Vertical Drama: How Emerging Screenwriters Can Break In

A few months ago, my friend Maureen – the brilliant woman who used to run LondonSWF with me – called me up and said: ‘Please don’t judge me. I’m addicted.’

I asked her: addicted to what?

‘There’s this show,’ she said. ‘It’s called How to Tame a Silver Fox. It’s a vertical. And I can’t stop watching it.’

I had no idea what she was talking about. A vertical? Turns out the show has done over half a billion views. The platform charges anywhere from $15 to $20 per series, sometimes more on a monthly token model. And the entire industry behind it – micro-dramas shot in portrait mode, episodes ninety seconds to two minutes long, designed for the phone – has gone from ‘not a thing’ eight years ago to a juggernaut that now turns over more money in China than the Chinese film industry itself.

So when we sat down at LondonSWF this April with Dan Löwenstein – the UK director Duanju News recently dubbed the ‘King of Vertical Drama in the UK’ – I wanted to do two things. First, give the room the full picture of what’s happening. Second, and more importantly, answer the question I’m hearing more and more from emerging writers in our community:

Should I be writing for this?

Short answer: yes.

The film and TV industry is contracting. This isn’t.

You’ve heard the news from features and TV. Commissions down. Greenlights stalled. Productions delayed. It’s grim out there.

Now look at the other side of the table. In two years, Dan has directed 28 vertical dramas for the world’s biggest platforms – ReelShort (Pride & Prejudice), DramaBox (Mafia Obsession), JoyReels (My Rookie Agent), and more. He’s shot in the UK, Italy and Canada. He’s been featured in The Guardian, Deadline and Variety. Open Gardens just named him on their Ones to Watch list.

While the rest of the industry talks contraction, this corner is exploding. And – crucially – it’s hiring.

The barrier to entry is comically small

Here’s the part I want every emerging writer reading this to take in.

If you want to pitch a feature, you write a 100-page script, send it to a broadcaster, and wait three months for someone to read it. If you want to pitch a vertical, you write three to five episodes – about eight pages total – send them to a UK production company, and they can say yes or no in eight minutes.

Eight pages. Eight minutes. Let that sink in.

There are currently four or five production companies in London making vertical dramas on rotation, with more emerging up north. They’re small, nimble, and – Dan kept stressing this – actively looking for writers. The Chinese model that built this whole industry treats the screenwriter as the chief of everything, with final sign-off across the entire process. That isn’t the norm in Western film. But it’s how verticals work right now.

The gatekeeping just isn’t there yet.

The craft is real – but it’s different

Verticals aren’t features cut up. They’re their own form, with their own rules.

Episodes run ninety seconds to two minutes. Page counts run 85 to 150, chopped into those bite-sized chunks. Budgets sit around $180,000. Shoots are six to eight days, with one week of post. From green light to delivery: thirty days.

The first ten episodes are everything. Dan calls them ‘the holy ten’ – those are the episodes before the paywall hits, and they decide whether a viewer stays or walks. Everything you’d normally hold back in a feature – character arcs, tension, the reveal – you put on the page immediately. There’s no slow build. There’s no mystery box. The audience knows where this is going from episode one. Your job is to make them feel something hard enough that they tap ‘next.’

There’s even a thing called the ‘chin lift’ – a specific physical beat the data shows is the moment a viewer commits to staying. Every successful traditional vertical has at least twenty of them. That’s the level of precise, audience-led, data-driven storytelling we’re talking about. You’re writing for a viewer who’s holding a phone close to their face, often in bed, often late at night, paying real money to keep tapping.

It’s a craft. And like all crafts, you have to do it before you fully understand it.

What to do tonight

When I asked Dan what one piece of advice he’d give an emerging screenwriter chasing Netflix or Channel 4 in April 2026, here’s what he said.

1. Watch some. Download one of the vertical apps. Find a story in your genre and watch the first ten episodes. Feel the rhythm of the ninety-second hook, the cliffhangers, the way the hero or heroine ‘arrives.’ You have to understand the form before you can write in it.
2. Write a spec. Three to five episodes. Around eight pages total. Pick a genre that suits you – and if romance isn’t your thing, don’t worry. New platforms launching in the US are pushing into horror, crime, comedy, hospital drama. There’s room. Gamma Time started in true crime. The four or five US platforms launching in the next couple of months are run by feature producers from the Hollywood circuit who actively want to break the formula.
3. Email a production company. Google the four or five in London. Send your pages. Tell them you’ve done your research. Be brief. They will be grateful – they’re always looking for writers to pitch the platforms.
   
   

If you get a yes on your first spec, your first credit may not pay big. Dan was honest about that. Early fees can sit between $3K and $6K, rising to $8K once your script is accepted, and the top of the market commands $10K to $15K per script. Some Ukrainian apps pay lower, the bigger players like ReelShort and DramaBox sit at the upper end. Push hard to avoid pure buyouts – some companies are now offering back-end profit shares and even IP co-ownership, which is the smart deal to argue for.

But here’s the thing about first credits: they unlock the second one. And the third. I’ll happily take a badly-paid first credit if it leads to a properly-paid sixth.

We are in 1999 right now

Dan put it best on stage: ‘This is 1999 with the dot-coms. It’s a ship you definitely want to get onto.’

He’s right. This industry is too new for layers and gatekeepers. The producers are young and hungry. The platforms need writers faster than they can find them. Two or three UK broadcasters are already moving into the space – the bubble is bursting, or, as I prefer to think of it, expanding. Pulling people in.

If you’re an emerging writer in our community, this is your window. Watch a vertical tonight. Write three episodes this week. Send them by the end of the month.

You will not regret being early.

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About Dan Löwenstein

Dan Löwenstein has completed over 20 vertical drama projects in the last 18 months for leading platforms including ReelShort, DramaBox and JoyReels, bringing feature and TV-level craft to the format’s fast turnaround schedules. He’s been dubbed the ‘King of Vertical Drama in the UK’ by Duanju News and featured in The Guardian, Deadline and Variety. He recently wrapped international microdrama shoots in Italy and Canada, was named on Open Gardens’ Ones to Watch list, and is currently in development with two studios on new projects designed to evolve microdrama storytelling for both existing and new audiences.