Those Filming Short Dramas Have All Gone to Travel Photography

AI eats the short-drama ecosystem

China’s once-bustling short-drama production hubs have imploded as generative AI slashes costs and headcounts, and many former crew members have poured into travel photography (旅拍) to survive. Hengdian (横店), long nicknamed China’s Hollywood where dozens of short-drama crews used to shoot side‑by‑side, reportedly saw short‑drama starts fall by three quarters in early 2026. Zhengzhou (郑州) and Xi’an (西安) — other regional production centres — show the same trend. Where a full live-action short drama once required dozens of specialists, it now often takes fewer than ten people; in some cases one person can deliver a finished AI‑assisted piece.

Economics and platforms reshape work

The math is brutal. A modest live-action short can cost RMB300,000–800,000; high‑end projects often top RMB1 million. By contrast, it has been reported that AI-generated photoreal short dramas can be produced for roughly RMB8,000–12,000 per 80–100 minute piece, with some “top” AI productions capped around RMB150,000–200,000. It has also been reported that a prominent AI vendor claims to cut production cycles from 45 days to 7–10. Platforms are pushing creators too: Douyin (抖音) reportedly raised revenue-share coefficients for AI photoreal dramas to 60%, and reportedly guarantees up to RMB3.6 million for top projects. DataEye Research Institute (DataEye研究院) data show per‑minute costs for AI‑aided short animation fell from RMB1,500–2,000 at the start of 2025 to RMB800–1,000 by mid‑2025.

Who loses — and where do they go?

The displaced aren’t just actors. Costume, makeup and props (服化道), lighting, grips and camera crews are the hardest hit. Those crafts are tightly bound to physical sets, and their skills don’t transfer easily into an AI‑driven pipeline. Many have migrated into travel photography markets in tourist hotspots such as Lijiang (丽江) and Dali (大理), where streets, lakes and flower fields are now crowded with former pros shooting wedding‑style "travel sets." But is that a refuge? Prices in the travel‑shoot market have collapsed — basic packages fall to RMB199–299 — and it has been reported that smartphone AI portrait apps can generate “professional” images from a couple of selfies in under a minute, creating a second wave of disruption.

Bigger picture: tech, policy and squeeze on labour

This episode illustrates how rapid AI adoption can cascade through an ecosystem. Western readers should note China’s sprawling short‑video and content platforms — Douyin (抖音), Meituan (美团) and Xiaohongshu (小红书) — act as both marketplace and accelerator, pumping incentives that reshape supply chains overnight. At the same time, it has been reported that compute constraints tied to export controls on advanced chips have pushed Chinese firms to optimize models and build domestic tooling, accelerating the move to lightweight, high‑throughput content pipelines. The result is heightened platform power and a precarious labour market: when the next cost curve falls, another wave of “scale‑and‑squeeze” layoffs may follow. What happens to the thousands of technicians whose craft was literal light and fabric? For now, many are retraining, hustling on apps, or leaving the industry entirely.