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Posts Tagged ‘soap opera’

Mini Soap Operas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Photos: ReelShort.
From NPR: “Micro drama apps such as ReelShort, FlickReels and DramaBox offer short clips that add up to movie-length stories. They’re filmed vertically, so you can follow the twisty plotlines without turning your phone.”

Here’s a new type of video drama that could work for you when you’re strap-hanging in the subway for a couple stops. That is, if you like soap operas.

Kristian Monroe reports at National Public Radio (NPR), “They are called micro dramas — vertically filmed, under minute-long clips that together are often movie-length soap operas. But instead of waiting weeks to find out if Penny will wake up from her coma, or if Luke and Laura make it down the aisle, it takes just minutes for the plots of series like Fake Married to My Billionaire CEO, Return of the Abandoned Heiress and The Quarterback Next Door to unfold.

“The libraries of micro drama apps like ReelShort, FlickReels and DramaBox contain hundreds of series chopped up into 60-second-long parts, set to play one after the next, continuously. Perfect for the short attention spans of social media users.

“While the first few episodes are typically free to watch, once you want to see more, you’ll have to pay up — purchasing coins or passes from the apps to access additional content. That costs viewers $10 to $20 a week or up to $80 a month.

“Instead of investing in A-list stars or blockbuster franchises, the companies behind these apps bank on little-known actors, tight budgets and accelerated production timelines to churn out content drawing in millions of viewers and dollars.

“Micro dramas initially rose to prominence in China during the COVID pandemic, and by 2023, they grew to a $5 billion industry.

“They also faced increased scrutiny. Chinese media reports that between 2022 and 2023, government officials removed over 25,000 micro dramas for ‘violent, low-style or vulgar content’ in an effort to tighten controls over content published online. Simultaneously, micro drama apps in China experienced a stagnation in growth. …

“Government scrutiny and a crowded market pushed companies investing in micro dramas to expand abroad, where they hoped to duplicate their success in China with new audiences. …

“Women make up a majority of micro dramas’ fanbase. ReelShort’s parent company, Silicon Valley-based Crazy Maple Studio, said women comprise 70% of its 45 million monthly active users, half of whom are based in the U.S.

“This includes 26-year-old writer Britton Copeland, who, after repeatedly seeing TikTok ads for the ReelShort series True Heiress vs. Fake Queen Bee, purchased a pass to finish the 85-part series.

” ‘Despite the cheesy acting, the clip ended on a cliffhanger, and I desperately wanted to see what happened next,’ Copeland said. …

“She said the stories can suck you in. ‘It’s a lot easier to lose track of time when you can consume hundreds of videos in half an hour versus watching essentially a full film.’

“It’s a sentiment shared by actor Marc Herrmann, who’s starred in several micro dramas, including Billionaire CEO’s Secret Obsession and My Sugar-Coated Mafia Boss. He said the experience of watching a micro drama is different from sitting down to commit to watching a long film. …

“With micro dramas taking off in the U.S., the companies behind them are exploring new ways to expand their reach. A spokesperson for Crazy Maple Studio told NPR it’s begun reproducing some of ReelShort’s most popular English-language stories for other countries. The series are shot with different actors, and the scripts are adapted to represent different cultures.

“So far, it’s been a success. The Spanish version of ReelShort’s hit series The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband has gained nearly half the 450 million views of the original English version. The Spanish and Japanese versions of its newest story, Breaking the Ice, have racked up over 10 million views each.

“However, some, including [Caiwei Chen,  a tech reporter covering China for MIT Technology Review] wonder if micro dramas are just a trend. ‘I do worry about how soon people will get tired of it,’ she said. ‘It’s competing with TikTok … It’s competing with Instagram and a lot of other stuff.’

“And those other apps typically do not require users to spend cash or coins on passes to gain access to content.”

Would snippets of drama appeal too you? I think for me, the acting would have to be a lot better than “cheesy.” More at NPR, here.

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One-Minute Soap Operas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 14, 2024| 2 Comments »

Photo: ReelShort App/Crazy Maple Studio.
Want a short soap opera for Valentine’s Day?

Has there ever been a soap opera that wasn’t about romance? Even hospital dramas are mostly about jealousy and staff affairs. But given that typical plots take years to come to a resolution, entrepreneurial geniuses have popped up to meet a need.

Learn about the 60-second soap-opera episodes that are gaining a contemporary audience.

Claire Moses reports at the New York Times, “When Albee Zhang received an offer to produce cheesy short-form features made for phones last spring, she was skeptical, and so, she declined. But the offers kept coming. Finally, Ms. Zhang, who has been a producer for 12 years, realized it could be a profitable new way of storytelling and said yes.

“Since last summer, she has produced two short-form features and is working on four more for several apps that are creating cookie-cutter content aimed at women. Think: Lifetime movie cut up into TikTok videos. Think: soap opera, but for the short attention span of the internet age.

“The biggest player in this new genre is ReelShort, an app that offers melodramatic content in minute-long, vertically shot episodes and is hoping to bring a successful formula established abroad to the United States by hooking millions of people on its short-form content.

“ReelShort is owned by Crazy Maple Studio, a company in Northern California that is backed by the Beijing-based digital publisher COL Group.

“ReelShort’s titles include ‘The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband,’ ‘I Got Married Without You’ and ‘Bound by Vendetta: Sleeping With the Enemy.’ The shows are formulaic: The plotlines include romance and revenge, the characters are archetypical and the dialogues are simple.

“The extremely short genre became popular in the Asia-Pacific region during the pandemic, and Joey Jia, the chief executive of Crazy Maple Studio, took notice.

“ReelShort aims to get people hooked as quickly as possible, with much of the action happening in the first few super short episodes. ‘This is a pay-as-you-go model,’ Mr. Jia said. ‘If people are confused by the story, they leave.’

“The cost of making these features is relatively low, $300,000 or less, according to Crazy Maple Studios. The crews are small and partly made up of recent film graduates in Los Angeles, according to actors who worked on the productions.

“Viewers can watch dozens of minute-long episodes on ReelShort for free via multiple platforms, including YouTube and TikTok. But at some point, they must either pay or watch ads to unlock subsequent episodes. Sometimes people pay as much as $10 or $20 to keep watching, Ms. Zhang, the producer, said. …

“In the United States, ReelShort is trying to succeed where the short-form content company Quibi failed. … While Quibi focused on more highbrow content with A-list stars, ReelShort is doing the opposite: It’s giving people juicy plot points, from werewolves to evil step mothers to secret billionaire husbands to more werewolves.

“ ‘We learned a lot from Quibi,’ said Mr. Jia. … ‘To build a successful mobile app, you need to find out your core audience,’ he said. And that audience is women who love soap operas. …

“In total, more than seven million people downloaded ReelShort in the United States in 2023, on Apple and Android phones combined, according to data.ai. …

“Kasey Esser, a Los Angeles-based actor who has worked on short-form shows for ReelShort and other apps, described the format as this generation’s soap opera. He drew a comparison to channels with made-for-TV content, such as Hallmark.

“ ‘People know exactly the story they’re going to be getting, but they will still watch it,’ Mr. Esser, 34, said. ‘They will still love it.’

“For the actress Samantha Drews, ReelShort was a chance to play different types of characters. ‘I can say now that I’ve been cast in 15 to 16 features in the last few years,’ Ms. Drews, 25, said. ‘That’s not something every actor can say.’ “

More at the Times, here.

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