Fantasy Vertical Series - is anyone here watching them/writing them?

[BeneathCrimsonSails]

Hey all!

Curious if anyone here has been watching the fantasy vertical series that are starting to come out now, or if anyone's been writing them?
I just did a pirate action/adventure one, and had a blast (seriously, had a moment where we were filming it where it felt like a dream, entirely surreal to see the fantasy world that lived in your imagination come off the page into reality)
Would love to connect with fellow fantasy screenwriters, and especially anyone working on these, or if anyone's curious, happy to share my experience - it's a super exciting space to write in, but definitely comes with its own challenges.

 

[pmmg]

Dont even know what it is.

 

[BeneathCrimsonSails]

Fair enough - they're super new, and there's just a few fantasy ones starting now, but basically it's sort of like if you condensed a miniseries into the length of a feature film, and filmed it vertically, specifically designed for watching on your phone.
The ones that exist now are pretty soapy and cheesy, but as an indie screenwriter, it's going to be intriguing to see if it can grow into a new space for interesting fantasy.
The part that I find exciting is how it's definitely a lower-budget space for fantasy screenwriting that doesn't need multi-million dollar budgets to make a project happen - hoping it opens up opportunity for screenwriters to break in, especially with more interesting scripts and new voices that normal film and tv studios wouldn't take the risk on.

 

[pmmg]

Well. There are some screen writers here, most notably Demesnedenoir. While i dont know much about vertical filming, still know a lot about story.

 

[BeneathCrimsonSails]

Ah awesome! Honestly, a good story is the beating heart. Especially with low-budget fantasy films - it costs the same to film a meh story as it does an amazing story, so taking the time to get the story just right is the easiest way to make a low-budget film as good as it possibly can be.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Yeah, I haven't had my feet in the screenwriting waters for 20+ years, and got my feet wet enough in H'wood to know the water wasn't to my taste, LMAO. Indie films were always an interest and had one built up for a 50k budget at one point before pulling the plug when a couple of people were forced to drop. Story is king, unless you have the budget of Avatar, heh heh. Although even that had a sound, albeit shallow and horrifically cliché story.

I could see vertical fantasy as an interesting niche.

 

[eom]

Hi there, am new here. Have worked in film as a VFX Artist for 3 decades and I have some direct experience with I am also transitioning to Film Directing/Writing/Producing, trying to leverage my experience in the Film Industry. I have heard about Vertical Media trying to become a format for episodic and Film, more for short content though. I've heard this sort of content is becoming quite popular in Asia. I personally am not so sure about it's chance of success for long form media. The whole essence of the vertical stuff is to hook people and keep them flicking their thumb I think, more than watching same thing for too long? I could be wrong of course. I just much prefer the traditional horizontal formats myself.