The AI short drama workflow, written out as an order of operations
The question `ai短剧制作工作流` has real search behind it and almost nothing good written for it, which is odd because the workflow is the part that decides whether a project finishes. The generating is fast. The order the work happens in is what costs you a weekend.
What follows is the order the twenty pilot episodes in this product were built in, and the two places where doing it out of order forces a rebuild.
The six stages in order
Each stage produces something the next one consumes. If a stage has no output, the stage after it is guessing.
| Stage | What it produces | What breaks if you skip it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Premise and beats | Four lines: opening, conflict, twist, hook | The episode has no shape and every shot explains |
| 2. Cast | One reference image per character | Characters change face between shots |
| 3. Places | One reference per location | The same room looks different every visit |
| 4. Shot list | 13 shots with framing, length and model each | Shots come back the wrong size and pace dies |
| 5. Generate | The video for each shot | Nothing, this is the fast part |
| 6. Voice and assembly | Dialogue in sync, cut to vertical | The episode exists but nobody can watch it whole |
The order the twenty pilot episodes in this product were actually built in.
Try generating with H3 Max TurboThe two places order actually matters
Cast before generate. This is the expensive one. If you generate shots and let the characters emerge as you go, there is no reference holding them, so by the ninth shot the lead is somebody else. The fix is not a better prompt, it is going back and building the cast, and then most of the shots have to be re-run.
Beats before shot list. A shot list written before the beats are settled ends up with three shots doing the same job and no shot doing the reversal. You notice at assembly, which is the latest and most annoying moment to notice it.
Everything else is more forgiving. Places can be built alongside the shot list. Voice can come before or after the video. Those two cannot move.
What to check before you generate anything
Does every character in the shot list have a reference. Does every location. Does every shot say how long it runs and which model makes it. Does the first shot land the hook inside three seconds. Does the last shot ask a question rather than answer one.
Five checks, about two minutes, and they catch the failures that otherwise cost you a re-run of the whole thing. The twenty pilots in this product each carry a written note per shot on what is likely to go wrong in that specific shot and what the repair is, which is the same idea in a more thorough form.
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Got questions left?
How long does one episode take end to end?
The writing and the casting are the hours. The generating is minutes. Most of the time people report losing goes into rebuilding something they generated before it was decided, which is exactly what the order above is designed to prevent.
Can I change the story after the shots are generated?
Yes, and only the shots your change touches get re-run. That is why the shot list is written per shot rather than per scene: a rewritten line in scene three should not cost you scene one.
Do I need to storyboard separately?
No. The shot list is the storyboard, in text: framing, camera move, light, length and the character references bound to each shot. Drawing it again on paper adds a step without adding a decision.
