Low-Cost, Fast-Paced: A Study of Time Control in China’s Vertical Micro‑Drama Production

• In Event: Labor and Workplace Control

Abstract

This paper, based on in-depth interviews with 16 practitioners in China’s vertical micro-drama industry, explores how working time is controlled through rhythm acceleration and cycle compression under highly compressed project-based production structures. The study reveals that under the production logics of micro-dramas, budgets and shooting cycles are locked in at the outset of a project, with working time becoming the most elastic variable in the production system. The length of the working day lacks a clear institutional upper limit, and overtime rules often rely on verbal agreements and industry conventions. In low-cost, fast-paced production, the working day is continuously extended, and practices such as “day-rate packaging” and the “rolling schedule” further blur the boundary between the pricing unit and the actual volume of labour performed. In this process, the mechanism of time control undergoes a significant transformation. Unlike classic labour-process control logics focused on extending the working day or increasing labour intensity per unit time, the micro-drama industry presents a form of temporal discipline based on cycle compression, realized through the elasticity of the working day. When project cycles are tightly constrained and production tempo accelerates, the working day becomes a buffer zone that absorbs uncertainty and risk, with time pressure penetrating into basic rest periods. Continuous night shoots, rotating rest schedules, and the downward resetting of the minimum sleep threshold gradually erode workers’ control over time, shifting temporal experience from everyday rhythms to shooting progress. This study offers new insights into working-time issues in contemporary cultural industries.

Authors

• Bingbing Ma, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

• Yiqi Kang