Behind the Scenes of AI Drama Production | Ep 10: The Case of Director Tendo Being Completely Submissive to His Wife at Home (Production Memo)
Ep 10 is the E1 (Director Irony) engine's greatest masterpiece, achieving over 60,000 views and 40,000 reach, a first for the series. The boomerang structure, where the daytime director and nighttime director say the exact same lines from opposite positions, really hit home.
This episode's story
[Daytime/Workplace Scene] Director Tendo intimidates his subordinate: "Enough with the excuses, you know what I mean, right?"
[Nighttime/Home Scene] The same Director Tendo loosens his tie as he returns home, only to freeze the moment he senses someone's presence. His wife, still facing away, says one thing: "Enough with the excuses. You know what I mean, right?"
Director Tendo surrenders in silence. The lingering shot shows his wife doing chores in an apron. The viewers know everything, while the subordinates know nothing—this irony structure made the episode a hit.
Cut composition
・Cut 1 (9 seconds): Reused from Ep 2, "Enough with the excuses, you know what I mean, right?" (Daytime/Intimidating subordinate)
・Cut 2 (4 seconds): Returning home → Loosening tie and relaxing → Freezing at the sense of presence (Transition cushion)
・Cut 3 (8 seconds): Wife from behind, "Enough with the excuses. You know what I mean, right?" → Tendo's silent surrender
・Cut 4 (8 seconds): Lingering shot/Tendo doing chores in an apron
Data results (3 hours after posting)
・Reach: 1,027 (First time over 1,000 in the series)
・Average watch time: 17.9 seconds (out of 29 seconds, 61% retention, all-time high)
・Skip rate: 18.7%
・First comment: "Is the wife actually his subordinate?"
・Reply: "That is... stay tuned for episode 19 🦧"
What was done
・Cut 1 reused the workplace scene from Ep 2. By constructing the daytime part with the same lines and characters, Veo generation costs were reduced to zero. However, since the skip rate rose to 22.8%, a policy was established to use reused cuts only at the beginning.
・The wife is shown only as a silhouette from behind. By not showing her face, we achieved three things: no reference image needed, cleared the 3-character limit, and saved her for her full appearance in episode 20.
・Thorough speaker separation: Remove Tendo from the camera the moment the wife speaks (to prevent lip-sync errors).
Mistakes made
① Dialogue collapse due to "slow-type adjectives"
Using "unhurried" and "deliberate" for the manager's intimidating performance completely ruined the tempo of the dialogue. A rule was established to use these only for action descriptions and to control dialogue with time constraints like "deliver in under 1.5 seconds."
② Day to night transition fails without a cushion
Connecting Cut 1 directly to Cut 3 makes it hard to understand that the same manager is in a different location. We guided the viewer by inserting a 4-second cushion cut of him returning home and loosening his tie.
③ The wife turns to face the front
Veo's habit of having characters face forward even when instructed to be a 'woman speaking with her back to the camera.' Solved by strongly locking it with 'FACING AWAY FROM CAMERA at all times, back to lens'.
Lessons Learned
- The boomerang structure (where the same lines return from a different perspective) maximizes retention. The moment viewers realize 'Oh, this is being repeated,' they watch until the end.
- Reused cuts increase the skip rate. If you use them, only do so at the beginning. The more new cuts there are, the higher the retention rate.
- By designing the story to save the wife's full appearance until episode 20, we created a hook for the next season.
The next episode, Ep 11, is a combined episode of E3 (AI generation gap) + E4 (Ito's unrequited love). The case of Suzuki-san reading both AI and the room too well.
#ManagerGori #AIDramaProduction #Veo #GoogleFlow #AIDrama #ProductionMemo #SideHustle #AIUtilization