9:16 vertical – In Los Angeles, producer Jingyi Li describes vertical dramas as a production format built for speed—where pacing, cliffhangers, and emotional hook are decided as much in pre-production and post as on set. From 9:16 mini-series at apps like DramaBox, ShortMax,
When audiences decide whether to stay, they don’t do it in a theater. They do it on a phone—fast enough that producers feel the pressure before the first frame is even shot.
In Los Angeles, film producer Jingyi Li has built her career around that reality. While legacy Hollywood wrestles with long development cycles and traditional distribution models. Li has worked at the intersection of vertical drama. creative producing. and next-generation digital media. shaping serialized stories for a 9:16 mobile-first format that’s changed how quickly a narrative has to earn its audience.
Li’s career spans independent narrative filmmaking, mobile-first serialized entertainment, and performance-driven commercial video production. As a producer and director. her credits include several narrative short films. roughly a dozen vertical drama series for platforms such as DramaBox. ShortMax and GoodShort. and hundreds of short-form commercial video productions for mobile games and digital products including Vita Mahjong and Tile Explorer.
Across those roles, she focuses on translating creative and commercial objectives into production plans: coordinating talent and crew, supervising production and post-production, and delivering platform-ready content for audiences, clients, and digital distribution channels.
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Vertical dramas—first powered by China’s early-2020s “duanju. ” condensed serialized dramas designed for mobile viewing—have since evolved into a professionalized production ecosystem for vertical mini-series. Shot for 9:16 smartphones, these 1 to 3 minute episodes rely on cliffhangers to keep viewers hooked. They are posted to subscription-based apps, including ReelShort, DramaBox and GoodShort, and vertical dramas have become mainstream, globally.
The shift, Li argues, is not only portability. It’s structural. The format breaks down spatial and temporal barriers of serialized storytelling: viewers can follow characters. conflicts. reversals. and emotional payoffs with something closer to television drama. but through the accessibility and time commitment of a feature film. Over the past six years. vertical dramas have grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. and—at a time when traditional studio production has faced cutbacks—vertical dramas have created a new production ecosystem for U.S.-based actors. producers. directors. and crew members.
For Li, producing isn’t confined to the set. “Producing, for me, is never limited to only being on set,” she said. “A large part of the work happens before filming begins and continues through post-production and final delivery.”
That lifecycle becomes even more intense when projects move at the velocity of mobile-first serialized entertainment. During her tenure with Tap Story at GoodShort. Li described herself as a bridge between creative development. production execution and platform delivery—especially when scripts have to be evaluated for whether they’re ready to enter the production pipeline.
When she explains what determines readiness, she doesn’t start with technical checklists. She starts with people. “One of the most important things is emotional engagement,” said Li. “Vertical dramas rely heavily on pacing. cliffhangers. character dynamics. and audience retention. so we constantly had to think about how quickly a story could emotionally hook audiences and make them invested in a character’s fate. The goal is to make viewers curious, emotionally attached, and eager to keep watching.”.
But the work, she stresses, isn’t just recognizing emotional mechanics—it’s preserving them under production pressure. In her view, producers have to align story, casting, location, schedule, crew, and post-production so the emotional promise of the script survives speed.
Her directing background shapes how she approaches that survival. With experience across narrative shorts and vertical drama productions. Li brings a director’s sensitivity to performance. visual tone. casting. and emotional pacing into producing. “Since these productions move extremely quickly. producers often have to make creative and operational decisions at the same time. while constantly thinking from the audience’s perspective. ” Li said. “Since I also come from a directing background. I pay a lot of attention to performance. emotional pacing. visual tone. and casting.”.
On a phone in a tight 9:16 aspect ratio—often handheld and intimate—there’s little room to hide. “Casting instinct is especially important because audiences form emotional attachments to characters very quickly,” she noted. “Producers need to constantly evaluate how emotionally readable a character or scene feels on screen.”.
Traditional filmmaking can stretch into slow-burn exposition and expansive world-building. Vertical serialization demands instant hooks and high-frequency emotional cliffhangers. The close-up portrait framing drops environmental context in favor of intense, character-driven investment. And because delivery cycles are compressed, producers must manage agile pipelines that respond to viewer behavior in near-real time.
That producing fluency extends beyond vertical drama. Li’s work includes independent narrative shorts such as Green Card and Happy Birthday. alongside short-form commercial video productions for mobile games and digital products including Tile Explorer and Vita Mahjong. Moving between narrative and commercial work. she says. makes her especially fluent in shifting between the storyteller’s perspective and the audience’s point of view—helping protect a project’s creative intention while keeping its emotional impact. production demands. and market-facing delivery in focus.
The same instinct—balancing art, production, and audience expectation—also shows up in how Li mentors. During graduate school. she mentored undergraduate film students at the Savannah College of Art and Design. helping emerging filmmakers understand the delicate balance between artistic vision. production realities. and commercial expectations in screen production.
If all of that points to one enduring obsession—audience psychology—Li has taken it further into another modern frontier: live broadcasting. She works as a Live Streaming Director for CHC Fashion Group. where the company specializes in live fashion sales on TikTok. CHC Fashion Group features over 40 brands and 60 in-house hosts, and it generated over $50 million in revenue in 2024 alone.
In that environment, creative decisions are tested instantly against viewer behavior and commercial response. “I think livestreaming is powerful not only because it is interactive and immediate. but because it is fundamentally a form of real-time storytelling and emotional engagement. ” Li said. “Unlike traditional film or television, there is no editing process to reshape the experience afterward. Live production teams have to constantly adjust pacing. emotional energy. and presentation in real time based on audience reactions and engagement.”.
For Li, directing live broadcasts became training for the narrative work she’s now known for. “It trained me to think very carefully about when audiences become emotionally invested, when attention begins to drop, and how storytelling pacing can influence real-time engagement,” she added.
Taken together. Li’s career reads like a response to a single cultural change: entertainment isn’t waiting for audiences anymore. It has learned to move at their pace. within the boundaries of a screen they carry everywhere—and producers like Li are learning how to keep the story alive before the next swipe decides its fate.
Jingyi Li vertical drama 9:16 mobile-first entertainment serialized storytelling cliffhangers ReelShort DramaBox ShortMax GoodShort Tap Story CHC Fashion Group TikTok live fashion sales Savannah College of Art and Design Vita Mahjong Tile Explorer