The Hollywood Reporter spotlights CCM Acting's "microdramas"

UC College-Conservatory of Music BFA Acting students and Professor D'Arcy Smith are featured in The Hollywood Reporter's coverage on "microdramas," short vertical video content meant to be viewed on cell phone screens.

Microdramas, or verticals, are often 60-to-90 second episodes that are immediately engaging and easily consumable as viewers scroll on social media platforms like TikTok. 

At UC's Digital Performance Lab, CCM Acting students have shot a medical drama, a sitcom set in a midwest grocery store and the upcoming Diary of A High School Demon Hunter. Professor D’Arcy Smith, Director of the Digital Performance Lab, is focusing his acting for the camera class on microdramas after speaking with recent grads from the program and finding that this is what they were auditioning for.

In the fall semester, they worked with alumnus Spencer Lackey (BFA Acting, '17), who has amassed six million followers on TikTok and Instagram through his short-form horror content. He worked with CCM Acting students to create their own vertical short-form horror content. 

Microdramas are experiencing a "gold rush" in Hollywood, according to The Hollywood Reporter's story. Preparing students for careers in theatre and beyond in the evolving entertainment landscape is key. The Cincinnati Business Courier also recently featured CCM Acting for its work in preparing students for their future careers. "It's one of the few undergraduate actor-training programs in the U.S. that integrates film, voiceover and motion capture," wrote Rick Pender.

“I don’t really have a lot of control over where the industry is going,” Nikolai Gray, a senior BFA Acting student, told The Hollywood Reporter. “But right now going into it, I feel really happy that I’ve had this experience in an educational environment, to be able to practice them because now I’m like, ‘Now, I know where this part of this industry is going, and I can be part of it.”