A short drama isn't one film, it's a whole season of dozens of episodes. So the flow starts from the story bible — pin down the world and the characters first, and every episode follows it. That's how 30 episodes end up with the same face on the same character.
Fastest route: five steps to your first episode
1. Start a drama — sidebar "Short Drama" → "New drama". Give it a one-line premise, for example "a betrayed heiress wakes up the day before her wedding and decides to infiltrate her enemy's household as a nanny to gather evidence". Pick the genre, the tone, the episode count and the length per episode.
2. Generate the story bible — on the series page press "Write the story bible with AI". You get the world, the character roster and the season's milestones.
3. Generate casting stills — tap a character card into the "Character asset library" and press "Generate all casting stills". This is the critical step — these faces are shared across the whole season, and without them the people change from episode to episode.
4. Generate outlines and scripts — press "Write all outlines with AI" and the AI works through episode by episode. Then press "Create this episode" on an episode card to write its script, or "Write every script in one go" to fill them all in at once.
5. Shoot — press "Shoot" on an episode card and generate segment by segment. When it's done, press "Download this episode".
How a drama differs from a short film
Both use the same four-stage editor (Script → Master score → Art → Shoot). The differences:
| Short film | Short drama | |
|---|---|---|
| Unit | One film | One drama × N episodes, each episode a project |
| Frame | 16:9 landscape by default | 9:16 vertical by default |
| Characters | Per project | One set of faces across the season |
| Engine | Switchable any time | Chosen at creation, fixed for the season |
| Shooting gate | Shoot any time | Only once the art is generated |
What goes into creating a drama
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| One-line premise | Required; the starting point of the whole drama |
| Genre | Billionaire CEO / sweet romance / underdog revenge / revenge / suspense / costume drama / rebirth / time travel / dynasty feud, and more |
| Tone | Angsty / light comedy / dark / passionate / cathartic / thriller, and more |
| Episodes | 1–100, default 30 |
| Length per episode | 1 / 1.5 / 2 minutes, or a custom 60–300 seconds |
| Visual style | Live action / anime / 3D animation |
| Orientation | Portrait 9:16 (default) or landscape 16:9 |
| Target engine | Seedance 2.0 or 2.5 |
⚠️ Get the engine right the first time. A drama's prompts are final the moment the shots are split, so changing the engine only affects episodes split after that — anything already split has to be re-split by hand.
Already have scripts written? The dialog has "Import a full season", which splits on "Episode N" markers and creates the series and every episode at once — no AI screenwriting cost.
The story bible: the anchor for the whole drama
"Write the story bible with AI" produces three things:
- The world — what world this happens in and what its rules are
- Character roster — everyone the drama needs
- Season milestones — a timeline with a beat pinned at key episodes like EP1 / EP7 / EP15 / EP23 / EP30
If you imported scripts, the button reads "Analyse the cast and outlines with AI" instead — it reads your scripts, extracts the roster and derives the bible. It organises, it does not rewrite your story.
"Regenerate" overwrites the bible but doesn't touch episodes you've already created. The button says what it costs.
The production board: a whole season's progress
Scroll down the series page for the board, with three progress bars at the top: Outlines / Scripts / Complete.
Outlines first — press "Write all outlines with AI". Long seasons run in batches; if it stops, "Continue writing outlines" picks up where it left off. Each outline has a title, a plot and a closing hook, and all of it can be edited by hand.
Then scripts — "Create this episode" one at a time, or "Write every script in one go" for the batch. Anything already written can be uploaded with "Import a script" — no credits, no AI rewriting.
⚠️ There's a daily screenwriting quota; when it's used up you'll see "today's screenwriting quota is full", and it resets tomorrow.
Each episode card's state: not created → script ✓ → shooting N/N → complete.
You get blocked once before shooting
If the art this episode needs isn't finished, "Shoot" is greyed out and won't open.
Because shooting automatically brings in each segment's scene and character images. Missing images means missing reference, and the result looks nothing like what you set up — that's credits spent for nothing.
Go back to stage ③ "Art", fill the gaps, and it unlocks.
⚠️ The gate counts what this episode uses, not the whole asset pool. So you may see the art stage showing 12/13 and still be able to shoot — the missing one isn't used in this episode. Go by whether "Shoot" is clickable, not by the number.
Shooting an episode
It works like a short film (write the prompt → adjust settings → generate → pick a take). Three things are specific to drama:
- The prompt is one continuous paragraph, not sliced-up lines. A drama's prompts are written as finished copy when the shots are split, and the shoot sends them word for word. Characters and scenes inside show up as pills with thumbnails.
- The reference scene is usually filled in already — no need to pick one.
- The ratio is fixed at 9:16 (unless you chose landscape at creation).
The back link in the top left reads "← Drama title" and returns to the series page; the whole flow stays inside the drama.
Delivery
| What you want | Where to press |
|---|---|
| One episode's video package | "Download this episode" on that episode's card |
| A whole season | Series page "Download the season" → pick a range (completed episodes / everything so far / custom) |
| Just the script text | "Export scripts as ZIP", one .md per episode |
A season download is assembled in the background — close the page and do something else; it's kept for 7 days once ready. You can tick "include the season's character / scene / prop images"; global assets are stored once, not duplicated.
Where things are
| What you want to do | Where to go |
|---|---|
| Start a new drama | Sidebar "Short Drama" → "New drama" |
| Start from an official template | The "Featured drama templates" section on the Short Drama page |
| Generate casting stills | Series page "Character asset library" |
| Write all the outlines | Production board "Write all outlines with AI" |
| Write all the scripts | Production board "Write every script in one go" |
| Edit an episode | "Edit" on that episode's card |
| Shoot an episode | "Shoot" on that episode's card |
| Download a whole season | Series page "Download the season" |
Beyond the basics
- Per-episode looks — the same character in different clothes across episodes; the face stays, the wardrobe changes. The art stage shows a "look gap" and "generate the missing ones" fills it. The look pill on the shoot page sets which outfit each segment wears.
- Save as a template — share the whole drama with everyone (Auteur and above). What travels is the plain-text recipe of bible, roster and outlines — not the casting stills or the videos. It goes live once approved.
- Have the AI rewrite an episode — one instruction on the outline card is enough, for example "make this one hurt more" or "sharpen the hook".
Common questions
Will the character's face drift over 30 episodes?
Not as long as the casting stills are generated — the whole drama shares one set. That's why "generate all casting stills" is worth doing before you start splitting episodes.
"Shoot" is greyed out and won't open.
The art this episode needs isn't finished. Go back to stage ③ and fill it in.
I regenerated an episode's script but the breakdown didn't change.
It doesn't change automatically. After regenerating, go into that episode and re-split the shots for the new script to apply; images and videos already generated don't update either.
What happens if I delete an episode?
Images and videos already generated are deleted with it (anything still generating is refunded), the episode outline is kept, and you can rebuild it or import a script again. It cannot be undone.
I just want to remove an empty slot.
Use "remove this slot". The episode outline is deleted with it, and the episodes after it are not renumbered.
When the first shot comes back, a "🎬 Good luck on set" card appears. That isn't a feature — it's us wishing you a good wrap.
For a single landscape short film, see “The Short Film Shoot Handbook”.