How Mobile Micro-Dramas Are Rewriting Hollywood Producing

Your phone may be the next movie studio, and the proof is hiding in plain sight: vertical series built from 90-second episodes that people binge in public, then happily pay to keep watching. We’re joined by Mier Liu, an international producer who’s building real momentum in the verticals world and producing at a pace traditional Hollywood rarely matches.

We talk about her journey from actress and author to producer, and the moment she stopped letting casting outcomes define her path. Mier shares what it looks like to “create your own yeses,” how she discovered the micro-drama boom in Asia, and why this is more than a trend report. You’ll hear how vertical storytelling is designed for mobile viewing, how the “before paywall” model drives retention, and why speed, clarity, and emotional hooks matter even more in short-form content.

We also get practical about the craft and the business: what “viral actors” are, how casting differs from traditional film and TV, and which genres are winning right now, especially YA romance and bingeable soap-style drama. Finally, we zoom out to a five-year forecast, including why mainstream players like Netflix and major studios may accelerate the adoption of vertical video into the global entertainment mainstream.

If you’re a producer, writer, actor, or creative entrepreneur looking for new pathways, press play, then subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a rating and review so more storytellers can find the show.

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Transcript

Welcome To Heart Of Show Business

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Heart of Show Business. I am your host, Alexia Melocchi. I believe in great storytelling and that every successful artist has a deep desire to express something from the heart to create a ripple effect in our society. Emotion and entertainment are closely tied together. My guests and I want to give you insider access to how the film, television, and music industry works. We will cover Dreams Come True, The Roadless Travel, Journey Beginnings, and a lot of insight and inspiration in between. I am a successful film and television entrepreneur who came to America as a teenager to pursue my show business dreams. Are you ready for some unfiltered real talk with entertainment visionaries from all over the world? Then let's roll sound and action. Hello to everyone listening to this five-year podcast of Heart of Show Business. I know I was taking a little break, and then just like it happens in The Godfather, you're trying to take a break and they pull you right back in. And one of the reasons why I have been pulled in is that all of a sudden I'm being pitched this amazing podcast guest that I can say no to. And this lady here is one of those people that I couldn't say no to. I have with me, and hopefully I'm saying it right. Mir Luci is an incredible female entrepreneur, producer, pivoting in the world of verticals, global producing, and just writing the new playbook for the industry. The entertainment industry is just changing fast, and not just in Hollywood. Many producers are still waiting for green lights, approvals, permission, and a new global model is moving, which is obviously verticals, at fast speed. She's actually on set right now. And I she's an international producer based in Taiwan, made for based in LA, but anyway, she's been here a while and she's built real momentum in the world of vertical series, which is short-form high-impact storytelling design on how audience actually binge watch content, if you like, ask me. And I'm super curious to know about it because this is not a theory, it's a trend report, people. And this is a real producer who's doing real projects in a real time outside of the system. And that's why I am so happy to have you here. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Thank you. Thank you, Alexi, for having me. I'm so glad to be here and get to chat with you and share what I do with your audience. So thank you for having me.

From Acting To Writing

SPEAKER_00 2:41

You're very well. First of all, uh are you an actress as well? I have to ask, because you're beautiful. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

That's so sweet of you. I was an actress. Yeah, I was acting for actually quite a long time. From I was a theater art major, I studied the Sanford Meisner Technique in San Francisco for about four years. And after that, I was taking on commercial work and indie films in San Francisco before moving to LA to really pursue acting.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, so I was an actress, and I actually also wrote a book. It's funny because like before we started recording this, you were telling me about like you came up with this podcast during COVID. I actually wrote a novel during COVID because like the industry was like shut down. Yes. Yeah. So I was an actress. I was an author too. I still write when I have some time, but it's just like producing nowadays is just completely occupying my time entirely.

Creating Your Own Yeses

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Oh, I so relate. And you know what? Hello, author. I'm also an author. And I also wrote a book. So here you go. Yeah, we're multi-hyphenates. I love that. I feel like women can do anything, honestly. We can do anything. And the question is obviously before vertical series, you were obviously doing acting. What was it when you started looking at the traditional system in Hollywood and you started thinking this isn't working anymore? What was your aha moment to go into this phase?

Discovering Micro-Dramas In China

Breaking In As A Vertical Producer

Paywalls And Binge Economics

SPEAKER_01 4:15

It's it's because something I haven't been asked this question for such a long time. It's actually pretty refreshing. So as an Asian actress, it is very difficult in Hollywood. And I think everybody agrees with me. So it was at a moment, like I was getting all these amazing auditions. I I am so grateful that I'm still grateful for. I was going to studios, getting callbacks for these like major films, but like I will sometimes it will eventually pick the actors that's been cast as series regular or like major films or someone who was like younger. I don't know. Like all these they said that you can't blame yourself. Like when you don't go when you don't get cast as an actor, you cannot blame yourself because it's way out of your control. So it was to a point where I was like, I need to take control of my path, I need to create my own journey because I can't keep going on. I can't keep it just rejections and rejection all over again every day. So I just told myself I need to create my own yeses. During that time, it was COVID. So I wrote a novel about it, it's published in Asia, and it's about an Asian American girl trying to make it as an actress in Hollywood. Yeah. And after their novel, I was touring in Asia. I went to China and I discovered verticals. Because I was verticals is a huge, there's a huge market in China. Everyone watches like these vertical series on their phone. I remember I was at a cafe and I was just watching this little girl. She's just swiping and swiping. I was like, what are you watching? She was like, Oh, I'm like super addicted to this show. So it's very I when I was watching it, I was like, it's quite interesting. Every episode's about a minute and a half to two minutes. Every series is about like 60 episodes. I at that time, I was like, this would be amazing if we can bring this to America. And the funny thing was, at that time, the ver the vertical series was going to America. And it was like, it was happening already. I just didn't know it was called vertical. Because I remember I will watch, I will look at Actors Access, you know, the breakdowns. And I'm like, yeah, I'm like, what the heck is a vertical? Yeah, what's a micro series vertical? What is that? And then I was like, oh, and I connected everything together. I was like, oh, so this is vertical. It's coming to America. And after I got back to LA, I called a few friends and they were like producing the vertical series. And these are like the people that just got out of film school and stuff like that. So I was very fortunate that I get to go on their sets and stuff. And at that time, while I was on set, I just feel like there is so many things, like the quality of the product, the quality of the series could be elevated. And I have the, I just told myself, I was like, I have the capability to do that. And the funny thing is the investor, because this was so early on. And the funny thing was the investor was on set. And yeah, I was telling her the things I'm able to offer. And she just took a leap of faith and believed in me and gave me my first series. And after that, I had a meeting with Real Short. And I'm not sure if you know that it's of course the biggest platform in America. Yeah. I spoke with them and stuff, and I told them that I am a huge fan of this app called Choices. I don't know if you're familiar with that app, but I was I don't. So I that app, it's like a game. It's choices. It's pretty interesting. You can make sure you buy the diamonds and then you make choices, and it's all the romantic stories, which I was super like addicted during COVID. And I was fortunate enough that I had a meeting with their EP, their executive producer. And I mentioned I was a I am still a huge fan of choices. So, real short, it's actually like the other company, the incubator company of choices. Wow. Yeah. So they were like, they're they were like, oh, this is interesting. She actually likes these type of stories. So let's see what she can do. And they gave me my second show, and it just kept going and going. And now we produce about eight to six to eight shows a month.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

That is incredible. What an inspiring story. I feel it's so funny because when somebody says what is vertical, and I say to them, it's like the candy crush of short soap opera, bingeable stuff. Because it's like I heard that you only get to see a couple of like episodes, and then you have to pay. You get like the first few free. Is that true? You get to see two or three, and then if you want to see what happens next, then you have to pay. Is that what it is?

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah, so it this is it's called before paywall. Okay. So it all depends on the series. Some series has they have eight free episodes, some has 10, some has 13, or even 15.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah, and after that, if you want to see what happens, you'll have to pay.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Wow. They must have some confidence that people are gonna get addicted and start binging. But I think it's not it makes sense to me that you are doing what you're doing because, as we know, everybody has attention deficit disorder right now with everything that is happening in the world, especially young people. I don't think they can sit through a two-hour film or it, let alone a three-hour film. So I feel that this is the best way. And I know you're gonna be sitting in the subway in Italy or wherever or in Europe, people are just gonna want to watch something on their phone, and that feels really the right thing for that type of audience. I feel that as you're talking to me, it almost like your destiny met you. You see, yeah, it just happens so organically. And I love that. And I actually wanted to ask you because the challenges being an Asian actress, but there's also the challenges being an international female producer. Do you feel you have an advantage over Hollywood because you have more of a global view of what is happening, like me, for example, because we're like international, I'm Italian, so yeah, as you so we've all been all over the world. Do you feel that we have an advantage, even though they say it's like a men's world?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

I absolutely have the I'm fluent in English and Mandarin, and I'm very familiar with the both cultures and stuff like that. So I think uh yeah, and I think the industry definitely shifted. There's definitely more work to do, but it definitely shifted like three to five years ago. Yeah, where women we have more, we're very we're stronger, and I'm not saying that we weren't strong before, but people listen nowadays. Yeah, I would say so, definitely.

Casting Viral Trained Talent

SPEAKER_00 12:08

You got the global lens, my friend. That always helps, I feel. So, from what I understand, and tell me if I get this right, so from what I know about verticals, is that, and you can tell me if I'm wrong or not, they're basically shot in eight days, from what I know, with very little money by Hollywood standards, a couple hundred thousand dollars, and then you gotta shoot what you shoot. I heard, don't know if that's true, you can tell me or not, that the casting is very specific. It's not so much about getting people that necessarily have been in big movies, but they have to have specific facial features, like creating an avatar of something. Is that true when you're doing that process?

SPEAKER_01 12:54

I wouldn't say creating an avatar. Where we are my current projects, we hire actors who are viral actors. Meaning like these actors have been in viral shows that that's generated about 500 million to 800 million.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Okay. So you're getting the influencers basically who hopefully can act.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

No, they're actually all like trained actors. They're new. They started verticals. Verticals started about two years ago, and they were fortunate to be cast in series that went viral. But they're all very talented actors, and yes, we have hired influencers, we have hired people that's been in reality shows and that and stuff like that. But these talents they take the work very seriously as well. They will hire acting coaches and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

So yes, they have the talent and they have the looks, and that's why I love them so much.

Romance And YA Dominate

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Spoken like a true producer, you gotta stand by stand by the actors that you choose, stand by the creative choices that you make. Is it what would be a genre? What are the genres that are working for somebody that doesn't know anything about vertical? What are people binge watching? You you talked about choices, which is obviously what has to do with making choices, I would think. Is it romance? Is it comedy, like thrillers? Like what works in that space?

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Romance, yes. Right now, all the scripts that I'm getting are young, like YA, okay. Like romance at in a college or in a high school and stuff like that. So it's like almost like this summer I turn pretty, but yeah, or sometimes they lean towards a sexy, more of a like a sexy side. What is that show? Was it called like true intention? With yes, yeah, with three sweeter spoon. No, oh yeah, yeah. With our spoon and her ex-husband. Yes, yeah, like I'm getting I've been getting like a lot of shows like that too.

Five-Year Forecast For Verticals

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Okay, okay, like gossip girl, being the little liar, sort of right, okay. Obviously, you're you caught the wave, it's blowing up, you're in the midst of it, which kudos to you. Look at you, you're on set once again. Where do you think this is going in five years from now? Do you see yourself just doing that for the next five years? Or do you see yourself expanding now that you have the power to do so into other things?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

I am definitely looking into expanding into feature films. And yeah, I do feel like in five years, vertical is gonna take over the entire world. I feel like it's already happening now that we have all the bigger players coming in, like the mainstream media, like Netflix, Warner's Brother, or Paramount, with the bigger players, and this is eventually gonna become mainstream.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

And I have been asked this question multiple times. I tend to like compare it with reality shows back in the days, like in early 2000. What the what is this? This is so silly, but we love it, and now it's like what? It's like the mainstream. I look at the Kardashians, yeah. So I definitely think this is going to be like a huge thing in the next five years.

Energy Mindset On Set

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah, I think so too. I think this is it was video games, and then it was a reality, and now I really believe that this is something that we all want, and we want to have the maximum entertainment for the minimum amount of time possible so that we can actually go on and do things in our lives. Did you have to have a specific mindset shift in order to succeed in a space that wasn't fully validated at the time when you started? Obviously, you want to create your own yeses, which was one of them. Was there anything else?

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Like, I had to, I don't know, I just adapted and everything just happens smoothly in a very positive way. I wouldn't say there were any challenges at all. Yeah, I just, oh, I actually love this even more. I love producing, I love being on set, like talking to the actors, talking to crew, and making the clients happy and just being able to deliver the work that they asked me to do.

Advice For Global Women Producers

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Yeah, yeah. I believe in the in energy, and I feel that if you have the right energy, you can pretty much manifest anything and you can attract anything. And clearly you you are representing that. So, in closing, what would you say uh to producers, especially women and international creatives, because both you and I are coming across the pond many years ago, but uh who fell into the system that just feels so stacked against them right now? What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_01 17:51

I would say, keep going, don't take no for an answer. Create your own path because that's what I did. I eventually turned all the no's into a solid yes. And God, I can't even we can have another chat to talk about all the no's I've experienced throughout the entire decade. Basically, it just it's all about timing, but you just gotta make sure when the time comes, you are ready and don't give up, don't take no's as an answer. I think that's the major thing. Like just keep going and never stop. And I know it's so easy to say it, but doing it is very hard. Surround yourself with like positive people that can truly inspire you to go even higher. I would just remember all my friends, the people that were around me were established producers, established writers. And I told myself, I'm gonna be like that one day. And they were just they were very sweet to me too, and they were my mentors, and they're still my mentors.

Three Words And Final Takeaway

Share Subscribe And Get In Touch

SPEAKER_00 19:01

I love that. And you know what? I believe that you really have to be surrounded by people that you can look up to, more than people that you can look down to because that's when you look up, you're gonna be wanting to be better yourself. And I feel that there is no space for competition in our world right now, everything is very collaborative. I love that you were blessed enough to have people who are willing to collaborate with you, who are willing to give you the opportunities, who saw something in you, which brings me to how do you define yourself in three words? Let's spit it out for the end of the show. I will say peace, okay strength, and leadership. And I just love that. That is so perfect. Oh my goodness, you're like one of the best, the best ones that I've heard in terms of confidence and presence as you are saying that. I absolutely love that. I have to say, in closing, while I had you on the show, I just want us to remind us that there is more than one way to build meaningful, sustainable careers in this industry. I think the future of producing is not about waiting for permission, as you clearly didn't wait. It's about understanding where the audiences are going and you have to stay adaptable and be willing to build outside of the old playbook. I feel like vertical series are not gonna replace traditional film and television. I'm a big fan, obviously, of the big movies as well. And I hope they stick around. I want to go to still go to the theater and still watch my shows, but they're opening a new door, I think, for storytellers, especially for women and international producers who want to move with intentions. And as always, the heart of show business, as we all know, it's not about the format, it's the courage to evolve and stay curious and keep telling stories that matter. And Mir Lewis, one of my wonderful guests, who impersonates that and just embody not even impersonate, that sounds fake. Embodies that. Oh my gosh, it's I've had I need more coffee today. But it was wonderful to have you on my show, Mir. I will drop your website and all the links to catch the many show. I looked it up. I feel like I'm in a Harlecking virtual world in there. So I look forward to people. What is the name? Can you say what the name is of the show that you just are filming right now? Or is it actually confidential? I can't. Okay. Yeah. I can't. Top secret. But we will maybe by the time this episode drops, we will know the name. So it's been wonderful to have you and everyone over and out. This is the Heart of Show Business with yet another exciting episode in the world of entertainment. And this show is all about vertical and badass female entrepreneurs producers. Ciao. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of The Heart of Show Business. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You can also subscribe. Rate and review the show on your favorite podcast player. If you have any questions or comments or feedback for us, you can reach me directly at theheartofshowbusiness.com.