After producing a small drama Tides of temptation As for Lifetime, Taye Diggs is set to launch a vertical storytelling platform for bite-sized mobile content.
Microhouse Films, set to launch this spring, Diggs has teamed up with Autumn Federici, Shelby Stone, James Black, and Troy Brookins on a mobile-first project that aims to allow creators to produce, distribute, and monetize their work from a single platform.
“When we thought about how to meaningfully impact the vertical space, we immediately focused on the creators and storytellers whose livelihoods depend on where this industry is headed. Microhouse Films is about creating a model that supports them in this next phase and allows them to continue telling the stories that move us,” Diggs said in a statement Thursday.
The mini-drama, also called “vertical” because it is filmed in portrait orientation and is intended to be watched on mobile phones, first took off in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. But more recently, emerging platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox have built an American following for typically low-budget TV series with short episodes and engaging stories.
Diggs executive produced Tides of temptation With Frederi Weston and Jake Helgren of The Ninth House, with Brookins starring and co-producing. The mini-drama follows a young woman (Mia Wilkerson) who falls in love with an athlete (Q Steinlein, aka SwagBoyQ) on the Caribbean island of Nevis.
Microhouse Films will not charge any subscription fees to creators or audiences and there will be no fees for uploading or hosting content, as is typical of micro-drama self-distribution models. Through an ad-free model, filmmakers can choose which episodes to offer for free and which to monetize, with viewers using in-app coins to unlock content, while creators control pricing, release strategy, and revenue.
The vertical app will also include built-in discovery tools, including metaphor tags, so creators can set their own genre.
“The industry is changing rapidly, and we have an opportunity to redefine who benefits from this new ecosystem that puts control directly in the hands of filmmakers. We are excited to introduce a vertical storytelling model with Microhouse Films that places a premium on both the quality of the work and the storyteller behind the content,” Federici, Stone, Black and Brookins added in their joint statement.
