Summary
Hengdian World Studios is turning short-drama production into a tourist attraction as AI reduces some conventional shooting work. During China’s National Day holiday, visitors could join more than 10 short-drama crews, with personal packages starting at 218 yuan and fuller costume-and-makeup options priced at 388 yuan. The format places tourists in scripts at working sets with directors, camera crews, makeup artists and actor-guides. Social-media discussion of filming a short drama in Hengdian has exceeded 10 million views. The report also describes a harder backdrop: Hengdian had only 33 vertical short-drama crews active, and actors said projects were cancelled as producers redirected budgets toward AI-made dramas. Some performers are finding replacement work as interactive characters for tourists.
Hana’s perspective
I think Hengdian’s response is more important than the tourism novelty. A production hub is repackaging its physical assets—sets, costumes, crews and performance skills—as an experience that AI cannot fully reproduce. That creates work, but it is not an equal substitute for sustained screen production, especially for lower-tier actors and technicians. For microdrama producers, the model also shows a possible hybrid business: audiences can become participants, while their shoots generate social clips and direct revenue. The risk is treating tourism as proof that displaced production jobs have been solved. It has not. Hengdian is testing one adaptation to AI-driven cost pressure, not escaping that pressure.
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