00:00My name is Daniel Yongma. I'm an actor. I've been an actor in short dramas for about three years
00:05now. I'm based in Australia, but I've shot in Australia, China, and Turkey. So I've enjoyed
00:12the kind of cultural exchange of working in different countries and how that is the same,
00:17but slightly different depending on where I'm at. More recently, I've moved into talent management
00:23as well. So I'm very passionate about bringing new talent into the industry because it is still a
00:31very growing industry and it does actually have a lot of opportunity to bring in new talent and to
00:37give actors that otherwise wouldn't have kind of been able to take that chance to enter the
00:44entertainment industry, which I think is a brilliant part of short dramas. You participate in the short
00:50drama very early. I think it just started three years ago. In the beginning. So how did you get
00:55into the short drama field? It was partially by accident. I was leading the first short drama
01:00shot in Australia, which I was incredibly lucky to be on. And when I applied, or if I'm being correct,
01:09my partner applied on my behalf for me, I didn't even know what was going on. We didn't know that
01:14it was a vertical. We didn't know it was a short drama. We just thought it was a film or
01:19something
01:19like that. I was working as an accountant at the time because I'm a qualified accountant.
01:24And acting was kind of just like a bit of a faraway dream that I didn't really consider
01:28as realistic. But yeah, we applied off a Facebook post and then they asked for an audition. I did
01:36the audition and I had no idea what I was doing, but it all worked out and they decided to
01:41take me.
01:41And since then, I've been doing short dramas pretty much full time.
01:45If you have to define short drama, what short drama is, then what is it?
01:50Sorry, that was a big answer. I think if I had to define a short drama, I would say that
01:55it is
01:55the short episodic structure. It typically is run in vertical format, but it would be interesting
02:02to see it done horizontal. But it's effectively a 60 second episode that is stretched across like
02:08a 60 episode season, basically breaking down a feature film length into 60 second episodes,
02:15each with their own miniature episodic arc that all falls under the grand arc.
02:20Why does short drama go viral? Are there any formula behind the hits?
02:25I think that the formula is pretty out there. And it is that firstly, it has the kind of intense
02:33plots. I think that's the high stakes drama is really, really important in terms of capturing
02:38the viewer's attention. Having a hook is really important for viral content. And I think a lot
02:44of short dramas have that. They do it in various ways. A lot of them use just shocking content. And
02:49I think that's why we have seen a bit of an uptick in the like hyper-sexualized short dramas,
02:54especially on real short lately. But they go for that shock value to hook you, to bring you in.
03:00And then because they have that short episodic arc, where you're getting what we used to have,
03:06like a 30, 40 minute TV series episode, that arc is condensed into 60 seconds. So because it's so
03:13quick, the viewer's mind is just fully engrossed in the short drama. And there's no additional space.
03:20There's no kind of wait time before the next piece of information comes. And I think that that
03:25is also something that once the hook has brought the viewer in, the viewer is kept there because
03:31there's kind of no dead space in the short drama. And I think the third thing that they do that
03:36we
03:37were talking about before is they have that cliffhanger at the end of every single episode.
03:43So every 60 seconds, you get another dopamine hit of, oh my gosh, what's going to happen next?
03:49And because you're constantly getting little bits of dopamine, little bits of dopamine,
03:53the viewer kind of needs to know. Their attention is held, they're given another question,
03:59and they need an answer to that question. And that's why they keep watching. Because
04:03even if they might not be fully interested in the story, they have to know, where does this go?
04:10What's happening next? And I think the formula, the hook, there'll be no dead space throughout the
04:16entire like 60 seconds. It's quick, quick, quick. And then the cliffhanger at the end brings you
04:21into the next hook of the next episode, and then so on and so forth all the way through the
04:26series.
04:26I'm just curious, since every episode is around one minute to two minutes and it's been long,
04:32how can music fit into one episode? Are you going to change music every episode, right?
04:38Well, it would be the way that musicals work in like normal musicals, right? You go to a theater,
04:45what often happens is they'll actually have a theme. And that theme will be kind of the melody or the
04:50chord structure. For example, the musical Hamilton, very, very popular. Even between songs that are
04:58not specifically a reprise of each other, between songs, you'll still have that consistent beat,
05:03that consistent melody, rhythm, even if it's kind of two different characters or two different kind
05:08parts of the story. And that's like a creative way that the writers of that music are able to
05:14keep that consistent flow going between scenes. So I think that it would be revolutionary. And I'm not
05:21suggesting at all that it would be easy. But to answer your question about, well, how would you
05:26put that music kind of together? And if you're constantly changing the song, what I believe you're
05:31inferring is that maybe that might be distracting or it would pull the viewers out of it because
05:35changing that would be a difficult thing to watch and be engrossed in. But you could have a similar
05:41through line, a similar kind of melody going throughout, a similar chord structure. And in
05:47that sense, you can kind of like work it within the episodes without it being jarring as it start,
05:54stop, stop, stop. I think something that a lot of verticals have already done and done quite
05:59successfully is although they are 60 second episodes, some scenes run across multiple
06:05episodes. And this is probably what you would do to get the whole song out. Say you have like
06:09four episodes that gives you four minutes, which I would say is like plenty of time to do a full
06:14song.
06:14You could have kind of like that plot twist or that kind of 60 second section. That's one verse of
06:20the song or maybe a verse in a chorus. And then you have a little break period that the plot
06:25twist
06:25happens. Maybe that's part of like the bridge of the song. And then that leads into the next episode
06:32where we pick up the next kind of the next verse where something has happened, something is new,
06:37something is different, and then so on and so forth into the third verse. So I think that there is
06:41still
06:42potential to work that into the vertical. And the value I think that that would have beyond
06:47a traditional vertical is that if you release an album, like an album, an original album alongside
06:55that vertical, that gives you a significantly greater pool of people that you can obtain lead
07:00gen from. Because viewers will watch the musical on the on the like short drum platform, and then
07:07they'll like the music. And then they'll have like a personal connection to the music because they know
07:11the story. So then they'll start playing it on say Spotify or wherever they play their music. And then
07:16they'll want to go watch it again. And I think that something that a lot of short dramas don't really
07:21consider is the rewatchability of the short drama. It's very much let's get viewers in,
07:27let's get them to watch it. And once the story is over, it's over. It's done. Maybe they'll rewatch
07:31it. But that's not really a big factor. It's all about just getting as many people in to watch it
07:37as possible. But I think the rewatchability of something is significantly beneficial to the platform
07:44because it keeps the viewer on the platform, thereby kind of reducing their like subscription
07:49churn. But yeah, to answer your question succinctly, I think that it is very possible to have a song go
07:55across multiple episodes.
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