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Jennifer Cooper came across her first vertical drama while scrolling on TikTok.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s wealthy uncle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of the tropes of jealousy and romance reminded Cooper of some longform Chinese dramas she\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Welcome to the land of microdramas \u2014 outlandish stories served up in one- to two-minute chunks in a vertical aspect ratio, straight to your smartphone. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
And while the plots might be predictable, the videos are drawing lots of attention \u2014 including from producers and talent here in Canada who are taking on the new medium.<\/p>\n