At China’s Biggest Studio Complex, Tourists Pay to Play the Lead

ZHEJIANG, East China– At China’s biggest movie and tv production base, seasoned director Zheng Zhongfu was taking his 2 leads through a fight in between a prince and his mistreated spouse.

“In my previous life, you gouged out my heart and left me to pass away in the wilderness,” he recited, revealing them how to provide the line and where to look. “In this life, I will reclaim whatever that comes from me.”

Qi Kexin and his partner listened carefully. When the cams rolled, they captured each other’s eye and burst into laughter, requiring Zheng to call cut. Once again.

“The feeling needs to land … your look needs to focus,” he advised them. “Whatever you do, do not laugh. Let’s go once again.”

Qi, 48, and his better half were travelers at Hengdian World Studios in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, where visitors can pay 388 yuan ($60) per individual to star in a brief drama of their own. Qi had actually reserved the shoot on an impulse after finding the experience on Douyin, China’s variation of TikTok.

The plan consists of outfits, makeup, and recording, with studio entertainers filling the supporting functions. Visitors invest about an hour in makeup and on set, in some cases longer if they include scenes or require extra training. 2 days later on, they get an ended up two-minute drama with a total story.

Earlier traveler shoots necessary groups of 3 to 5 and a minimum of 2 hours, stated Wu Yizhuo, who supervises the service at Hengdian World Studios. “Individual travelers with jam-packed schedules discovered that tough to accept.” His group established much shorter shoots that a single visitor might reserve.

Visitors can now pick from almost 30 scripts composed by personnel film writers, making use of styles from Chinese social networks and the nation’s growing ultrashort drama market, consisting of palace intrigue, martial arts dream, and love including aggressive CEOs.

Wu’s group asks visitors whether they wish to play a hero or a bad guy. The majority of pick bad guys as a method to alleviate tension, he stated, with “gratifying vengeance” stories specifically in need.

Amateur hour

Qi picked a palace intrigue script in which he plays a prince who wishes to divorce his better half for another female. His real-life better half plays the mistreated partner, who turns the tables on him with an emperor’s order and a sword.

After a worried start, the set started to settle into their functions as Zheng coached their discussion and motions. Their sleeve flicks and sword draws ended up being more ensured. “You accomplished!” he called from behind the cam after one take.

By the time the shoot covered, Qi had a brand-new regard for expert stars. “You need to remember lines, differ your tone, and include feeling. You can’t take care of whatever simultaneously,” he stated.

“Actors actually have it hard. It genuinely takes ability,” Qi included. “We’re simply messing around– we’re far behind the specialists.”

Zheng had actually invested years directing qualified stars before he started shooting travelers in Hengdian this summer season. He breaks challenging lines into smaller sized pieces, in some cases splitting a sentence throughout 3 shots to reduce the pressure on visitors, and intends to end up recording in about 30 minutes.

Expert teams are major and not especially pleasant while shooting, Zheng stated. With travelers, the focus is on involvement and keeping the set vibrant. “They might not care much about the last movie’s quality. The main point is to come here and enjoy.”

Zheng is open to visitors including scenes or lines, or changing into dialect. “As long as the last movie works well, it’s great,” he stated. “The more drama there is, the more totally they carry out– and the more they share it on social networks.”

On the day Sixth Tone went to Hengdian, Zheng moved directly from Qi’s shoot to his next entertainer, Zhang Zhongfeng. The 58-year-old farm owner had actually driven more than 2,000 kilometers from the southwestern Sichuan province with her child for the experience. She had actually never ever acted and fidgeted when she discovered her child had actually scheduled a strive her.

Zhang selected palace intrigue, and Zheng customized a function to her age and character. As soon as recording started, her commanding existence shocked him. Observers misinterpreted her for among the studio entertainers.

Her child, Su Jing, 35, recorded a princess scene at another set the next day. “It’s a bit more complex than shooting yourself with a phone, however much easier than a huge motion picture– no substantial variety of lines to remember, and personnel guide you throughout,” she stated. “It’s like an updated variation of travel photography.”

Zheng stated the experience was drawing growing varieties of visitors, especially throughout vacations. Almost 3,000 individuals have actually participated considering that the bundle introduced in July.

Around 2010, Hengdian generally hosted big-budget movies and big television productions with long shooting schedules, Wu, who manages the traveler service, remembered. Before one production ended up, the next was currently scheduled. “Vertical-screen brief dramas have actually given that ended up being more typical, while big productions have actually decreased,” he stated.

In current months, less expensive AI production and cuts in platform funding have actually minimized live-action shoots. In Hengdian, the weekly typical variety of shooting teams apparently fell almost 25% year on year in the very first half of 2026.

On peak days, Wu’s group manages 30 to 40 groups of travelers. When its routine personnel can not cover the reservations, the studio employs regional part-time employees. Zheng movies traveler dramas as a member of one such outsourced group.

Giovana Velasco, a traveler from Peru, very first checked out Hengdian in 2015, when the experience wasn’t readily available, she remembered. After finding it on Trip.com this year, she scheduled a shoot and selected to play a turned down child looking for vengeance.

She practiced lines in Chinese, Spanish, and English, fought nerves and laughter, and often count on body movement to remain in character. Her shoot took two times as long as those of Chinese visitors. She is currently preparing another journey to play a computing sis and surprise her TikTok fans.

A Shanghai traveler surnamed Xia selected a scene from the 2011 Chinese duration drama “Empresses in the Palace” in which her character slaps a housemaid who has actually struck her. She reserved the shoot after seeing influencers carry out in Hengdian on social networks. “Just for enjoyable, out of interest,” she joked.

Before she provided the slap, the director showed how to draw her restore to make the motion look larger on electronic camera. The completed movie showed up 2 days later on, faster than she anticipated. Xia was impressed by the image quality, the background, and her own styling and makeup.

When she shared it with buddies, numerous desired her to take them along to movie one themselves. They asked, “Where’s the next episode?”

Extra reporting: Xu Ruishuo and Xiao Chuhan; editor: Apurva.

(Header image: A team movies travelers in Hengdian, Zhejiang province, September 2026. Wu Huiyuan/Sixth Tone)