AI Vertical Drama & Microdramaproduction company
Full 9:16 vertical drama seasons — 60 to 100 episodes, written, directed, generated, cut, scored and delivered AI-native. The format's problem is cost per episode. AI-native production is the part that actually fixes it.
2026
The format's problem is the margin
A vertical drama season is 60 to 100 episodes at 60 to 120 seconds each. That is roughly a feature's runtime, produced at series volume, on a schedule that assumes nothing stops. Conventional vertical shops solve it with compressed shoot blocks, minimum-scale casts, and margins that leave no room for a second draft — which is why the category's ceiling is set by production cost rather than by writing or by audience.
AI-native production removes the cost floor entirely. There is no location, no call sheet, no crew day, no reshoot budget, and no scheduling dependency between episodes. Revision is close to free, which means a scene that isn't working gets remade instead of shipped.
Hooroo Jackson has directed six AI feature films since 2023 — writing, direction, generation, editing, sound and score, under a single authorial hand. An 80-episode vertical season at 90 seconds an episode is roughly a feature's runtime, restructured into episodes and built for retention. That is a production problem this studio has already solved six times, and it delivers inside the window a conventional shop spends in pre-production.
What we produce
Vertical drama seasons
Serialized 9:16 microdrama built for vertical streaming apps — cliffhanger episode architecture, hook-first cold opens, and the retention structure the format lives on. Shot native vertical, not cropped.
Pilot blocks
The opening arc of a season produced first, so a platform can test the hook, the cast, and the retention curve against live data before committing to a full order.
Mini-series
Traditional episodic at 16:9 — four to eight longer episodes for conventional streaming, festival, or brand distribution. The same pipeline at a different runtime and aspect ratio.
Multi-format delivery
The same season cut vertical and horizontal, or in alternate-ending and choose-your-protagonist variants — a structural specialty of this studio, previously delivered at feature scale on two released films.
How a season gets made
Format lock
Episode length, season length, genre lane, and the retention architecture — where each cliffhanger falls and what the cold open is doing. Locked before a frame is generated, because in vertical the structure is the product.
Cast and world design
Character identity is built and fixed up front — faces, voices, wardrobe, environments — so a lead reads as the same person across ninety episodes. Consistency across a long season is the hardest problem in AI-native episodic work and it is solved in prep, not in post.
Production run
A daily generation quota against a running timer, the method used across six features. Episodes come off the line in blocks with dailies you can watch as they land, rather than in a single delivery at the end.
Sound, score, delivery
Original score, dialogue, and mix produced in-pipeline. Delivered as platform-ready masters at your spec — vertical and horizontal cuts, captions, thumbnails, and per-episode marketing stills.
Engagement tiers
Proof episode
Pilot block
Full season
Slate retainer
Every engagement is led by Jackson directly and scoped to the project. Rates are quoted per season rather than per episode.
The studio behind it
Hooroo Jackson directed Window Seat (2023), the first AI feature film, and DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict (2024), the first AI animated feature and first AI anime. The filmography since spans live action, 3D CG, stop motion, classical animation, and photoreal machine performance, with coverage in BFI Sight & Sound, Deadline, and The Wall Street Journal, and a 13-of-15 Fresh critical record.
Common questions
Can AI actually produce a full vertical drama season?
A season is roughly a feature's runtime distributed across many episodes. Six AI features have been delivered on this pipeline since 2023, so the runtime is not the constraint. The real constraints are character consistency across a long season and retention structure, and both are handled in prep — identity locked before production, cliffhanger architecture locked before generation.
How long does a vertical drama season take to produce?
A pilot block of eight to twelve episodes runs three to four weeks. A full season runs two to four months depending on episode count and length. Episodes are delivered in blocks throughout, so you are watching output within the first fortnight rather than waiting for a single handover.
How is it priced?
Per season rather than per episode or per shoot day, because there are no shoot days. That removes the variable that makes conventional vertical production hard to budget — schedule overrun. Scope, episode count, and delivery window set the quote.
Who owns the finished season?
Commissioned work is delivered to the client. Rights, exclusivity, and territory are set per contract at the point of scoping.
Do you produce in languages other than English?
Yes. Dialogue is generated rather than recorded on set, so multi-language versions of the same season are produced in-pipeline rather than dubbed afterward, with lip-sync handled per language.
Do you take on mini-series and conventional episodic work?
Yes — four to eight longer episodes at 16:9 for conventional streaming, brand, or festival distribution, on the same pipeline. Feature commissions, consulting, and workshops are handled through the main services page.
What is the difference between vertical drama, microdrama, and short drama?
They are broadly the same product under three names. Vertical drama and microdrama both describe serialized 9:16 fiction built for phone viewing, typically 60 to 120 seconds an episode across a 60 to 100 episode season, monetized by unlock or subscription inside an app. "Short drama" is the term used more often in the Chinese-origin market where the format scaled first. A mini-series is a different thing: fewer, longer episodes, usually horizontal, made for conventional streaming.
Commission a season
For vertical drama, microdrama, and mini-series commissions. Include your episode count, target length, genre lane, and delivery window if you have them — a rough brief is enough to quote against.
[email protected]Vertical Drama & Short-Form