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It was raining heavily in Beijing on the day of the advance screening of "The Mirror of Mountains and Seas: Breaking the Waves". The 7th Hall of China Film International Cinema was packed with people. Director Chen Kun bowed to the audience. Chen Kun spent 2 months to make the 5-episode feature film with a total length of 15 minutes. Kuaishou's self-developed video generation model Keling provided technical support. At 18:00 on July 13, the first AIGC (artificial intelligence generated content) micro-short drama in China was launched, and netizens "loved it" and urged for more online.

At present, Sora is still in the "futures" stage, and there are not many content samples for large video generation models. Kuaishou and Chen Kun's team have set an example for the technology and film and television circles. For this AIGC+film and television experiment, film critics believe that the effect is unexpected, and the producers and Kuaishou admit that there is still room for technology to grow. It takes courage to try new things, and it is not a bad thing to cross the river by feeling the stones.

“One day in AI is like one year in the human world”

At 18:00 on July 14, the second episode of "The Mirror of Mountains and Seas: Cutting Through the Waves" was updated. The number of views of this fantasy short drama, which was completely produced by AI, has increased to 2.37 million times, making it very conspicuous among a number of short dramas with realistic themes, ancient costume romance and other types.

The idea of ​​making an AIGC short drama came about in 2023. When Chen Kun’s team came up with the first version of the trailer in early 2024, “neither I nor Kuaishou were satisfied.” The version presented to users in July was the result of many iterations by both parties.

In order to let the audience see the progress of AI in the past six months, Chen Kun used a 1 minute and 50 second video to announce the results before and after the iteration, and also remade the trailer of the series. Compared with the original version, the fluency of the monsters' movements and the interaction between the characters have been significantly improved. The content of this version is basically generated by Ke Ling.

The preview before the launch was also a test. The short drama that was supposed to be watched on a mobile phone would be shown on a big screen, which would show all its flaws. Chen Kun couldn't help but feel nervous.

According to his standards, only 70%-80% of the shots in this drama can withstand the big screen, or more precisely, they have met the minimum requirements, and 20%-30% of the shots need technical improvement. Film critic Tan Fei agrees with this ratio, "The overall completion is still good, especially some shots are very detailed. There is still room for further adjustment and improvement in character creation and narrative methods."

"Technology may not be suitable for presenting very complex stories without highly controllable and precise characters, scene consistency, and character performances." Chen Kun also admitted that there is still room for improvement, but he is willing to share his answers.

Chen Yiyi, head of Kuaishou's entertainment business, and Wan Pengfei, head of Kuaishou's visual generation and interaction center, who participated in the event, also did not reject the idea of ​​asking the audience to rate the film. As of press time, the trailer of "Shanhai Qijing: Breaking the Waves" had 5.811 million views and 38,000 likes, which was higher than other trailers on Kuaishou's Xingmang short drama channel.

Can’t work in isolation

This is a process of co-creation, like the relationship between a hammer and a nail.

"I am very grateful to the excellent creators. They have enabled Keling's technology to be presented to everyone in a very good form and have also pointed out the direction for Keling's improvement." Wan Pengfei has repeatedly emphasized the necessity of co-creation between Keling and creators.

In mid-June, Kuaishou launched a free internal beta test of Keling for its users. Users input a text description of no more than 200 words and wait for about 3 minutes to see the video generated by Keling. They can choose from styles such as surrealism and minimalism.

"Keling can present complex physical effects, such as the process of picking up noodles with chopsticks, putting them into the mouth, chewing, and even facial movements. At the same time, Keling's large video model can present moving pictures relatively well," Wan Pengfei introduced.

For example, the shot of the water god Gonggong standing up from the mountain, the first frame shows Gonggong half of his body in the mountain, and the last frame shows him standing up completely from the mountain, which includes three-dimensional turning movements, flowing hair, movement of rocks, etc. Through Keling, Chen Kun's team remade all the shots, "As an AI creator, I am very excited to see these technologies."

Changes in production processes and cycles are also clearly visible. "In the past, when we were making traditional films, outdoor shooting required a production team of more than 100 people, including actors, photographers, lighting, sound, production staff, costumes and props. Now, there is not a single scene in the whole film shot with real people, and costumes and props can also be generated by AI," Chen Kun revealed. In the past, for a short drama of the same size and quality, whether it was produced in the form of real shooting or animation, the production cycle would take at least 3-6 months, but the production of "Shanhai Qijing: Breaking the Waves" only took 2 months.

Develop while moving forward

"It's a new species, please be tolerant," Chen Yiyi and Wan Pengfei agreed with Chen Kun's definition of AIGC micro-short drama.

In February, OpenAI's Sora brought the competition for large models to the level of video generation. "On the surface, it is a technical competition, but in fact it is a comprehensive competition of technology + application. Whoever finds the nail first can prove the value of the hammer." Li Jinqing, an analyst at Bida, believes that "from the user's perspective, the application scenarios of literary videos are easier to find than the application scenarios of large language models, because entertainment is a natural need of users."

The process is always more difficult to predict than the result. Even if observers can agree on the feasibility of Wensheng video + film and television, only time can reveal what this combination will look like.

Is AIGC+ short drama a track? Chen Yiyi is not sure, "As a technology, there are two ways to combine AIGC with the industry. Generate a proprietary track, which is likely to be fantasy or magic content. Or use AIGC as a tool and combine it with all categories of short dramas."

At present, Chen Yiyi cannot give an answer, "We are constantly adjusting our strategies according to the development of technology and the feedback from users and creators". Every day, more than 270 million users watch short dramas on Kuaishou, more than 300 short dramas have been viewed over 100 million times, and more than 100,000 creators are creating content related to short dramas. "The content of Xingmang short dramas is in short supply. How can we increase production capacity?" Chen Yiyi revealed two paths for Kuaishou: adding more creators and helping existing creators improve their existing efficiency. "These two paths have a common solution: better technology."

Beijing Business Daily reporter Wei Wei