Weidianying

By+staff+reporter+VERENA+MENZEL

IN 2012， the short film A Bed Affair became an Internet sensation in China. Through the eyes of a thief surprised by the sudden return of the flat owners during his foray， director Zhang Yuan allows the audience a 36-minute， fly-on-thewall look into an ordinary Chinese bedroom. However， what the viewers are confronted with are not intense love scenes， but a fierce quarrel that flares up between Zhang Cheng （played by Shen Teng） and his wife Li Xiaoyun （Li Xinyun） over a missing condom.

The stage around which the filmmakers spin their moving drama is the double bed of the young married couple. Love， despair and reconciliation play out under the covers of the cozy bedroom. Thus， it only appears as a logical consequence that at the end of the story the logo of the De Rucci Bedding Company， the advertising partner of the film， fades in.

Some may call this sponsoring， others， a 36-minute commercial. The fact is that more and more companies in China are discovering weidianying， or micro movies and short films， as a promising platform for online advertising. As a consequence， the short film genre is experiencing a real boom in the Peoples Republic today.

Strictly speaking， the only difference between short films and their big brothers on cinema screens is the length of the picture. Some are only a few minutes long （micro movies）， others run for more than half an hour （short films）.

But for advertisers the production of a short film offers significant advantages. Unlike expensively produced full-length movies， which first have to make it to the silver screen and rely on ticket sales as well as huge advertising deals for their revenue， the threshold for short and micro films released exclusively online is comparatively low.

The production costs of a 10 to 15 minutes movie in China ranges from only RMB 30，000 to 50，000（US $5，000 to 8，000）. Distribution costs as well are much lower than those of traditional films. Moreover， the shooting normally doesnt take more than one week. In most cases， pre- and post-production of a short film project can be completed in less than one month.

The size of the audience that can be reached appears very tempting as well： The films can be called up conveniently and at anytime online， and netizens popularize the ones they like around the web within hours. The short film Going Home， for example， which was launched during the Spring Festival of 2011， achieved more than 20 million hits within only 10 days.

Big Business

In time to the rhythm of the accelerating heartbeat of todays bit-society imbued with microblogs， short messages and video-bites， short films fit the pulse of a whole generation. The narrative form of these filmic short stories not only perfectly matches the preferences of its mostly young audience， but also， due to low production costs， short production time， a wide reach and a multitude of opportunities for interaction， make advertisers hearts beat faster.

Chinas new media market has become one of the most profitable on the globe. The country has more than 618 million Internet users and over 900 million mobile phone users， making it the global leader in these areas. The total advertising volume of Chinas online market stood at RMB 32.1 billion（US $5.26 billion） in 2010. According to estimates of the market research company ChinaIRN， the figure will reach RMB 156.5 billion （US $25.64 billion） this year. Annual growth is， on average， 49 percent.

In addition， the advertising volume of the online video market has also risen rapidly in recent years. As per ChinaIRNs forecast， the revenue of online short films will reach RMB 70 billion （US $11.47 billion） in 2014， which is 13 times that of 2010. Their advertising volume is estimated to reach RMB 45 billion （US $7.37 billion） this year， nearly 10 times more than four years ago.

And the host of Chinese smartphone users also provides a particularly lucrative business field. For them， short movies， due to their length， are perfect media candy for the meantime， not only on long bus or subway rides during rush hour. From 2010 to 2013 the revenues of Chinas mobile video market grew from RMB 667 million （US $109 million） to RMB 11.61 billion （US $1.9 billion）， which means an average annual growth of 159 percent. More than 90 percent of this revenue originates from user fees.

Who Benefits from the Hype？

There are four big stakeholders that are largely involved in the growing small movie industry： advertising companies， music and culture firms， independent third-party enterprises， which promote their own products through the productions or appear as investors， and last but not least， Chinas big online video platforms.

Nearly every Chinese video-hosting website has established its own short film channel. Providers such as Youku， LeTV， iQIZI or Tudou attract millions of visitors with their weidianying-channels. In some cases video-hosting sites purchase exclusive rights or first transmission permission for promising productions or even launch their own short film series.

Subjects like love， work and youth as well as all sorts of comedies appear to be the most popular among Chinese Internet users， as the online portal ChinaByte found in a recent survey.

However， the advertising boom also has its downside： Although short film production has become more and more professional in recent years， the professionalization of filmmaking and advertising still lacks the ability to keep up with the pace of development of the online video sector.

Market demand is huge， while highly qualified production teams and good scripts are rare. In addition， the combination of low budgets， cost pressure and a low entry threshold creates a huge number of low-quality productions that threaten to damage the image of the whole industry. If short film fans have to wade through a mass of oysters before finding a pearl， they could soon lose interest in watching， experts warn.

The fact that the advertising industry has discovered short films as a profitable medium for online marketing could， in the end， harm the development of the short film genre as such， some critics state. More and more scripts are written only to promote a certain product or trademark， they say. The fine line between real content and advertising is becoming more and more blurred at the expense of quality.

Nevertheless， Li Xiang， general sales manager of Chinas biggest microblog portal Sina Weibo， doesnt believe that the boom will downgrade short films to “feature-length” commercials. “Although inclined to business and sales features and tactics， as a filmic medium， short movies are constructed in a different way to traditional commercials，” he says.

In contrast to critics fears， many representatives of the film industry regard the short film hype as an opportunity because the comparatively simpler Internet films offer a new creative playground for upand-coming scriptwriters， directors and actors.

“Representatives of the now famous generation of Chinese directors mostly started their careers as script supervisors，” said film critic Zhang Xiaobei.“But it is very important for a director to improve his or her skills practically in his profession. In this aspect， short films offer great possibilities.”

Chinese scriptwriter Guo Dan regards short films as a “wonderful stage” on which creative filmmakers could test themselves in all kinds of subjects. “For me， this is the most important value that short films have in the practice of filmmaking，” Guo said.

Thus， spectators inside and outside China may be curious as to what yield “generation weidianying”will bring the Chinese film landscape in the coming years.