AI short drama: what it is and how to make one

What makes it a short drama

Four things. The frame is vertical, 9:16, so the picture fills a phone held upright. The episodes are short: eMarketer describes microdramas as serialized scripted shows in vertical episodes of roughly 1 to 2 minutes, and episodes made with agent-media run 15 to 60 seconds. Every episode ends on a cliffhanger, a question the next episode opens on. And the story runs on one clear trope: revenge, a hidden identity, a contract marriage, a second chance.

What makes it an AI short drama is who does the work. The writing, the casting, the sets and the filming are done by AI, and the person making the show directs: they choose the story, read every script and decide what gets filmed.

How AI makes one, step by step

On agent-media the whole show is made from a conversation in Claude. You never open an editor, and nothing paid runs until you have seen what it buys and its price.

• Open Claude with agent-media connected and say what you want, for example the prompt below. Add “Interview me first” and it asks about the hero, the setting and the twist.
• It writes the season plan, casts two leads and up to six friends or rivals, and builds up to eight locations. You approve each one.
• You approve each episode's script and its price, then the episode is filmed: vertical 9:16, 15 to 60 seconds, captions burned in, no watermark, the same cast.
• Start with Episode 1 for $1. A 10-episode micro drama is $49 one-time, Episode 1 included.

What happens behind the chat

The steps a studio takes are all still there. The season starts as a story bible, with up to three secrets and the episodes where each one is planted, half revealed and paid off, and a season grid with one row per episode: its goal, its turn and its cliffhanger.

Each episode is storyboarded shot by shot before it is filmed, with framing, camera movement and who stands where, and it comes back with a score and burned-in captions at 480p or 720p. After every episode a story memory records who knows what, and the next script is written from it, so episode 6 follows from episode 5.

The hard part: the same face in every episode

Most AI video tools make one clip from one prompt. Ask for a second clip and you often get a different face in a different room, which is fine for a single shot and fatal for a series.

agent-media casts once. Each character gets a face, a full body and a turnaround sheet, and a voice set at casting, and every episode reuses them. The two leads and up to six friends or rivals stay the same for the whole season, and so do the locations.

Tools that make AI short dramas

Several products now make AI short dramas. Each line below comes from the maker's own page, read on November 3, 2026, with the source after it. Plans and features change, so check the page before you choose.

• agent-media: makes the series from Claude, with a planned season, two leads and up to six recurring characters, and 9:16 episodes of 15 to 60 seconds you approve one by one.
• Topview Drama Studio: “an AI planning agent with an editable workbench for outlines, characters, scripts, and beats”. Source: https://www.topview.ai/drama-studio
• Pippit: turns scripts into drama videos, and its Story Studio can organize a script into scenes or episodes. Source: https://www.pippit.ai/create/short-dramas
• OpenArt AI drama generator: turns a story, a script or a novel chapter into a vertical short drama, with leads kept consistent through a reference image or saved characters. Source: https://openart.ai/features/ai-drama-generator
• PopShort: “The One-Person AI Drama Factory”, with a Drama Studio that starts from an idea and a Drama Canvas that starts from a script or novel. Source: https://popshort.ai
• Drma: an iPhone app that turns story ideas into AI short dramas, step by step or in one tap. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/video-ai-%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%88-%D8%B0%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D8%B5%D8%B7%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%8A/id6737835950
• EpNova: an Android app that makes AI short dramas and reels from a script, an outline or a prompt. Source: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kuaigeglobal.epnova&hl=en_US

What it costs

Episode 1 of your own show is $1: one 30-second episode at 480p. A micro drama of ten 30-second episodes at 480p with the same cast is $49 one-time, Episode 1 included, and a new show is another $49. For people who make many shows, monthly plans are $49 a month for 300 seconds of video and $149 a month for 1,200 seconds at 480p, or half as many seconds at 720p.

If you have not filmed an episode within 7 days, your first payment is refunded in full.

Watch some first

Every show on our series page was made this way, with ten episodes and one cast. Three to start with:

• The Second Key: Claire is fired by her boss on Monday, and by Friday she owns the building his office is in. A revenge drama.
• Seoul Contract: Ji-woo signs a contract to be a cold CEO's wife for 100 days, and falling for each other is against the rules. A contract marriage romance, in Korean.
• The One I Left: ten years after Sophie left Jack at the altar, he walks into her flower shop to order the flowers for his own wedding. A second chance romance.

An AI short drama episode, line by line

The Second Key, episode 1, runs 21 seconds and five lines. The stake is in the first line, the turn is one word, building, and the last line leaves Victor with a question episode 2 opens on.

Questions