1.1.1 Market Phenomenon & Beginner Perspectives

The Microdrama Market Boom

Hello everyone, let’s begin our class! Starting today, I’ll be teaching you about microdrama creation methods. I’m really excited to start this new course. Regarding microdramas, I believe many of you have been frequently hearing news about them recently, including stories like investing ¥400,000 and earning over ¥100 million, or achieving financial freedom overnight with just one microdrama. These stories are very appealing, which is why many students asked me to explain this topic.

How I Discovered Microdramas’ Popularity

How did I discover that microdramas have become so popular recently? It was through our scriptwriter database. As you all know, I’ve been teaching screenwriting courses online for four years. We have many students and our own scriptwriter database. We sign the students we’ve trained ourselves and provide scripts to clients and platforms. Since the beginning of this year, we’ve been receiving a large number of microdrama orders. At first, I didn’t really understand what they were, but I gradually started paying attention to this field. One client even told me they wanted 100 microdrama scripts, which made me take this seriously.

I later confirmed that this market is developing rapidly. Since many students in our scriptwriter database are beginners who entered the industry with zero foundation and learned through my courses, and considering that microdramas are quite beginner-friendly, we should seize this current opportunity during this growth period to teach everyone about microdrama creation methods.

Establishing Viewpoints: The Real Case of ¥400,000 Investment Generating Over ¥100 Million Revenue

First, let me establish several key viewpoints for you. Is it true what they say about investing ¥400,000 and earning over ¥100 million? Yes, it’s true, and it’s not just ¥100 million. As of now, there’s one microdrama that has already reached ¥200 million. It’s indeed a case of investing ¥400,000 and earning ¥200 million - this microdrama is called “Wu Shuang” (The Peerless). However, it’s not as simple as you might imagine. There’s a rigorous product production process and a marketing delivery behind it - it’s not as straightforward as you might think. We’ll provide detailed explanations about this in our course.

Opportunities and Challenges for Beginner Screenwriters

Many students wonder: Is this field particularly friendly to beginners right now? Since I’m a beginner, can I write microdramas? Let me emphasize that indeed many beginners are currently being hired as microdrama screenwriters. But why is that? It’s because this product hasn’t yet taken a definitive form, and no established patterns have emerged, making it difficult for clients and producers to find suitable screenwriters. That’s why they’re extensively hiring beginners. However, this doesn’t mean that just because you’re a beginner, you’re suitable for this work. You still need to learn, okay?

The Misconception of Experienced Writers: Thinking It’s a “Dimension Reduction Strike”

Thirdly, many students think: “Teacher, I’ve written web dramas and TV dramas before. Wouldn’t working on this be like a ‘dimension reduction strike’?” Please don’t think this way. Microdramas are not the same as the web dramas or online novels you’ve written before. It’s a new product form with its own new rules, and you still need to learn them. If you casually approach it thinking you can easily dominate, you might end up suffering losses. Okay?

Course Methodology and Learning Logic

So in this course, we’ll systematically explain what microdramas are and how to create them. Students who have taken my courses before know that I have teaching principles: first, I explain what something is and its fundamental principles, then I explain why it operates that way. After understanding both the “what” and the “why,” we research creation methods. This approach makes our learning more targeted, and you can more easily understand why we write in certain ways. Otherwise, if we don’t have aligned understanding of the product upfront, you’ll be confused about how to write later, right? Okay, let’s start today by discussing the basic understanding of microdramas.