The Vertical Reach Podcast

Episode 15. Vete Para La Calle: Angelina Barbieri's Vertical Hustle

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Angelina Barbieri is a first-generation Latin American actress with a career spanning film, TV, and comedy, including Transporter 2, HBO's Ballers, NCIS: Los Angeles, Anger Management, NBC's The Night Shift, Rosewood, and HBO's How to Make It in America. After an eight-year break from the industry, she returned two years ago and pivoted into vertical drama, booking eight roles since October 2025 across platforms including ReelShort, FlareFlow, Shortical, GammaTime, MicroCo (aTwist), and PocketFM — and winning the Visionary Award for her role in Santos. In this episode, she talks with Pauline about reinvention, the immigrant hustle behind her career, the rise of brand integration in vertical storytelling, and what success looks like now.

Connect with Angelina:
IG Handle : @angelina_barbieri

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Episode 14. Doug Vermeeren: Building the Cannes of Vertical Drama in Las Vegas

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 05:00:00 -0700

Here are the clean Buzzsprout show notes (matching the standard template format, with guest links kept as their own section rather than folded in):

Doug Vermeeren: Building the Cannes of Vertical Drama in Las Vegas

What happens when a lifelong love of movies turns into building the biggest event vertical storytelling has ever seen?

Doug Vermeeren has been on movie sets since he was a kid — from background extra work to stunt performing, from indie documentaries shot on Betacam to vertical dramas streaming on ReelShort. In this episode, Doug traces that path: growing up broke and sneaking snacks into the movie theater, learning the business from the inside while renting a room from a studio executive, and eventually building a career that's spanned drama, action, and horror across both traditional film and the emerging vertical space.

We talk about what drew him to verticals — the speed, the built-in audience, the sense that this is a new format sitting alongside cinema and TV rather than replacing it — and why he believes the genre is only beginning to expand beyond its early "melodrama" roots into horror, comedy, documentary, and more.

The heart of the conversation is Doug's newest project: the Vertical Micro Drama Market (VMM), a first-of-its-kind event taking over the Sahara in Las Vegas. Doug walks through what makes it different from the smaller festivals and educational panels that have served the space so far — a full trade show floor, major distributors ready to acquire projects, live casting sessions, and investors (including Doug's own Real to Real Capital) with real capital to deploy.

Doug also shares hard-won advice for actors and filmmakers: how casting decisions really get made, why "tell, sell, and service" matters as much as talent, and why the smartest people in the industry are the ones who show up as collaborators rather than egos. He closes with some of his favorite origin stories from film history — George Lucas, James Cameron — and a challenge to anyone sitting on an idea: stop waiting for permission and start making something.

This is a conversation about movies, about reinvention, and about what it takes to build something the industry hasn't seen before.

Let's tell stories that connect.

Connect with Doug Vermeeren:
Website
Instagram
IMDb

Episode 13. The Vertical Reach: How One Writer Moved UpUntitled Episode

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 03:00:00 -0700

Jessica Burkhart went from publishing 30 novels to writing full-time verticals in a year. She shares her pivot from books to games to screenwriting, how she learned to work within tight budgets, and why moving vertically—not horizontally—changed her entire definition of success.

In this conversation, Jessica walks us through her creative journey: from middle-grade and YA novels to mobile games (Pixelberry's Choices, Chapters app) to becoming a Silver Telly Award-winning vertical drama screenwriter with 17 produced shows on DramaShorts, Shorts, and ReelShort. We talk about the biggest challenges (relearning pacing and economy of language), the biggest surprises (creative freedom without traditional boundaries), and the real work of balancing creative ambition with shoestring budgets.

Most importantly: we talk about permission. Permission to try. Permission to pivot. Permission to move up instead of across.

If you're at a creative crossroads or you've hit a ceiling somewhere, this conversation is for you.

GUEST

Jessica Burkhart is a Silver Telly Award-winning vertical drama screenwriter, best-selling author of 30+ novels, and mobile game writer. Her vertical drama series have been featured on most-watched charts across major platforms. Recent credits include The Sweetest Challenge (DramaShorts) and The Quarterback's Secret Princess (Shorts).

Website
Instagram

Episode 12. From Shanghai to the Screen: Inside the Vertical Drama World the West Is Just Discovering

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0700

What does it look like to be inside a revolution before the rest of the world catches on?

Daniel D. Newman found out — not by accident, but by spending 15 years living and working in China, where he watched vertical drama go from a niche format on metro screens to a global industry. Now back in the UK and fully embedded in the Western vertical space, he's leveraging everything he knows to build bilingual stories that travel.

In this episode, Daniel walks us through the birth of vertical drama in China — from the dominance of Hongguo to the ecosystem behind platforms like Drama Box and the mechanics of a market years ahead of the West. He shares what surprised him as a filmmaker making the shift from landscape to vertical: the reframing of space, the dirty singles, the cliffhanger every 90 seconds.

We also get into the real economics of the indie vertical filmmaker — what it means to have platforms willing to pay after a film is made, but not before. And how Daniel is navigating that gap as he develops three new vertical concepts and considers whether to lead with proofs of concept or go straight for the 50-episode mark.

His background is unlike anyone else in this space: bilingual in Mandarin, bicultural by experience, and entrepreneurial by necessity. That combination has given him what he calls a "back door" — direct relationships with both the LA and China sides of the biggest vertical platforms in the world.

If you're watching the vertical space and wondering who's already ahead of the curve, this is that conversation.

Connect with Daniel D. Newman:
Website
IMDb
Instagram
Facebook
TikTok
X
LinkedIn
YouTube

Watch Shanghai Sherlock on ReelShort:
https://www.reelshort.com/episodes/episode-1-shanghai-sherlock-6a05e459cd4097f64401ce53-chbns769vv?play_time=1

Episode 11. The Writer Is King: Adrion Trujillo on Who Really Runs Vertical Drama

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0700

What if the most important person in vertical drama is the one no one's putting in the credits?
Adrion Trujillo would argue that's exactly the case — and he'd know. An award-winning writer, Adrion has shaped standout series and format-defining experiments across Pocket FM, Drama Box, and Pine Drama, from top-performing male-frequency sagas to bold creative swings. His most recent show, Chained to My Nemesis, is currently #1, arriving right off the back of Keep Your Ring, I'm President Now.
In this episode, Adrion takes us from the years of writing specs and entering contests that never materialized, to a single Twitter post that opened the door to Pocket FM — and the moment he realized that "TV on your phone" wasn't a step down from his dream job. It was his dream job.
From there, he and Pauline get into the real mechanics of the format: how a vertical writer's room actually works, why writers pitch from marketing moments before anything else, and why he believes the writer is the true author of vertical storytelling — even though the industry hasn't woken up to it yet. They also dig into the credit and compensation struggles carried over from traditional Hollywood, whether there's any such thing as "life after verticals," and what happens when Hollywood tries to walk into this space and add water.
Adrion closes with grounded, specific advice for directors, writers, and producers looking to break in — and a reminder to stop internalizing the "no's" and build your own path.
Whether you're already deep in the vertical world or just discovering it, this is a rare, candid look inside the machine from someone running at full speed within it.

Connect with Adrion Trujillo:

Instagram: @Trujelloforever

TikTok: @Tru_jello

If this one made you think, send it to someone standing at their own crossroads — a writer waiting for permission, a creator wondering if it's too late to change altitude.

Let's tell stories that connect.

Episode 10. Kyle Maddox on Why the Police Genre Is Vertical Drama's Untapped Frontier

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:00:00 -0700

What happens when the cop arresting the actors becomes one?
That's the story Kyle Maddox tells on this episode of The Vertical Reach Podcast. While working as a sheriff's deputy in southern Utah, Kyle spent a night on shift — in uniform, real handcuffs, real squad car — arresting actors for a feature film shooting in his city. Six months later, he'd moved to LA to pursue acting.

Today he's an actor, writer, and police technical advisor who's been working in vertical drama since 2022. In this conversation, Kyle traces his path from law enforcement to celebrity bodyguard to vertical lead — and makes the case that the police genre is the format's most untapped frontier, one he believes will explode once it's done right.

We get into what carries over from the badge (discipline, muscle memory, and the comfort of an on-set command structure), shooting The Duke's Obsession in Beijing, and why he's writing and developing a SWAT vertical with himself in the lead. We also talk about redefining success as fewer moves with higher leverage, and what it really takes to step outside your comfort zone.

Whether you're eyeing your own reinvention or building in the vertical space, Kyle's advice is simple: trust who you've become, and just do it.

Episode 9. Paige Compton: From the White House to Vertical Drama

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Before she became one of the most in-demand directors in vertical comedy, Paige Compton spent the final four years of her US Army service as Audio Visual Director for President Barack Obama. In this episode, she traces an unlikely path — running live events for two administrations, graduating from AFI into the void of 2020, and arriving in vertical drama right as the format exploded.

Paige has directed some of the biggest titles in the space, including Snatched a Billionaire to Be My Husband and Hold Me Tight, Mr. Firefighter — both #1 hits. We get into her “aha” moment watching Netflix, Warner Bros., and Fox circle the first LA vertical drama market, her surprise induction as a full voting member of the Television Academy, and her sharp, contrarian read on the craft: that right now, vertical isn’t really about storytelling — it’s about attention.

She also gets candid about the realities of the work: pay, set safety, the unions she senses forming, why she turns down projects she can’t put her name behind, and how AI is reshaping the back half of 2026. Plus practical, no-nonsense advice for anyone trying to break in — pick one lane, show up, and start now.

Whether you’re a filmmaker eyeing the vertical leap or just curious where this format is headed, this is a conversation about reinvention, momentum, and changing altitude.

Connect with Paige:
Website: paigecompton.com
Instagram: @dudette.director

Episode 8. The Most Interesting Pivot: Thom Woodley on Verticals

Tue, 26 May 2026 07:00:00 -0700

He wrote the Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man in the World" campaign. Now he's one of the most interesting people writing verticals.

Thom Woodley has spent twenty years showing up early — to scripted web series, to interactive mobile, to branded content, and now to micro drama. In 2006, he created The Berg, one of the first scripted online sitcoms. He wrote hundreds of episodes for Episode Interactive. He ran branded content at CollegeHumor/Dropout. He was the first writer signed to the WGA's New Media Caucus.

In this episode, Thom and Pauline get into the consultancy he co-founded, Hudson Vertical (https://hudsonvertical.com/), which now sits at the intersection of apps, brands, streamers, and investors trying to figure out where this space is going. They talk about why an advertising background may be better training for vertical writing than traditional Hollywood. They unpack burnout as spiritual misalignment, not overwork. They reframe disappointment as just an appointment that didn't happen.

And then comes the sea change: Thom shares why he was wrong about AI in verticals — and what shifted in the last few months that's made him a hesitant futurist.
In this conversation:

Why being early to every new medium has been Thom's accidental specialty
What the Dos Equis campaign taught him about writing for a three-second scroll
How Hudson Vertical works with apps, brands, and investors entering the space
The honest reversal on AI: why he no longer thinks audiences won't watch (or pay) for AI-generated shows
Burnout, stoicism, and the Buddhist case against expectation
His clearest advice for anyone hesitating to take a vertical leap

Connect with Thom Woodley:
Hudson Vertical: https://hudsonvertical.com/
Whether you're considering the jump yourself or trying to understand where this industry is actually going, this is a conversation worth your full attention.

Episode 6. ⁠20 Pages a Day: Inside London's Vertical Drama Boom

Tue, 12 May 2026 19:00:00 -0700

What does it take to direct a feature film's worth of pages in a single day?

Thalia Kent-Egan would know. As one of London's earliest directors in the vertical drama space, she's been shooting at breakneck speeds since the format began booming in the city — where productions have tripled since January.

In this episode, Thalia takes us inside the chaotic, bonding, sometimes brutal world of vertical production. We talk about the technical adjustments — why mid-shots beat close-ups, how data shapes every creative decision, and the craft of shooting two cameras with no time for second takes. She also speaks candidly about the harder realities: industry instability, the sexism in director hiring, and how she protects her own creative voice while taking on client work that doesn't always reflect it.

As an intimacy coordinator turned director, Thalia brings a rare dual perspective — one focused as much on actor care as on craft. She shares why building lasting relationships with cast and crew matters even more in a format this fast, and how she stays grounded inside an industry that runs on adrenaline.

Plus: her own short films in development, a moment with Eve Ensler (V), and where she hopes vertical storytelling goes next.

Connect with Thalia Kent-Egan
Website: thaliakentegan.com
Instagram: @thaliakentegan

🌐 PAULINE GRAY STUDIOS
Where storytelling meets strategy.
paulinegraystudios.com | hello@paulinegraystudios.com

Episode 5. The Indie Trailblazer Rewriting Vertical Drama's Rules

Tue, 05 May 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Carin Smolinski didn't wait for permission.

She self-funded, wrote, directed, and produced Tides of Desire, a 50-episode vertical series shot on location in Costa Rica — making her one of the few women in the world independently bringing vertical microdrama from concept to distribution.

In this episode, the WEC Films founder and ThirdWave Entertainment co-founder talks about rewriting the rules of vertical drama from the inside — reinvention at 53, the ethics gap she's pushing back against, and what she calls "the third wave" of independent, cinematic, story-first verticals.
A conversation about building something different in a space still being written.

🎬 CONNECT WITH CARIN SMOLINSKI
Website
Instagram
TikTok: @microdramamama
WEC Films: @wec.films
ThirdWave Entertainment: @thirdwaveentertainment

🌐 PAULINE GRAY STUDIOS
Where storytelling meets strategy.
paulinegraystudios.com | hello@paulinegraystudios.com

Let's tell stories that connect.

Episode 4. From Fan to Industry Voice: The Rise of Vertical Drama Love

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 19:00:00 -0700

What does it take to become the go-to voice for an entire industry — right as the rest of the world is just catching on?

Jen Cooper found out. What started as writing reviews over Christmas break has grown into Vertical Drama Love — a platform that now includes a website, YouTube channel, international fan awards with over 16,000 votes from around the world, and VertFest, a full online festival bringing together creators and fans globally. And this year, it became her full-time job.
In this episode, Jen shares how she went from stressed-out viewer to what one director called "the first ever vertical critic." We dig into the real appeal of vertical dramas — the intimacy of the format, the dopamine hit of a complete story, and why the world feeling less safe is actually making these stories more important. She also breaks down where the industry is headed: new apps launching globally, the rise of branded vertical dramas, the diversity gap that still needs fixing, and why the shock-value content won't last.
And for anyone thinking about making the leap — as an actor, writer, or director — Jen delivers the most grounded advice you'll hear: be willing to start lower, learn fast, and get on set. Because in verticals, your work could be out in under two months.
If you've been wondering whether vertical dramas are a fad or the future, this conversation settles it.

🔗 Connect with Jen Cooper:
🌐 Website
📸 Instagram
▶️ YouTube
💼 LinkedIn

Episode 3. The Psychology of Vertical Storytelling with Rachel Zilberg

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 07:00:00 -0700

What do psychology, video games, and vertical dramas have in common? Rachel Zilberg.

Rachel is the Lead Writer at Shorts, where she develops and oversees original vertical drama series with a global team based across the US and France. But her path to becoming one of the format's most prolific voices started somewhere unexpected — a college psychology lab and a job fair that led her into narrative gaming.

In this episode, Rachel breaks down how she went from writing interactive romance at Pixelberry Studios to leading through a pandemic layoff, a war that scattered her team, and a pivot into an entirely new medium. She talks about learning Chinese storytelling tropes, managing writers across three continents, and why sunk cost fallacy is the secret engine behind vertical marketing.

We also get into:
🎮 How narrative gaming laid the groundwork for vertical storytelling
🧠 Using psychology to understand audiences, not just characters
🌍 Navigating cross-cultural creative teams across the US, France, and China
🎬 The stories behind Shorts originals like Keep Your Ring I'm President Now and Forbidden Attraction to the Billionaire
🔄 Why the "jack of all trades" mindset is a creative superpower

Whether you're a writer looking to break into verticals, a creative navigating a career pivot, or just curious about what it takes to tell stories for a global audience — this one's for you.

Connect with Rachel Zilberg:
Instagram
LinkedIn

🎙 The Vertical Reach Podcast
Hosted by Pauline C. Gray | Pauline Gray Studios
paulinegraystudios.com

Listen and subscribe!

Episode 2. Kristen Brancaccio on Why Verticals Are Hollywood's New Playground

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 04:00:00 -0700

What happens when a filmmaker stops waiting for Hollywood to call—and builds her own lane on a phone screen?

Kristen Brancaccio found out. In just 18 months, she's directed 19+ vertical micro dramas, landed the #1 show on Shorts for all of 2025 with Surrender to My Ex's Dad, and built a reputation as one of the most in-demand directors in the space.

In this episode, Kristen breaks down her journey from YouTube and music videos to becoming a vertical powerhouse. We talk about why narrative on your phone actually works now (when Quibi and YouTube Red couldn't crack it), how data-driven tech companies are reshaping storytelling, and what it really takes to direct a full movie in two to three weeks of prep.

Kristen also shares why she sees verticals as Hollywood's new playground—a cheap, fast IP incubator where today's micro drama could become tomorrow's feature film. Plus, practical advice for anyone looking to break in: get on set, stay flexible, and don't wait for permission.

Whether you're a filmmaker exploring verticals or just curious about what's next in entertainment, this one's a roadmap.

🔗 Connect with Kristen Brancaccio:
Instagram
Watch Heartstrings and Lies on DramaShorts
Watch Surrender to My Ex's Dad on Shorts

🎙️ The Vertical Reach Podcast
Hosted by Pauline Gray | Pauline Gray Studios

Let's tell stories that connect.

Episode 1. Dana Protyshak on Vertical Drama's Next Big Leap

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Dana Protsyshak is the founder of Dana Productions, the LA Vertical Drama Market, and Vert-I-Go Media, and co-founder of the International Academy of Vertical Arts, introducing the Apollo Awards — the inaugural industry awards dedicated exclusively to vertical storytelling. With 30+ vertical projects across writing, development, and production, Dana is one of the leading voices shaping vertical drama in North America. She regularly evaluates series and creators for festivals, studios, and acquisition platforms, and develops original vertical projects with international teams across North America and Europe. This May, she's launching the 2nd Edition of LAVDM and the Vert-I-Go app, a creator-friendly platform built specifically for vertical drama.

In this episode, Pauline and Dana discuss what it means to build industry infrastructure from scratch in a space most people were dismissing just a year ago — and how Dana moved from web novels and script supervising to becoming one of the vertical world's most prolific builders. Dana shares how she overcame the fear of launching the market when people told her to cancel, why she gave up steady script supervising work to bet on herself, and how telling people her plans before she was ready became her strategy for commitment. They explore why verticals sit at the intersection of technology, human behavior, and entertainment, how real-time data gives creators an advantage traditional studios can't match, and why the deepest creative work requires writers to stop hiding behind glass and live through their characters.

Connect with Dana:

Instagram

Dana Productions

Vert-I-Go Media