The term micro-cinema (wei dianying) suggests a low-budget, amateur film made with cheap equipment and distributed underground or via the Internet.

But that's not entirely true anymore, both around the world and particularly in China, where the number of Internet users has risen beyond 500 million and the number of Internet users on mobile devices over 300 million.

"We have really been trying to get these micro-movies to a new level since last year. The idea of micro-movie was once just a very vague concept, but now it has evolved into a new product with potential to generate great commercial interest and is still rapidly growing," Samuel Liu, general manager of the original programming center of the popular video host website Tudou.com, tells Shanghai Daily.

The widely viewed site has launched five homemade micro-movies with 12 episodes since last year and the click rate of one love story "How Are You? I'm Fine" is already beyond 100 million.

Going popular

The amateur short films - mostly collages of existing clips or shots on mobile phones or computers with cameras - first became popular in China back in 2005, but the technology at the time restricted the quality of videos and loading speed.

In the past two years, evolving technology has made it possible to conveniently watch high-definition short films via the Internet, and many viewers are doing just that.

There's no standard form, content or length, but in general micro-movies are less than 30 minutes long, produced within a few weeks and distributed only via the Internet.

Tudou's hosting experience shows that the most popular videos are sweet love stories 12 to 15 minutes long.

Awakening to the commercial potential of micro-films, video-hosting websites, all kinds of companies and artists are jumping into this emerging industry, if it can be called that at this early stage. They have upgraded the once-amateur films to those of better quality, faster speed, with bigger budgets and better-known casts and crews.

The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) held a Mobile SIFF last year, but this year's edition from June 16 to 24 has upgraded the one-day micro-cinema festival to a new level. It will feature 25 movies in five categories (feature, comedy, suspense, animation and documentary). The date has not been decided.

The films can be viewed on that day - not on websites or mobile devices - but in cinemas, which seems a bit contradictory since the micro-films were not intended to be watched in movie theaters.

Famous and award-winning film directors have also helped push micro-movies to a higher and more mainstream level by making such movies themselves, joined by celebrity actors and actresses as well as pop stars.

These adventurous directors include Jiang Wen, whose "Let the Bullets Fly" (2010) set a domestic record by breaking the 100-million-yuan (US$16 million) box office mark in just a week; Ann Hui, who has won awards in Hong Kong and Taipei; Gu Changwei, cinematographer of "Red Sorghum" (1987) and director of "Peacock" (2005); and Lu Chuan, director of "Kekexili" or "Mountain Patrol" (2004).

"There is a paradox in the Chinese film industry, if you have never made a film, you will never have the chance to," says Chen Xiaoyun, a professor from the Beijing Film Academy.

"The trend toward micro-movies provides a good platform for young filmmakers to try their talents and get their names out there, so that they won't suffer the consequences of this peculiar situation," Chen adds.

It is hard for young filmmakers to break into the Chinese film industry because it lacks the low- to medium-budget films that can help young directors establish their careers. Investors are unlikely to risk their money, commonly over 100 million yuan for a feature-length film, on someone they have never heard of.

For years, this lack of exposure and a springboard has been a major problem for potentially promising directors.

Micro-movies and online platforms provide that exposure and opportunity.

Commercial potential

"Young filmmakers like me definitely need to be working on films all the time to learn, develop and sharpen our teeth, but there isn't much chance here because we only have around 10 huge-budget films every year that are done by big-name directors," says Derek Chen, a 25-year-old advertiser and independent filmmaker. "We just finance our own films, which is not sustainable."

Now Chen is making his first micro-movie, sponsored by a fashion brand.

"It has limitations because it is customer-ordered like an advertisement, but it leaves more creative space than the usual ads, and it gives us hope to see more opportunities like this in the future," he says.

Chen is riding a new wave. Many websites, production companies and organizations have launched programs and raised funds to sponsor young filmmakers in micro-movies.

The large number of viewers has also attracted many product companies to allocate promotion funds for micro-movies, especially those companies targeting young people, the same group that watches Internet micro-movies.

A recent survey by Beijing Normal University indicates that nearly 30 percent of micro-movie viewers are under 19 years old, 29 percent are 20 to 29 while 38.6 percent viewers are willing to watch more than once.

For certain product and service companies, micro-movies make sense as an investment. The outlay is much smaller than that for feature films and the returns are realized much faster. This is good news at a time when reports show that China's movie industry is growing more slowly than expected.

These companies, mostly making products, are one of the largest profit sources of micro-movies, but it remains to be seen whether tiny flicks can smoothly develop into an independent industry and generate "box office" profits from viewers.

"Micro-films have developed rapidly, but at the moment it is still attached to other industries and its future lies in the technological development of mobile devices in China, because ultimately that is the ideal platform for micro-movies," says Samuel Liu from Tudou. "Currently, it is still too expensive to watch videos on mobiles."