How to Make a Microdrama

The format in one paragraph

A microdrama is shot in 9:16 for a phone screen. Episodes usually run 60 to 120 seconds, a season usually runs 60 to 100 episodes, and every episode ends on a hook. VDJ's complete guide describes a pace of a new hook every 30 to 60 seconds. Those are industry norms, not rules, and platforms vary.

Write for the swipe

Each episode is one beat. Open on the problem, escalate once, and end on something the viewer has to see resolved. Scripts are short, often one to three pages an episode, and writers turn them around fast.

Pay for writers is mostly a flat fee per script with no residuals. The Vertical Frontier characterizes typical rates as about $2,000 per script, with experienced writers at $3,000 or more. Treat that as a guide, not a rate card.

Shoot fast, frame close

Shoots are short. VDJ's guide describes roughly ten days for a full series and fifteen to twenty script pages a day, against four or five on a traditional set. Close-ups and medium shots carry emotion on a small screen, so vertical directing leans on faces.

Budgets are modest. VDJ describes anecdotal figures from about $50,000 to a few hundred thousand dollars per series and says there is no audited data. For scale, the SAG-AFTRA Verticals Agreement signed in October 2025 covers productions under $300,000.

Where AI fits

AI filmmakers build whole series with generative tools. The practical problems are the same ones every team hits: keeping a character's face and wardrobe consistent across shots, prompting for a vertical frame from the first line, and finishing with human editing, sound and continuity checks.

At Micro Drama Summit, Austin Zartman walks through how he made ASHES, a 15 episode animated vertical series, for under $1,000. His session is on Wednesday, November 11.

Before you shoot anything

Write a one sentence premise. Pick a small cast and a few locations. Know where episode 10 ends, because that is where the paywall sits. Then decide who owns the IP before the first day of shooting, not after the first hit.