic Swordsmanship‌ · Intelligent Future,’ an AI animated film project that uses Alibaba Cloud’s AI video creation platform WonderClip‌ and adopts AI from creative conception to final film production. ‘Magic Swordsmanship‌ · Intelligent Future’ is also the first AI animated film in Hong Kong involving high school students in some of the main creative positions.

“Perhaps I am the first person in Hong Kong to teach students how to make animations with AI,” Ma said. “It takes students three to four months to learn basic operations with existing digital software, but it takes only two or three classes for them to create movies with story content with AI software.”

Challenges and opportunities brought by AI to the movie and TV industry are two sides of the same coin, a screenwriter told Yicai. Before the emergence of AI, screenwriters and editors had relatively stable job opportunities. But now, AI is helping practitioners become producers to some extent.

“In the past, it was difficult to implement your creative ideas due to various considerations, processes, and unexpected events,” the screenwriter noted. “But now it’s much simpler, as AI helps you change your inspiration into work and analyze view counts in a few days to tell you whether your work is popular or not.”

Editor: Futura Costaglione