I wanted to make a mini-drama I could release one episode a day. I generated a 30-second test clip and shared it only on Telegram. Then I worked out what it would take to make a full season. The cost and time added up quickly enough that I put the project on hold.
A $22.50 first pass and a $50–$100 episode
In my tests, Seedance 2.5 cost about $0.25 per generated second. At that rate, one clean pass at 90 seconds would cost $22.50. Seedance repeatedly rejected my character references because the faces looked like real people, even though I’d generated the avatars myself.
The scripts I generated were bad. Even when a clip came back, many shots showed something different from what the script called for. I had to watch the clips, decide what to keep, and try problem shots again. With those retries and a manual review of the final cut, I estimated $50–$100 and at least two to three hours for each 90-second episode. A weak script or a scene with continuity problems could take longer.
Could a season earn back its budget?
My release plan was 80 free episodes, one a day, with another 20 behind a paywall on a separate short-drama platform like DramaWave. That’s 100 episodes at $50–$100 each, or $5,000–$10,000 in production costs. I’d plan for the high end. At two to three hours per episode, I’d also be looking at 200–300 hours of work before overruns. DramaWave
To see whether the series could earn that back, I’d need two conversion rates. What share of the public audience would follow the series to the paid platform? What share of those visitors would buy access? Multiplying those rates gives the share of public viewers who pay. Multiply that by the net revenue per buyer and you get the expected revenue per public viewer. Dividing the production budget by that figure gives the audience size I’d need to break even on production.
I didn’t have those numbers yet, and $10,000 was more than I wanted to put into the experiment.
Testing short explainers on YouTube
I’m trying short explainers now. They cost me much less to make, so publishing one a day feels possible. My first goal is to build an audience. If the channel qualifies for ad revenue through the YouTube Partner Program, I can earn on the same platform where people watch. YouTube Partner Program eligibility