These Cheap Vertical Videos May End Hollywood (As We Know It)

Hollywood (as we once knew it) may have collapsed, but a new form of “storytelling” is thriving in the rubble. This week on How Is This Better? Akilah Hughes investigates the rise of clipping—the 30–90 second chunks of movies and TV that Gen Z and Gen Alpha increasingly treat as the entire art form. With The Ankler's newsroom coordinator, Matthew Frank, we dig into how studios, independent clippers, and even teenagers are monetizing sliced-up IP, why these clips rarely convert to actual viewership, and what that means for the survival of traditional shows.

Then we look at the next evolution: vertical dramas—60-to-90-second cliffhanger “episodes” produced for TikTok-native audiences, now attracting major investment from companies like Disney. Kill Switch podcast host, Dexter Thomas, walks us through the booming non-union economy around these soap-opera-meets-micro-content series, the surprising demographics powering their success, and why middle-aged women—not teens—are the earliest adopters.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Intro

00:20 - Clipping

01:23 - Matthew Frank

9:49 - Dexter Thomas

11:28 - Vertical Dramas

17:20 - Who is Watching Micro Dramas?

26:24 - Is It Better?

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