Jennifer Cooper came across her first vertical drama while scrolling on TikTok.
The ad for a melodramatic series began to lay out the premise: a woman seeks revenge against her cheating boyfriend and mean family in a plot that involves seducing her boyfriend’s wealthy uncle.
Some of the tropes of jealousy and romance reminded Cooper of some longform Chinese dramas she’d been watching, and she quickly watched all the free minute-or-so-long episodes before shelling out the cash to see how the story would end.
Of course, the woman found love in the end, and triumphed against her terrible family. And Cooper, who has since started reviewing and making content about these kinds of series online, was sold on the trove of stories about billionaire romances, demanding bosses and vengeful vampires on the platform.
Welcome to the land of microdramas — outlandish stories served up in one- to two-minute chunks in a vertical aspect ratio, straight to your smartphone.
There are legions of apps dedicated to the content, which is heavily promoted on social media apps like TikTok. Though the individual videos are only a few minutes long, the whole story is usually told over dozens of videos, like a movie divided into chunks.
And while the plots might be predictable, the videos are drawing lots of attention — including from producers and talent here in Canada who are taking on the new medium.
Big industry in Asia
For those in the North American entertainment industry like TV journalist Elaine Low, the format conjures memories of Quibi, the mobile-first streaming platform filled with short videos designed for viewers to consume on the go, which shuttered in 2020 after less than a year in operation.
While the format didn’t pan out in North America then, Low says it has caught on in China in recent years.
The microdrama industry there reportedly raked in $7 billion US in 2024 — outperforming that country’s box office. Japan and South Korea are also hot on China’s heels as they’ve started making similar dramas, while the microdrama industry globally is expected to be worth $9.5 billion US by 2030.
“This is an industry that has been very robust in Asia for the past few years and has really only begun to make its entrance stateside over the last year, year and a half,” Low said.
Low says even traditional Hollywood studios are starting to take note of the trend. She points to Fox, which recently struck a deal with microdrama maker Holywater, while another vertical production company, DramaBox, received investment and partnership opportunities from Disney through their accelerator program last year.
Director Samantha MacAdams has worked on commercials and TV shows for a decade, but recently decided to take on a microdrama because they seem to be “taking over Hollywood.”
“The eyeballs are going there,” said MacAdams. “I think with the younger generation, they’re watching a lot of stuff on their phone. And so verticals are on the rise.”
Compensation, quality still up for debate
It’s caught on in Canada, too. While it’s unclear just how many microdrama productions have come to Hollywood North, actors like Evan Bacic have found stable work performing in them.
Bacic is currently filming his 38th vertical drama since taking his first role in one in June 2024. He says this new medium has given him a lot more work and allowed him to act full-time, as opposed to the gigs as a background actor and in commercials, which weren’t as consistent.
“These verticals just go, go, go,” Bacic said. “They provide a lot of work.”
He says the pace on a microdrama set is faster than other productions — where high-budget features will film a few pages of script per day, Bacic says they’re shooting 10 or more pages a day.
“I’ve done 20-page days before,” Bacic said. “So it’s very intense. You have to be quick at memorizing your lines. But it’s also very fun.”
Still, most of these new gigs aren’t unionized, which means workers’ wages and safety on microdrama sets have less protection.
“Any worker that’s involved in those productions has to have some way to access the revenue that is generated, because the work that we provide is what creates that success. So to me, that is one of the biggest issues,” said Kate Ziegler, president of ACTRA Toronto.
Ziegler says her organization has created a pilot project to help set limits for how much microdrama actors get paid for a day of shooting, as well as rules for the use of stunt and intimacy co-ordinators and for employing underage actors.
Only one project has come through the pilot program so far, Ziegler says, but she hopes for more.
“Our hope is that as vertical producers recognize the accessibility of the agreement and the talent that they can get a hold of, that we can sort of assert some power,” Ziegler said.
From the fan side, Cooper says a lack of racial diversity in the casting and reductive storylines are also a problem.
“It’s very white,” Cooper said. And “there has been a slip into stereotypes, of the security guard, or the thug, which obviously is hugely problematic.”
She says the storylines seem to rely on sensational details in order to cut through and grab attention on social media platforms where microdramas are often marketed.
Tim Zhou, CEO of Toronto-based Ottawood Film Studios, a company that makes microdramas, has heard the critics who say the writing and acting in verticals isn’t very good. He says “people need to be more patient.”
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Because the industry is so new, he says it’s going to take time for writers and directors to hone their skills in the format, and for more skilled ones to make the jump to verticals.
“Vertical is the future,” Zhou said. “As long as it grows the right way with, like, quality production … I think vertical is going to be a huge opportunity when it comes to [the] entertainment industry.”
