Join us for the ‘Reframing the Narrative: Vertical Storytelling’ panel at this year’s Forum. In the discussion, we’ll bring together creators and representatives from different platforms to explore business models, narrative structures, production flows and exciting new opportunities in vertical storytelling. Find out more about the Forum here.
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Beneath micro-drama’s mountain of contract brides, secret billionaires, and AI-generated fruit cheating on their wives (a balding watermelon to be exact), there’s a real question: can vertical cinema be good? Yes, I used the word “cinema,” but before you revoke my cinephile card, hear me out. Merriam-Webster defines cinema as “the art, technique, or business of making movies,” and micro-dramas already qualify on the last two. The business is booming and the technique is being invented in real time. The harder question is the first one: the art. Raindance Film Festival founder Elliot Grove called vertical “cinema, but without the distance.” To find out whether that’s true, we’ll trace the format back to its silent-film era roots and look at where it’s already experimenting. But first: what even is a micro-drama? 

For many, micro-dramas, also known as “verticals,” are the quick, high-stakes, sometimes absurd videos suddenly flooding your social media feed. But this format has been around for years. Originating in China, where they’re known as duanju, micro-dramas are mobile-native stories told in a 9:16 frame and typically feature one-to two-minute episodes that end on cliffhangers. While the cliffhanger is nothing new, the way it’s sold has changed. In the 1910s, audiences paid a nickel a week to find out if the heroine survived. Today’s vertical platforms typically offer the first several episodes for free, then ask for payment at the height of emotional investment. So, if you really want to see that werewolf kiss, it’s going to cost you. 

Among my filmmaking community, the objection is usually: movies are widescreen. And they’re not wrong about what a vertical frame gives up. It trades the horizon, a sweeping landscape, and space between two people. But the sacred widescreen frame was not always law. Early films were closer to a square frame and it wasn’t until the 1950s, when studios introduced CinemaScope to lure audiences away from television, that widescreen became the standard. The frame we all love was, in part, a business decision. Sound familiar? What vertical gives up in width, it gains in height, intimacy, and close-ups with nowhere to look away. 

It’s fitting that a format built on silent-film era cliffhangers inherits that era’s craft. Since many viewers are watching in transit or at work, micro-drama filmmakers can’t assume they have the audience’s complete attention. With [85% of viewers reported to watch mobile content on mute], micro-dramas rely on high stakes, text on screen, and facial expressions to carry the story. As The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) director Carl Theodor Dreyer put it, “Nothing in the world can be compared to the human face. It is a land one can never tire of exploring.”

“Vertical cinema’s accessibility has the potential to empower more people to become filmmakers. It’s an art form that allows filmmakers to dream beyond traditional boundaries using simple tools like phones.” –Andrew Acedo, The Academy Museum

With each micro-drama ranging from 50 to 100 minutes total run time, the end product is close to a feature film. Blending the cinematic production of movies, the episodic nature of television, and the engagement mechanics of gaming, micro-drama is really a hybrid medium. Producer Elizabeth Dell calls it “a new language for storytelling.” Dell, who heads micro-dramas for Issa Rae’s Hoorae Media, says “verticals allow us to tell different sized stories.” And clearly there’s an audience for them. After Hoorae’s “Screen Time” garnered nearly 75 million views in its first week, micro-dramas became the talk of the town. 

In just the last few months, studios, networks, and streaming platforms have started moving into the vertical space. However, vertical platforms like DramaBox built an audience of millions before Hollywood started paying attention. DramaBox Head of Communications, Marcela Kartaszewicz, argues that Hollywood’s late arrival isn’t a sign it missed something. “It’s a sign they’ve recognized this is a genuinely new way to consume entertainment, one that doesn’t compete with existing formats but expands what’s possible alongside them.” 

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures was ahead of the curve with its 2023 exhibit, “Shifting Perspectives: Vertical Cinema.” In partnership with Ghetto Film School, the exhibit featured 15 filmmakers from underrepresented backgrounds who created vertical films using mobile devices. Andrew Acedo, the museum’s manager of community and impact, explained that the museum saw the format as a way to “awaken the filmmaker in people and reclaim agency for underrepresented voices.” Acedo encourages filmmakers to take the format seriously and push boundaries. “Vertical cinema’s accessibility has the potential to empower more people to become filmmakers. It’s an art form that allows filmmakers to dream beyond traditional boundaries using simple tools like phones.”

Of course, any new medium comes with growing pains, and micro-dramas have had theirs. Veteran producer Effie Brown comes to the format from the independent film world. She compares early verticals to bodice-ripper romance novels, entertaining, but carrying real problems, including consent issues that still surface in some productions today. Her focus now is building sustainable systems that ensure fair pay, proper insurance, and adequate overhead for the filmmakers making them. 

Matthew Ko, co-founder of Knockout Shorts, is working toward something similar. His union-friendly studio has worked with Oscar-nominated actors, evidence that the format can meet traditional standards when the will is there. Ko is candid that many in the space have been making micro-dramas since 2020 without those protections, but change is underway. As new filmmakers enter the scene, he hopes to see the pioneers of the vertical format honored for the work they put in to build its foundation.

“This is a genuinely new way to consume entertainment, one that doesn’t compete with existing formats but expands what’s possible alongside them.” –Marcela Kartaszewicz, Dramabox

Part of what’s drawing those new filmmakers in is the price of entry. Because vertical budgets are so much lower than film and television, creators don’t have to wait for permission. The vertical industry is more willing to take risks and (gasp!) actually make things. In this way, micro-dramas are democratizing filmmaking. Writer Daniela Bailes says verticals have a lower barrier with greater opportunity to showcase diverse cultures and unique storylines that wouldn’t be possible in traditional media. Vertical director Danny Farber calls it “a true place for people to try things.”

For those of us creating in the vertical space, it’s exciting to see the form taken seriously, even if everyone isn’t ready to. At the advent of film, playwrights turned up their noses. The same happened when television was born, and again when a company that was previously known for sending DVDs in red envelopes started creating original content. Micro-dramas will never replace traditional film, but they do give filmmakers another language to choose from.

So, can vertical cinema be good? In some ways, it already is. “Screen Time” had audiences at the edge of their seats with a comment section that made it a communal experience. The stars of CandyJar’s love stories have more chemistry than most current rom-coms on the big screen. And although not a full length micro-drama, InStyle’s “The Boss” with Julia Fox is genuinely funny. Talking AI-fruit aside, there are a lot of real humans with real talent behind this budding industry. At their best, micro-dramas are cinema without the distance and stories close enough to hold. To the filmmakers who are curious about verticals, the clay is still wet. The shape it takes next depends on whose hands are in it. 

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Photo by Rapha Wilde on Unsplash