The filmmaker working to bring 'vertical microdramas' to Scotland

Maureen Hascoet has launched Vertical Scotland, a new organisation dedicated to the growing sector.

The genre, already hugely popular in China and the US, features 50-70 episode series marketed on social media which are designed to be watched on a mobile phone. Each episode lasts between 90 seconds and two minutes and includes a cliffhanger to hook in the viewer.

The series are aimed at younger viewers, namely Gen Z, who find most of the content they consume on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

Glasgow-based Ms Hascoet, who runs the Scottish Screenwriters Festival, last week hosted a pitch event between Scottish writers and GammaTime, a micro drama streaming platform launched last year by former Miramax boss Bill Block.

Two scripts, by Scotland-based writers Lynsey Tomlinson and Tricia O’Malley, have been selected and are under consideration by GammaTime executives.

The scripts, Married to the Highland Devil, by Ms O’Malley and I’m Having Bigfoot’s Baby, by Ms Tomlinson, were shortlisted from six scripts pitched to the company. If commissioned, they will be produced by Ms Hascoet’s Firewalker Pictures.

Ms Hascoet said: “Vertical microdramas are mobile-first, meaning that they're to be shot vertically and to be watched vertically on your phone. They are exclusively marketed through social media, so once they start being on your radar, you start getting the first 10 episodes on your Facebook feed, or your Instagram feed, or TikTok.

“The point is in terms of the way that the story is delivered, because the episodes are so short, you've got a hook at the beginning, and then you've got a cliffhanger every 90 seconds, so it's highly addictive.”

She said she wanted to ensure Scotland is at the forefront of the development of the sector. The genre is a hot topic in filmmaking circle, including one industry side event at the Cannes Film Festival this year entitled “The Microdrama Boom”.

“I run the Scottish Screenwriters Festival and I’m always looking for opportunities for writers and at the same time, I’m always looking for opportunities for Scotland to not just catch up to the world, but actually lead as well,” Ms Hascoet said. “I think this could be an arena where we could, once we harness it properly, do really well, because what is better for a romance story than a kilt?”

The genre is currently focused on romance themed stories, while fantasy plotlines involving werewolves and vampires, in the style of hit book and film series Twilight are also popular.

A recent report by research analyst Omdia estimated global microdrama revenues reached $11 billion (£8.3bn) in 2025 and will grow to $14 billion by the end of 2026. Of that, $3 billion will be generated outside China, with the US now the largest international market.

The same report found that in the US, users now spend more time per day watching microdramas on mobile apps than they do watching Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video on mobile devices.

Ms Hascoet said that the industry in China, which has been operating for almost a decade, had begun to move into Artificial Intelligence, which she described as a “challenge”.

She said: “In China, they pioneered it, but basically AI is kind of taking over.”

She said actors who had performed in the first few years of vertical content had not signed contracts prohibiting their image from being used by AI generated films.

She said: “I don't think the contracts specified anything about AI, and so now what China seems to be doing is generating a lot of the same stories with their likeness, or AI adaptations of stuff they made a few years ago, so that's going to be the challenge.”

Director Dan Lowenstein, of London-based House of Create Films, who has shot 30 verticals, said the sector was in a battle between the tech-company backed films being made in China, and the film-led productions in the US. He is set to direct any verticals commissioned through Vertical Scotland via the GammaTime pitch event.

He said: "As a filmmaker, you want to make sure that every single producing has high quality and good storytelling, but at the same time, if it's happening anyway, you might as well try and evolve the format as much as you can. There's a huge opportunity, massive."

He said productions were a "trashy soapy format" currently, but that the US and UK market were moving in a different direction.

"There are glimpses of hope in amongst all the trash," he said. "I've only shot for US-based platforms like Gamma Time, so it's a completely different mentality and a different creative process, that's it's Hollywood-backed experience as opposed to tech company backed."

He added that the appeal came from the convenience of the format.

He said: "I think it's a personal feeling that it's your story, as opposed to you're not, it's your own little kind of narrative that you're, that you're witnessing in a very personal way, because it's so close to you, but physically you're holding this story in your hand, not sitting back away from it, as you would do on TV or cinema."