DUANJU  NEWS

Before joining the international platform Stardust TV in 2025, the soap opera miniseries " Next Door Adventure " had already achieved viral success on Facebook, racking up nearly 700,000 views. Two initial excerpts released in spring 2023 revealed the potential of this format, which is still new in France. In 2023, no French-language platform yet existed, even though the format was already booming abroad. In China, 2023 marks the explosion of mini-vertical soap operas. In this landscape, Next Door Adventure is a French pioneer, taking part in a global trend. On April 12, 2023, the first episode reached 400,000 views, along with more than a thousand likes and numerous shares. Two months later, on June 22, another episode confirmed the craze with more than 300,000 views and a new wave of enthusiastic reactions. The audience praised the light tone, the beauty of actress Lana Sfera and the endearing character played by Guillaume Sanjorge : "It's really good, I love it, bravo you're the best," wrote one spectator. "You have the soul of an actor and a unifier ," added another. Some were amused by the situations: "So we have to give sugar instead of salt, is that it?" or "Holy salt!" From Facebook to Stardust TV The project was then shortened to fit Duanju standards, with a faster pace and condensed episodes. In April 2025, the series joined Stardust TV 's international catalog, becoming the first original French production available in eight languages (French, English, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish and German). Mobile fiction platforms offer a more suitable environment than social networks for this type of format: they allow the viewer to follow the story episode by episode, with an experience designed for serialization and viewing on smartphones. Thus, the adventures born on social networks found a second wind on an international platform, confirming the format's ability to cross borders. Source : Facebook - Guillaume Sanjorge , June 23, 2025 Morandini Blog , April 13, 2025

The evolution of framing and formats in painting. Since the art of caves, humans have had to delimit what they wanted to reproduce. But each figure from this distant era seems to us today to be placed without order among others. With the birth of agriculture and therefore the organization of cultivated fields, the drawn or sculpted surface began to respect a certain geometry. As for painting, the first ancient traces that remain are frescoes applied to walls or tombs, sometimes on scrolls, then later to the walls of churches or on wooden panels intended to decorate the altars of these places of worship. This of course implied that the format did not come from an artistic decision but simply conformed to the surface allocated to it. We also saw the first manifestations of small formats, as decoration, often admirable, of the pages of religious books. After the Middle Ages, formats began to become more precise and the frame began to be distinguished from the painting itself. It should be noted that easel painting allowed for the generalization of small or medium sizes, while the arrival of canvas, which lightened the overall weight, encouraged the mobility of works. The development of art academies and the circulation of works led to the definition of more precise dimensions, according to genre. "Modernity", from the 20th century onwards, was based on the idea of constantly questioning what has been acquired and on the need for constant innovation, hence the disappearance - for better or for worse - of all rules, and therefore the possibility of practicing all sizes or even irregularities of format! In the article "From the widescreen to the pocket screen " , we study, using the example of cinema, that contemporary production of images, in all its forms, is also the heir to what we have just described. Article written by Jean-Marie Sanjorge #JeanMarieSanjorge

Cinematographic framing, formats and innovations. The connection is easy with our previous reflection on the history of painting : we mentioned the "frame," first fixed and then detachable, as the outer limit of the painting. With cinema, the "frame" became in some way the container of the filmed image. But in our time, this notion has taken on a strong technical dimension because it is inevitably linked to the idea of format: in the same width of film, it has been possible to integrate images of several dimensions. As the widths of films have been numerous, the possible combinations have been considerable! But, artistically, framing has never been neutral: beyond the technical constraints, it remains a tool aimed at focusing the viewer's attention or arousing their emotion. Supported moreover by screens of various dimensions: from the "standard" to the vast "cinemascope", spectacular in theaters but which during multiple rebroadcasts is difficult to fit into the space offered, for example, on a television screen... Digital cinema, a new major step, is based, as we know, on the use of computer programs at all stages of production and then distribution: the notion of "virtual framing" or now the use of artificial intelligence. Finally, the mobile phone is proving to be a tool for disseminating constructed images, but which had to be filmed beforehand, taking into account the constraint of vertical reading. Hence the name "vertical fictions". With, here again, new necessities having to take into consideration human attention spans when faced with a very small image. And, for "vertical fiction", the birth of a new challenge: to go beyond its own limits and the risk of oversimplification, to seek, or even create, a new type of quality! How long should a film be? This is obviously a fundamental notion, linked to technical developments but also having to remain mindful of the audience's attention span! We have all had the opportunity to see the "silent films" of the first part of the 20th century, often humorous (but not always) and generally quite short (but not always). Also including their share of masterpieces, sometimes of long duration. It was with the birth of talking cinema, with which the "7th art" would then literally identify, that the average duration lengthened to generally reach an hour and a half to two hours. With some "classics", very appreciated by the spectators, approaching four hours of projection. Even some non-standard, more "elitist" films, with exceptionally long durations. At the same time, the "short film" developed: originally conceived as a tool for experimenting with new techniques at low cost, it gradually acquired the status of a "genre" in its own right, giving rise to innovations and appreciated festivals, but unfortunately still remaining at a distance from the general public. It is often only a step towards the feature film, even though one could consider it to have value in itself. Through the qualities it implements (concentration of emotion, use of a limited time, essential creativity) it can become a source of reference and enrichment for even shorter forms linked to current developments: vertical fictions! With this new genre, born of new technologies, the duration becomes so short (1 minute 30 seconds!) that it is an extreme challenge, which can appear contrary to the necessities of the most basic quality. This is where we have to create! The field of beauty is open to us... Article written by Jean-Marie Sanjorge #JeanMarieSanjorge

In an interview with WenWen Han on the YouTube channel Short Drama Decode , American producer Chris Wicke looks back on his career and his immersion in the world of duanju, these short vertical fictions born in China. Long confined to Asia, the format is now attracting professionals from around the world. In Los Angeles, Chris Wicke, a former reality TV specialist, is one of the first Americans to embark on the adventure. With his company Ember Entertainment , he develops his own vertical series while co-producing fiction for Flex TV , Dreamy Short and Salty TV . His first project, Mr. Williams, Madame is Dying , shot on a shoestring budget, became a phenomenon: it generated more than $10 million, won an international award, and was a revelation for his entire team. " We discovered a very codified, very melodramatic genre. We decided to fully embrace that tone. And in the end, it worked." Since then, Chris Wicke has been interested in the deeper mechanisms of the format. "It's not at all a shortened version of a film or a series. You have to rethink everything: the rhythm, the emotions, the narrative structure. Traditional scripts don't work. I showed 25 American scripts to Flex, none of them were suitable." The question of cultural adaptation is at the heart of his work. While some plots from the Chinese web find their audience in the United States, others are met with incomprehension. " The vengeful mother character in Evil Bride vs. CEO's Secret Mom was too much for me. But at the same time, I wanted to see how it would end," he confides, amused. With Ember, Chris Wicke now wants to go further. He's preparing the launch of a 100% American app, focused on romance, the genre that works best, but with the ambition to explore other territories: horror, science fiction, comedy. "The vertical is the new Wild West. Everything remains to be invented." But the stakes are also industrial. For Wicke, failures like Quibi's are due to a misdiagnosis: "They wanted to impose Hollywood grammar on a format that came from elsewhere, with totally different usage logic. They invested millions in stars. It didn't work. Here, everything is based on immediate emotion." We wish Chris Wicke the best of luck in his ambition to expand the boundaries of duanju and contribute to its development on an international scale. If needed, activate subtitles in your language. #WenwenHan

Over the past decade, the way we watch series has changed profoundly. With the rise of streaming, binge-watching, watching episodes one after the other without a break, has become almost the norm. Netflix, almost in spite of itself, has imposed this model by making all seasons available as soon as they are released. Added to this is another phenomenon, already noted in 2017 by France Inter : "speed-watching." More and more viewers are speeding up their series, watching them at 1.25x or 1.5x, to save time without sacrificing content. In his column, the journalist explicitly notes: "It's the length of the episodes that will have to be shortened." This reflex illustrates a contemporary paradox: wanting to see everything, consume everything, without having the time. It also reveals a need among some users: that of brevity. In an article published in 2017, Alexandre Foatelli (INA) discusses the effects of binge-watching and speed-watching, which weaken silences, glances and breathing, discreet but essential elements of narration. In 2020, Olivier Joyard, in Les Inrockuptibles, took a critical look at this practice. Beyond saving time, he denounced a utilitarian consumption of the story: accelerated viewing transforms series into anecdotal objects, emptied of their tension and emotional charge. In 2023, Valérie Parlan, in Ouest-France, noted the anchoring of " speed-watching " in usage: almost a third of viewers would now resort to it, seeking to optimize their time. Finally, in 2025, Katia De la Ballina observed in Le Point a general exhaustion: overwhelmed by the offer, a majority of viewers admit to being tired of the inflation of content and the implicit obligation to follow everything. These findings reveal the lack of a truly suitable soap opera format. Already busy with busy days, viewers struggle to devote several hours to a series without feeling a kind of bitterness: that of having sacrificed too much of their lives to entertainment. Look better, look short: Asian responsiveness. Chinese producers and platforms have developed a new format: duanju. Driven by an already profitable economy, it is gaining popularity and is beginning to be exported. It offers episodes of 1 to 3 minutes. Whereas a classic series lasts ten hours in total, duanju condenses the entire plot into one hour. His challenge now will be to attract the most ambitious creators and artists of the genre. Article written by Guillaume Sanjorge #GuillaumeSanjorge Sources: • France Inter , January 3, 2017 • INA – The Media Review , September 25, 2017 • Les Inrocks , August 17, 2020 • Ouest-France , February 1, 2023 • Le Point , July 1, 2025

We're in London, and a new generation of creators is taking on the Duanju format. Among them, Onset Octopus is emerging as a key player in this transition to mobile drama. Already more than 15 series produced. Founded by producer Ben Pengilly , the studio is churning out vertical dramas delivered to platforms like DramaBox and ReelShort. Its team is cosmopolitan, experienced, and built for the vertical format. Samantha has produced six series since 2024, including My Serial Killer Lover . Award-winning director Dan Löwenstein blends dramatic tension with social issues. Hui Zhang, trained in China and at the London Film School, masters the codes of mobile storytelling. The studio also collaborates with Andrea Catinella, Jenn Ravenna Tran, and Henk Pretorius, from Italy, the United States, and South Africa, all specialists in short, visual, and effective storytelling. Onset Octopus aims to make the United Kingdom a new creative hub for vertical drama. Located in the heart of a pool of English-speaking actors, Pengilly benefits from a strategic advantage: offering content in English, the genre's main export language. Sources: • The Times , July 22, 2025

In the article " When Comics Created Weekly Suspense " I said, but without elaborating, that the arrival of digital had transformed the economic model of comics (although classic albums remain very numerous on the shelves of our bookstores!). This deserves to be addressed here. So let's go! This is direct online publication, which does not only mean a change of medium: these creations, from the end of the 90s of the 20th century, would influence major elements, such as graphic style or fragmented narration. And this for the better (rich and unforeseen innovations) or for the worse (facilities, inconsistencies, immediate correspondences with advertising concerns). See Maliki, XKCD or The Oatmeal. The link with the reader was also disrupted: possibilities of immediate reactions generating a new form of interaction. Apparent distancing of publishers in the usual sense of the term, although traditional publishing houses are also evolving by offering digital versions of their collections... While conversely, digital comics can give rise to... Paper editions! Applications were going to correspond to these new trends: Izneo, Tapas or Webtoon. We talk about scrolling format, namely the fact of scrolling content on a computer screen (scroller), including vertical reading (we know!). It is difficult to fully describe a fluid universe, by nature unstable, capable of doing without the famous text bubbles or of suddenly integrating elements of augmented reality, hyperlinks or even video games! Note, financially, for the actors, the new role of participatory financing ! What conclusion should we draw? But... should we draw a conclusion? This is a new stage still in progress: I have already mentioned, in my opinion, what are its clearly visible characteristics. Here at our Duanju site, we'll be keeping an eye out! As always... Article written by Jean-Marie Sanjorge #JeanMarieSanjorge

Following on from previous texts where I wanted to discuss the division of comics into well-known magazines and then their current evolution linked to new methods of distribution . Today I would like to talk about the practice of splitting that was once applied to literary works (including great novels that later became classics) through what was called the serial novel , a form of publication in episodes in widely circulated newspapers, magazines and even booklets, which captivated millions of readers. In this context, we found notions that are now familiar to us: As with the comics we talked about, daily or weekly suspense: each episode often ended with an expectation or a twist, encouraging readers to buy the next newspaper to "find out what happens next": we would call this nowadays a concern for... loyalty! In addition, even if it is not directly our subject, it should be noted that this "journalistic" format allowed the working classes to access literature as part of a general trend towards democratization... We have forgotten, for example, that Victor Hugo published some of his novels in serial form! The famous Les Misérables was published in several "episodes" in the form of booklets, like a serial, but in a more prestigious setting than a daily newspaper, which corresponded to the author's concern... Gustave Flaubert, despite his reluctance with regard to this process, accepted that Madame Bovary be published in serial form, but in La revue de Paris , a guarantee in his eyes of greater seriousness... Guy de Maupassant, for his part, made extensive use of the press, but mainly for his "short stories", therefore short, and not his novels. He published hundreds of short stories in famous newspapers of his time. His novels, such as Une vie , Bel-Ami or Pierre et Jean (1888) were sometimes pre-published in serial form. Maupassant perfectly mastered the rhythm of the serial, with twists and incisive portraits, but he remained fundamentally attached to a literary form more sober than the sensationalist serial novel. Outside France, the most striking example is that of the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Major novels such as Crime and Punishment , The Idiot , The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov were all published in serial form in various Russian magazines. This author thus aimed to reach a wide audience, especially since, being frequently in financial difficulty, he needed to quickly obtain the income he needed... Article written by Jean-Marie Sanjorge #JeanMarieSanjorge

The article published by 20 Minutes and signed by Camille Moretti is part of a now well-established "Duanjuphobic" trend: following the president of the CNC (National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image), some French media outlets, such as France Inter and Le Figaro , are approaching the phenomenon of vertical mini-series through the lens of mistrust, even suspicion. The format is becoming an object of concern rather than a subject for analysis. Nothing new, then: the same anxiety, the same defensive reading, the same inability to imagine what an ambitious French creation could be in this emerging field. To date, only Konbini journalist Delphine Rivet has truly posed the question on its proper scale: what to do with this format, how to invest in it, how to elevate it? Her article proposed demanding strong, intelligent or emotional works, and not reducing duanju to its excesses visible on social platforms. It is precisely this void that duanju.news attempts to fill: to show that another model is possible. A model that analyzes the format rather than fears it, that seeks creation rather than caricature, and that considers duanju not as a cultural threat but as a space where French fiction could finally dare to do something new. Read the 20 Minutes article by Camille Moretti: Link Article written by Guillaume Sanjorge #GuillaumeSanjorge #Duanjuphobia

From November 5 to 6, 2025, Shanghai will host the Global Traffic Conference, a major event dedicated to video games, digital applications, technologies, and brands seeking to expand internationally. Organized by Beluga Global, this event attracts thousands of professionals from China and many other countries each year. A program focused on global innovation The program will take place at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center and will feature several thematic summits. Discussions will focus on video games, artificial intelligence, vertical short fiction, and global brand development. Alongside the conferences, a vast exhibition area of 15,000 square meters will host nearly 200 exhibitors from diverse sectors, ranging from consumer technology to short fiction, AI, and video games. More than 30,000 attendees are expected, making this space an international showcase bringing together creators, investors, and digital industry players. The Beluga Pioneer Award, a showcase of international successes Each edition of the GTC is marked by the presentation of the Beluga Pioneer Award, which recognizes companies and creators who have significantly contributed to international expansion. In 2025, the evaluation committee will, for the first time, include the participation of a French producer, Guillaume Sanjorge, founder of the media outlet Duanju.news and president of the Studio Phocéen Association. He collaborates in particular with the Chinese platform Stardust TV, which distributes his productions. This development reflects Beluga Global’s commitment to strengthening the international scope of the event and fostering exchanges between different cultures within the digital industry. To learn more about the Beluga Pioneer Award 2025 and discover the jury members : here Registration : https://baijing.cn/z2M3U Sources: • Baijing.cn , 2025 • ClonBrowser , November 22, 2024