DUANJU  NEWS

On June 14, 2025, at the second public screening of the Duanju format organized by Studio Phocéen association in Paris, British journalist Jen Cooper opened the evening with a remarkable video presentation. Founder of the specialized media Vertical Drama Love and initiator of the genre's Fan Awards , she shared a personal and illuminating vision of this new fiction format. A former bookseller with a passion for romance, Jen Cooper presents herself as a "typical" viewer of these vertical miniseries (Duanju). A busy mother of two teenagers, like many others, she spent a long time searching for formats suited to her desires: accessible, quality romances, without time or platform constraints. Faced with Hollywood production deemed impoverished and traditional television often disappointing, she discovered vertical dramas by chance via TikTok : "I wanted something simple, emotional, that would fit in the palm of your hand. And suddenly, it was there." What she describes is a shift to a new way of consuming fiction: fast, direct, mobile. Vertical dramas , or duanju , offer episodes of 1 to 3 minutes, designed from the writing stage for the smartphone format. And above all: focused on immediate experience. For Jen Cooper, this emotional effectiveness explains the format's global success, particularly among female audiences. Vertical drama doesn't seek to imitate cinema or television: it invents its own codes, often closer to social media. While Asia largely anticipated this revolution, Europe is only just beginning to take an interest in it. Jen Cooper's talk highlights how the genre can reach a wide audience, beyond the clichés about "younger generations." Through Vertical Drama Love , she maps this global shift and advocates for the recognition of often invisible creators. Discover her blog: https://www.verticaldramalove.com/ #JenCooper

On June 14, 2025, during the second public screening evening organized by Studio Phocéen association in Paris on the Duanju, Chinese producer Wenwen Han opened the videoconference with a striking intervention. Founder of the Short Drama Alliance and host of the Short Drama Decode channel, she shared a rich and documented presentation on the rise of short fiction in China. Wenwen Han places the duanju format within a long history: that of Chinese online novels, which appeared in the 1990s and were published chapter by chapter, sometimes in thousands of episodes. As these stories captivated an ever-growing readership, an economic system emerged: readers paid to unlock the next chapter. From this emerged a culture of fast-paced soap operas, poised to transition to video. “Mini-dramas are like an audiovisual beta version of our online novels.” Wenwen Han's talk offered the audience a behind-the-scenes look at this booming industry. She emphasized the role of screenwriters, who are often invisible, and the importance of connecting creators from around the world to grow this format. By launching the Short Drama Alliance , she hopes to open a dialogue between countries that are already ahead of the curve, like China, and those that are just discovering it, like France. “Vertical fiction is a new language, and now is the time to learn it.” Check out his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ShortDramaDecode #WenwenHan

On June 14, 2025, during the second public screening evening organized by Studio Phocéen association in Paris, Californian professional Karla M. Rodriguez delivered a presentation on the evolution of formats and new production dynamics around duanju. A former Sony Pictures and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences employee , Karla M. Rodriguez helped pioneer the mobile video boom by joining Vogue and Condé Nast . She now works in casting and partnership development for several short fiction platforms. A transformation of the audiovisual landscape In her talk, Karla M. Rodriguez looks back at the transition that has taken place in Hollywood over the past decade. When she was working in unscripted TV content development at Sony , she observed a gradual decline in the sector, directly linked to the decline of linear TV: "Everyone is streaming, no one is watching the channels anymore. And many are on YouTube or mobile." This transformation in usage led her to turn to more agile and digital formats. At Vogue , she participated in the production of both horizontal and vertical videos, designed for the web and social networks. There, she discovered the importance of short formats focused on talent, such as the series " 71 Questions " or " What's in My Bag ." From fashion publishing to vertical fiction This detour through fashion media opens the way to the world of duanju, which she sees as a hybrid space, at the crossroads of the worlds of influence, series and streaming. For her, vertical dramas allow a new generation of creators to "work in innovative environments, faster and connected to the reality of mobile uses . " Now based in California, Karla Rodriguez assists platforms in identifying talent and structuring projects designed from the outset for vertical storytelling. She emphasizes the strategic value these formats represent for professionals seeking diversity, rapid impact, and global reach. “This format is designed for instantaneous production. For talents who want to create quickly and be visible quickly. And that changes everything.”

On June 14, 2025, during the second public screening evening organized by the Studio Phocéen association in Paris, Mexican screenwriter Yamile Vaena shared her author's perspective on the narrative upheavals brought about by vertical fiction. A writer since childhood, rewarded for her first youth stories, Yamile Vaena has explored all formats: short stories, novels, advertising, audio, series, podcasts... before becoming one of the most prolific screenwriters in vertical drama. Her series (A Bride for the Devil, Teach me, touch me, The Alpha's Mate That Calls Wolf...) are among the most viewed on the MyDrama platform , where she is also a consultant and showrunner. A new narrative language In her talk, Yamile Vaena talks about how she learned to completely rethink her writing to move from novel to screenplay, then from traditional screenplay to vertical series. "When you write a novel, you develop the characters with words. In a screenplay, you tell the story through actions. But in vertical writing, you have to condense everything into a few seconds." She compares this constraint to the arrival of Twitter and its 140-character messages, which forced writers to get to the point. She says it's a fascinating exercise that has transformed the way she conceives of plots and characters. The urgency to capture attention With the influence of TikTok and short-form formats, speed has become a key to success. This constraint forces screenwriters to adopt a more direct pace. And this opens the way to new genres. While romance still dominates, thrillers, comedies, and psychological dramas are gaining ground. When she started writing for these platforms, Yamile faced doubts from her peers: "People asked me why I was leaving feature films for this. But today, it's vertical formats that are evolving, that are gaining momentum. That's where it's happening." She also discusses her current work with producers who are investing in ambitious vertical series, with a demand for narrative and production quality: "It's a new field of innovation."

During the event organized by the Studio Phocéen association on June 14, 2025 in Paris, the British producer Adam Gee, who came especially for the occasion, delivered a reflection on the place of mobile creation in the contemporary audiovisual landscape. Five-time BAFTA and Emmy Award winner Adam Gee has long been at the forefront of British television, pioneering formats such as Embarrassing Bodies (a mainstream, interactive health show on Channel 4) and Big Art Mob (a collaborative online project mapping public art on Britain's streets). He is now exploring vertical formats and the narrative possibilities offered by smartphones. A new wave of mobile cinema Adam Gee presented the Smart Film Fest at the event, an international festival he co-founded dedicated to films shot with smartphones. The entries ranged from scripted dramas to factual films, in both horizontal and vertical formats. But as he notes, “most of the vertical ones are scripted dramas,” already showing a clear trend from the first edition. For Gee, the smartphone is a powerful tool for today’s storytellers: direct, accessible, and intimate. He compares this new freedom of creation to that of the Nouvelle Vague directors, who also embraced lightweight technology to break with the codes of traditional cinema. “It’s the tool of this generation,” he says. He insists that this creative form is not a subgenre of TV or advertising: “It’s a different language. Not polite, but immediate. An art of the moment.” As an example, he cites Missed Call, a short film he produced with Victoria Mapplebeck, which won a BAFTA TV Award. Shot entirely on a smartphone, it later inspired a feature film made from twenty years of footage across six generations of iPhones. The result is a kind of real-life Boyhood, chronicling an autobiographical journey through time. Gee concludes that these short, often vertical formats are no longer marginal or niche. “They’re coming from all around the world,” he affirms, highlighting their growing presence and potential in shaping a new, vibrant visual culture.

During the screening organized by the Studio Phocéen association on June 14, 2025 in Paris, Alexandre Perrin and Adrien Cottinaud presented StoryTV, their streaming platform dedicated to vertical micro-series designed for mobile. Formerly a creative director at Chefclub, Alexandre Perrin comes from a social media background and has mastered the codes of mobile attention. Adrien Cottinaud, who has a background in classic television writing, brings expertise focused on emotion and the art of suspense. Together, they design series that hook the viewer from the first second: "The idea is not to copy TV, but to tell a different story," Alexandre Perrin explained during the event. The platform offers micro-series of 1 to 3 minutes per episode, filmed vertically, with a fast narrative rhythm and a structure designed for viewing on smartphones. During their presentation, they detailed how the integration of cliffhangers every 20 to 30 seconds promotes retention and sharing. A market to conquer Story TV's founders insist that the European market is still "virgin" in terms of high-quality production duanju, while Asia is already saturated. In the interview given to Vertical Drama Love on June 29, 2025, the co-founders point out that the vertical format is already dominant in Asia and is rapidly gaining ground in Europe. They also discussed, to Investisseur TV on June 9, 2025, a business model combining free, ad-supported broadcasting and premium subscription offerings, with an opening to co-production to accelerate the development of original content. Sources: • Investor TV , June 9, 2025 • Vertical Drama Love , June 29, 2025

At the event organized by the Studio Phocéen association on June 14, 2025 in Paris, Jenny Rosen, an American screenwriter specializing in vertical fiction, shared her experience and vision of the sector. Based in Los Angeles, she now writes for platforms like Duanju Reelshort and Alta TV after having learned her trade on Wattpad, a site that allows authors to publish their stories for free and readers from all over the world to discover them. Her stories have accumulated more than 25 million readings, and her novels, published by Hachette Book Group , have been noticed by media such as Der Spiegel and OK! Magazine. Coming from the world of web novels, Jenny Rosen was quickly seduced by the vertical format and its short, addictive rhythm. According to her, the serialized plots punctuated by final suspense (a technique already effective on Wattpad), lend themselves perfectly to vertical episodic videos. "These serialized stories, carried by twists and turns that give a dopamine hit, already worked in the world of web novels. Transposing them into even shorter formats is very exciting," she explains. Joining Reelshort allowed her to “supercharge” this storytelling and adapt it into very short and dynamic episodes. Jenny Rosen has also observed “incredible growth” in audiences in recent months, particularly among young adults and the TikTok generation. She says she is “very excited to see more writing moving in this direction,” and emphasizes that there is strong potential to create bridges between traditional publishing and vertical fiction: “There are a lot of codes and trends in literature that can directly inspire our mobile scenarios.”

At the event organized by the Studio Phocéen association on June 14, 2025, Veronica Angeles-Franco offered an insightful look at the rise of vertical fiction in Latin America. Between the legacy of telenovelas and new writing dynamics, this Mexican producer and screenwriter drew on more than twenty years of experience in the audiovisual industry to share a rich and inspired vision. For someone who has worked in Mexico, the United States, and South America, the vertical format is a revolution in continuity. "Mexico is famous for its telenovelas ," she recalls, but mobile storytelling imposes a different rhythm. Where traditional television installs a twist every fifteen or thirty minutes, vertical fiction demands suspense every two minutes and not just a change of tone, but a real reversal. This constraint disrupts the script construction: the episodes must hook from the first second, surprise regularly, and maintain attention until the end. "It's a new way of writing ," she explains, which requires integrating editing, staging and dramaturgy into an ultra-condensed format. Between tradition and innovation Veronica Angeles-Franco sees the vertical format as a reinvented telenovela: the same emotional and narrative elements, but condensed to appeal to an audience watching on smartphones, in a fast-paced and competitive stream. This shift, far from impoverishing the writing, opens up a new creative field, she says. Drawing on her heritage in popular soap operas, the Latin American expertise she champions constitutes a strategic asset for excelling in this new language.

In the world of dubbing, some careers emerge from unexpected sources. In Amiens, Tony Leva forged his own path by assembling a team of actors who today give a French voice to mobile series from Asia. His work illustrates how duanju, a short, vertical format, is beginning to resonate with French speakers. From freelance to studio creation It all began on the Fiverr platform. Contacted by a Chinese client, Tony Leva agreed to put together a team to dub vertical format fiction. Within a few weeks, he managed to bring together actors working from their home studio. Together, they produced their first dubbing assignments for series intended for Stardust TV and Netshort. Among the titles already released are Pratique Fatale, Chaos Martiale and Le milliardaire fugitive devient mon mari . With this experience, he founded SyncLab Studio, an independent French-speaking dubbing studio dedicated to fiction and video games. The objective is clear: to offer professional quality to French versions of international productions, while structuring a still nascent offer. Present at the meeting on June 14 On June 14, 2025, at the evening organized by Studio Phocéen association in Paris, Tony Leva was among the official guests. Alongside creators, producers, and actors from Europe, America, and Asia, he presented his work and shared his experience.

Amid the hustle and bustle of American studios, one actor quickly made the leap into duanju: Michael Vaccaro. A New Yorker living in Los Angeles, he started out as a child, working in films, commercials, and theater, before finding himself, like many others, interrupted by the health crisis and the strikes that paralyzed Hollywood. It was then that he discovered a new playing field: verticals, or duanju, short fictions designed for mobile devices. As the first American vertical productions were released in 2023, Michael Vaccaro jumped right in. Two years later, he'd already shot 31. "My entire recent career has been in this space," he explains. From wealthy, tyrannical CEOs to flamboyant comedic characters, he explored the archetypes that still dominate the genre, while also seeking to expand its contours. For him, the experience is both an artistic challenge and a real chance to continue working in a fragile industry. While verticals are sometimes criticized for their modest budgets and stereotypical stories, Michael Vaccaro sees them above all as an opportunity. In a Hollywood marked by declining production, successive strikes, and competition from platforms, these fictions offer work and visibility. "Verticals are no longer marginal: we film in Los Angeles, but also in London, Bogota, Istanbul... It's a global format," he emphasizes. For an actor, it's an opportunity to travel, meet new audiences, and expand their repertoire. Beyond simply being an economic alternative, Michael Vaccaro emphasizes the changing outlook on verticals. Productions are becoming more professional, budgets are increasing, and the first formative events are appearing. In the United States, Vertfest brought together actors and fans for the first time around panels and screenings. In Europe, Jen Cooper created the Vertical Drama Awards. Even in China, RealShort honors its best productions. These are all signs of a nascent artistic recognition that is pushing the format beyond its initial image as simple, quick entertainment. Michael Vaccaro is excitedly looking to the future. His latest project, Game of Choice, with an estimated budget of over $500,000, stands out for its visual and narrative ambition, far from the usual clichés. "This might be the vertical that will prove that we can break out of the romance-conflict paradigm," he hopes. And he's already dreaming bigger: why not a musical vertical? His message is clear: if the format continues to invent itself, to surprise and to professionalize itself, it can offer a space of unprecedented creativity for both actors and spectators. #MaelleBillant