A 60-Min. Microdrama, $100K Budget, $1M Sale? I Got the Scoop on Set
Top star Kasey Esser’s ‘Love Under Fire’ is the white-hot genre’s first indie production, now made with Hollywood money, and I was there
I cover the creator economy at Like & Subscribe, a standalone newsletter that’s being sampled for a limited time for paid subscribers to The Ankler. I reported on the wild world of TikTok Live, the Hollywood agencies battling over top creator talent, Amazon’s future in podcasts post-Wondery and how creators make millions teaching online courses. Email me at natalie@theankler.com
Kasey Esser is on a mission. He’s just jumped out of a plane. Now, with a Filipina pop star by his side, he must commandeer a motorcycle on the streets of Manila, jump off a bridge and race to save his daughter from an evil kidnapper.
At least, that’s what’s happening on set of the ambitious new microdrama Love Under Fire, when I pull up to a sleepy street in Glendale on a recent Sunday morning. This week I’m bringing you the full scoop on how this independent project is revolutionizing the white-hot genre. But first, some background on the microdrama space — in case you slept through the summer…
You all went wild for the microdrama story that I wrote with my colleague Elaine Low, of The Ankler’s Series Business column, back in June. It’s been one of Like & Subscribe’s top performing newsletters of the year, and it’s all anyone wants to talk about when I’m at events and source lunches. Microdramas have become such a popular subject around town, in fact, that Elaine, Sean McNulty and I named the booming genre one of the five biggest stories of the summer on last week’s episode of The Ankler podcast.
Related:
If microdramas (sometimes called vertical dramas, or verticals) are still new to you, I suggest you check that story above out. It has everything you need to know about these vertically-filmed series told in 60- to 90-second episodes, including the biggest players in the space, how they make money through microtransactions and why you need to act fast if you want to join and get your piece of the $5 billion gold rush. Today’s newsletter, where I’ve identified some real innovation happening in the space, is the first in a two-part series from me and Elaine.
To date, microdramas have largely been made in house by the companies that control the apps distributing them. Companies like Crazy Maple Studios (parent of the ReelShort app), Holywater (My Drama) and StoryMatrix (DramaBox) employ writers to churn scripts out, then produce them on the cheap and retain all the rights — and profits.
But as new Hollywood players like Lloyd Braun’s MicroCo jump in, one of the upstart space’s most prominent figures sees an opportunity to push it to new heights and revolutionize how microdramas get made. Esser — the Brad Pitt of microdramas, who’s appeared in nearly 50 of these productions in just three years — believes the future of microdramas will be as independently produced projects sold to distributors around the world. (Think of it as akin to the difference between a movie being made by a studio like, say, Sony Pictures versus it being made by a team of producers and backers and then sold to Sony to be distributed in theaters around the world.)
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
“It’s all about ownership,” Esser tells me. “The vertical space has really provided a whole new avenue to have ownership over what you create. And with the position that I’m in, it just makes sense for me to do it.”
Esser, 36, is testing his thesis with Love Under Fire, an action romance — think Mission: Impossible meets The Bodyguard — that he not only stars in but also wrote and is producing. He believes Love Under Fire — all 60 minutes of it — is the first independently produced microdrama series, and he’s pushing the limits of the format using AI technology and stuntwork not typically seen in such a low-budget project (his project is even more low-budget than your standard vertical at a cost of $100,000 vs the typical $150,000-$250,000). To make it all possible, Esser’s assembled a team with legit Hollywood bona fides, including a producer with an impressive roster of film credits, a director with a visual effects background and a stunt coordinator with more than a decade of experience.
Esser’s strategy: Build a creator-first vertical model with Love Under Fire👇🏼
Two weekends ago — amid a scorching heat wave that left me without power for several hours one evening — Elaine and I visited the set of Love Under Fire to bring you the full scoop on how this project is poised to shake up the microdrama status quo. (Don’t ever say we don’t do the hard work to bring you the stories you want to read!)
From my day on set with Esser and Co., you’ll learn:
How microdramas’ biggest star turned an idea into a full production in weeks
What can be done with the $100K budget for Love Under Fire — and how he’s stretching every dollar
Why a Top Gun: Maverick producer is backing the first indie microdrama
How Esser lured a Hollywood director, editor and stunt team into the vertical space
What life on a microdrama set looks like — crew, tech, even the craft services spread
Esser’s playbook to sell Love Under Fire to distributors, apps and streamers worldwide
What a licensing deal could net — and why he won’t settle for less than $1M