With more people using mobile phones for almost everything in their daily lives, watching videos is just one of the many.
With technology evolving and mobile phones becoming more capable, mobile videos viewing is becoming a big deal. But one problem is persistent: they are all created to suit landscape environment. What this means, users need to tilt their phones to view the videos in its fullscreen size.
To meet the demands of video viewership and mobile consumers, Chinese media companies have been experimenting with 'vertical drama' (竖屏剧). .
Internet giant Tencent first experimented with this vertical drama method in 2018, by releasing short romantic comedy series like My Boyfriend-ish Sister (我的男友力姐姐ě) and My Idiot Boyfriend (我的二货男友).
Following them, iQIYI, a production company under the Chinese giant Baidu, released sitcom Ugh! Life! (生活对我下手了).
This was considered China's first film to be created specifically using this vertical format.
Essentially, these dramas are what Chinese producers call their scripted content made especially for vertical mobile play.
"We are thrilled to announce the premiere of our vertical video drama series Ugh! Life!, which we believe is one of our most innovative projects yet,” said Fu Tuo, chief producer of iQIYI Wright Studio. “With this project, iQIYI is not only offering our viewers a fresh new format but transforming the traditional approach to online content consumption, pushing forward development in the Chinese online entertainment industry.”
These films aren't only videos cropped to fit vertical aspect ratios of mobile phones, as they are also specifically re-imagined for the mobile users right from the start.
With mobile phones growing larger in size, viewers need to hold their phones with both hands to view videos comfortably on landscape. One hand usage can be difficult, especially for those who have smaller hands.
The vertical video format is an approach to allow viewers to experience new things.
Typically, these Chinese vertical dramas' are mostly comedy.
This genre is known for its short burst of gratifications, and typically emphasis on the actors/actresses facial expression and/or movements. Both of these elements are easy to convey on mobile phones placed on vertical mode.
For these reasons, these companies made the vertical videos to better showcase intense, fast-paced, and personal moments.
The vertical format also allows split screen, swipes, and quick cuts. It can also provide the films with more information about what's on scene.
But that doesn't mean that vertical mobile format is only good for comedies.
CEO and founder of iQIYI Gong Yu expects that vertical video to soon become a mainstream method of content consumption, changing from the confines user-made video and expanding to include professional level content.
While the vertical mobile videos have limited visual space for spacial context, the format compensates it by literally pushing double or triple the amount of visual information into focus. If compared to the usual landscape format, this creates visually fragmented viewing experience.
