Screenwriters should fear humans becoming machines, not machines becoming human
Song Fangjin says AI can now write story outlines better than 60% of screenwriters. The real crisis isn't technology replacing creation—it's that creators have already turned themselves into machines of formula.
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Screenwriters can never shake off the tool-maker's curse
Song Fangjin says that since cinema's birth in 1895, no screenwriter has possessed complete expressive agency—scripts must pass through directors, cinematographers, actors, and producers before reaching audiences, inevitably transformed. The credit is asymmetrical: when a film fails, screenwriters bear the pain; when it succeeds, they feel no pride because the achievement belongs to the director, actors, and producers. He sees one path to relief: director and screenwriter as the same person.
— Song FangjinIn micro-dramas, every minute must score a goal
Song Fangjin explains mechanically why micro-dramas can't sustain weighty stories: in a two-hour film, major character-relationship shifts happen only three times; a fourth would send the story into meaningless loops. But micro-dramas must complete a full character-relationship arc every minute—no ten-minute setup like film allows. He compares it to soccer: a feature film is watching the full match; a micro-drama is every kick must go in and score.
— Song FangjinAI outlines now exceed 60 percent of screenwriters
Song Fangjin says he felt anxiety about AI for the first time this year—not whether it will replace screenwriters, but that testing major models showed they write story outlines better than 60% of screenwriters. He traces the deeper crisis to Chinese screenwriting itself: whether from clients demanding data-driven metrics or screenwriters imitating tired formulas, the output ships as standardized, prefab—which he sees as more serious than AI itself.
— Song FangjinMajor IP franchises turn screenwriters into commodities via copyright
Song Fangjin marks 2015 as a watershed in Chinese film and TV: capital discovered that screenwriters, directors, and actors wouldn't obey, so it invented the big-IP model. Invest tens of millions or hundreds of millions to buy an IP, own all rights, and reduce the screenwriter to a de-credited tool. This killed original screenplays—platforms fund only data-backed IP. The healthy ratio of adaptation to original to remake—6:3:1—became 8:1:1 domestically.
— Song FangjinThe screenwriter is the household registrar of the film
Why do nearly all directors claim the screenwriting credit, yet Zhang Yimou rarely does? Song Fangjin explains: the screenwriter is the only person holding original copyright in a film or series. He compares credits to a household registration—whether the screenwriter's name appears there decides if they're one of the proprietors. Zhang Yimou's custom to credit himself as story rather than screenwriter, in Song Fangjin's view, is rare decency.
— Song FangjinZhang Yimou told a UFO story as a joke
Song Fangjin recounts Zhang Yimou's anecdote: in 1984, while filming a parade, his consciousness lifted away for three to five minutes watching a hovering UFO, then returned—afterward, he stopped tiring or getting hungry easily. Song Fangjin stresses Zhang told it as a joke and relayed it the same way. Years later, he found the story in Zhou Xiaofen's official biography and felt free to repeat it publicly.
— Song FangjinDeny the audience closure, and lose millions at the box office
Song Fangjin calculates the price of leaving viewers without resolution using two recent releases: Three Teams added a final shot of the protagonist lost in thought—Song estimates it cost the film 50 million yuan in box office. Chang'an: The Lychees ends with the hero weeping over lychees; if recut to show him living quietly with family, Song believes it could have earned 200 million yuan more. Creators must decide upfront who the story serves, then choose whether to fight the audience's need for closure.
— Song FangjinHollywood screenwriter credits require a minimum contribution threshold
Hollywood has strict rules: a film can carry at most three screenwriter names (or three teams of three), and each must prove they contributed over 33% to the script; for adaptations, the bar is higher. Below that threshold, you get "additional screenwriter," off the credits entirely. China has no equivalent arbitration, spawning categories like "associate screenwriter"—an invention of Guo Jingming—and gray-market practices where established screenwriters hire ghostwriters, then pay them to surrender credit.
— Song FangjinIn their own words · checked verbatim
I've never feared robots becoming more human. I fear humans becoming more like machines.
我从来不怕机器人变得越来越像人 我怕人变得越来越像机器人
Song Fangjin0:00
All screenwriting, including novels, boils down to finding the core human relationships.
剧本所有的写作 包括小说 就是你必须找到核心的人物关系
Song Fangjin15:11
Micro-dramas are shooting to score every time—that's how you understand them. Every shot must be a goal for me to watch.
但是呢 微短剧是射门极锦 啊 这样就好理解了 他是射门极锦 对对 你必须是射门极锦 我才看
Song Fangjin43:19
What's a major IP? You invest tens of millions to hundreds of millions buying one, and you own all the rights.
那么大IP是什么意思呢 就是说 我 花一个亿 几千万 甚至几个亿 我买来一个大IP 这个大IP呢 所有的 版权归我所有
Song Fangjin1:14:36
Credits are like a household registration, and a film is a household registration. Whether the screenwriter's name appears there is crucial—the screenwriter is one of its proprietors.
就等于是这个署名呢 就是户口本 电影啊是个户口本 那么这个户口本上 编剧这个名字 就是是很重要的 编剧是户主之一
Song Fangjin1:56:55
When he last looked at the UFO, it slowly withdrew, and then half the sky lit up with a giant mushroom cloud.
他说 他最后看一眼这个飞碟的时候 这个飞碟是缓缓的向后退去 然后呢 半边天空出现巨大的蘑菇云
Song Fangjin2:13:09
That's closure. Don't fight what audiences need. You'd earn at least 200 million yuan in additional box office revenue.
这叫闭合式感受 不要跟观众较劲 这样的话至少能增加2亿票房
Song Fangjin2:56:32
Figures
| Estimated additional revenue if Chang'an: The Lychees had a closed ending | Approximately 200 million yuan | 2:56:32 |
| Number of full-time professional film screenwriters nationwide | No more than 10 | 3:06:39 |
| Number of top-tier television drama screenwriters | Approximately 50 | 3:07:39 |
| Minimum script contribution for screenwriter credit in Hollywood | 33% | 3:10:43 |
Glossary
- Science fiction
- A genre based on reasonable extensions of scientific fact, not fantasy. Song Fangjin argues the term is a mistranslation; the original concept means speculative fiction rooted in science.
How to listen
Film and TV industry professionals, screenwriters, investors and founders focused on how AI impacts content creation.
Zhang Yimou's UFO anecdote (2:07–2:17)—treat it as a joke, don't take it seriously.