Vertical Shorts: An Actor's Brutally Honest Thoughts

I moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2024 with a goal of pursuing filmmaking and acting. And immediately, upon moving, I was floored by the amount of vertical shorts in production at the time. Since then, that number has only continued to increase.

And I’ve been fortunate to do a few of them, as well as pick the brains of people very in-the-know (more on that shortly). So, today I want to explore the meteoric rise of vertical short-form content with an actor’s perspective.

Now, if you’ve interacted with vertical shorts at all, you’ve likely heard horror stories about what the productions are like, and to be honest, I’m not very interested in repeating those. What I want to do instead is tell you a story.

It’s a story that was told to me on the last vertical short-form set I was on by a producer who has been working on verticals for the last few years, almost exclusively. It’s a story that was illuminating to me as an actor, so hopefully, you will find it useful as well.

What Are Vertical Shorts?

Let’s lay a little bit of groundwork. What is a vertical short?

First off, they’re meant to be viewed on your phone. So they are shot vertically, hence “vertical” in “vertical” short-form.

“Short” indicates the length of time. Typically 30 seconds to 45 seconds, but almost always less than a few minutes.

And lastly, they tend to be in the romance genre, with a slew of interchangeable sub-genres (paranormal, werewolves, vampires, westerns, mafia, CEO/corporate, University, etc.).

Vertical short-form content is generally funded by overseas companies, which is another thing we’ll get back to. And they are posted on large platforms like ReelShort, LokShorts, DramaBox, ShortMax, and many more.

The mechanism by which people enjoy vertical short-form content is very similar to what you might see on TikTok.

Watch an episode. Swipe up. Watch the next episode. Swipe up – rinse, repeat.

Insights from a Vertical Shorts Producer

Now that we’re all on the same page, here’s what I was told by a Producer who has been working in this space for the last few years.

Before you ask, no, I’m not going to name him or the companies he works for. In fact, I’m not going to name anyone specifically because that would be very, very stupid.

Our conversation mostly consisted of me asking him a deluge of questions and him politely responding, so I’ll frame it here that way as well.

Question 01: Who Funds Vertical Shorts?

I obviously can’t name specifics here (though he did give me a few), but generally what I was told that the vast majority of vertical short-form pieces of content are funded by overseas companies, typically in China, and they are funded by season.

The Producer told me that he had seen season budgets somewhere between $200,000 and $500,000.

I don’t fully know what the average episode count is per season, but I have seen audition scripts that are on like episode 30.

Question 02: Why So Many Overseas Companies?

The answer here was very surprising to me. Apparently, the vast majority of the vertical shorts that we’re seeing in production are based on, or at some point were based on existing IP in Asia.

Having that existing IP means that a built-in audience was coming to these shorts before they even showed up on distribution platforms.

This to me was a big light bulb moment because I personally know people who have tried to start their own vertical short-form pieces of content and not found any success. This indicates to me that the money that’s being made on these is really being made in a different way than we might expect.

Question 03: How Are These Things Profitable?

The first part of the answer to this question has to do with something we’ve already talked about: really low budgets.

$200,000 to $500,000 for an entire season of programming is not that much when you break it down. On the days I have done vertical shorts, there are typically anywhere from 10 to 30 people on set, and shoots last a few weeks at a time.

So $200,000 to $500,000 to pay all those people plus cover production costs is almost nothing.

With production costs low, all you really have to figure out is how to make the money on the back end. I’ve heard a few models here, but the one that the producer said was the most likely was that the first few episodes of any given vertical short are offered for free, then there is a paywall inserted at a very deliberate part of the process.

Question 04: How Do They Write These?

The Producer’s answer was that the writing of the vertical shorts is directly connected to the subscription model.

On every few sentences, you must have some crazy or sexy thing occur that’s going to grab attention. And, at the end of every episode, you must leave on a cliffhanger. I was told the majority of the script notes received from the Executive Producers on these projects had to do with those two elements.

So, the model is: interesting, interesting, interesting, as little fluff as possible, big bang at the end. Rinse and repeat for an entire season.

He also told me, and I’m sure if you’re an actor who’s auditioned for some of these, you already know this, that many of these scripts are written by A.I.

Question 05: Why Aren't American Companies Doing These?

When I asked this question, The Producer sort of shrugged and said he wasn’t fully sure. He knew that some companies had tried and not really found success.

His best guess was that the IP laws in the United States make it too restrictive or expensive to take existing IP and do what you’d need to in order for it to be successful.

Helpful Tips for Actors

If you haven’t been on a vertical set, it may be surprising to you how they actually operate. So, let me give you a little bit of a breakdown of what I have noticed.

Before I get into this, let me just say that these verticals really do range from super independent to pretty high budget, so you’re going to see a good range of sizes of set, number of people on set, amenities, etc. Everything I’m offering is just a sort of general trend line that I’ve noticed throughout the form as a whole.

Multi-cam

One thing that is almost always present on vertical shorts is multi-cam, and oftentimes these cameras are set up very, very close to each other, just getting slightly different angles.

You’ll then see on the playback monitor a frame that split vertically showing the feeds from all of the camera in a vertical format so the director can see literally every angle at the same time.

Page Count Per Day

Another really, really important aspect of verticals is the page count per day. Now, typically on an indie film set, for instance, you’re going to be covering two to four pages per day. Verticals tend to be much, much, much higher than that.

Ten to fifteen pages a day tend to be pretty average because, again, you’re shooting an entire season of something in a couple of weeks.

This means that we have got to find a way to be okay with script changes because they will happen a lot and to go with the flow of whatever is happening in the scene.

Go back and think about what I said about how these things are written. They’re not written with an eye toward character growth and that means our approach as actors must change to suit the form.

Vertical shorts are written towards big, dynamic moments and cliffhangers. So the acting style here is less about script and more about beats.

Dialogue Changes and Improv

Th writing goals paired with the high page count per day, means that actors on verticals change the dialogue ALL. THE. TIME.

In this way, verticals present a really interesting opportunity to us as actors where we are informed by the script but not necessarily bound to it. It’s a really good place to flex our improv skills, our larger caricature skills, and to learn how to build these really big, dynamic, interesting characters that are not necessarily rooted in authenticity but in a large, presentational style that hasn’t really been in vogue since The Method came along.

A LOT of Work Is Out There

Another opportunity verticals afford us (at least for now) is working a lot. Everybody knows Los Angeles is pretty dry in terms of available work at the moment. And that is very much not the case with vertical shorts. You can work every single day on a vertical set if you want to – very, very easily.

Now that having been said, vertical sets do tend to run long in my experience. They also tend to be scrappier than indie film sets (though not always). So doing them every single day would be pretty exhausting if you ask me, but there are people who are on that path and I say more power to them.

It's a Different Beast

A common criticism I hear from actor friends of mine is that the quality of the acting work itself in vertical short forms is just not high enough to justify doing them. To that, I can only respond by saying think about this more as an opportunity to embrace a different style of acting that’s oriented towards different goals.

The vertical actors I know who are building careers in this space are treating it as distinct from their other acting work. They have vertical reels, they have multiple kinds of character reels for those vertical reels. And they’re building it all as if it is an entirely separate entity, almost like you would for voice-over.

In my mind, there’s absolutely no reason not to do that unless you just can’t stomach the idea of a more presentational, over-the-top, big-fun style of acting.

In Closing

In closing, it really does seem like the form of vertical shorts aren’t going anywhere any time soon. And I think given enough time, we’ll see American production companies and distributors find a way to make this space work as well.

I think anybody who is not actively pursuing this right now is setting themselves up to be left behind. Though it does have its distinct challenges, I very much think every actor who can work in this space should at least try it.

So, what has your experience been like with vertical short-form content as an actor? Are you enjoying it? Do you hate it? Tell me everything in the comments.

Thank you so much for checking out this article and be sure to follow me on all the socials. And check out my acting work, if you’re feeling it.