What Equipment is used to film Vertical & Microdramas vs Traditional Films
Vertical dramas are one of the fastest-growing formats in online storytelling. Designed specifically for smartphone viewing, these short episodes—often between 60 and 120 seconds long—are built for fast production and rapid audience engagement.
One of the reasons the format has exploded in popularity is that it can be produced at many different budget levels. A large studio production might use several cameras and a full crew, while an independent filmmaker can create a compelling vertical drama with only a small amount of equipment.
Let’s look at what equipment you might see on a professional vertical drama set, and what independent creators can realistically get away with.
Cameras: Professional vs Independent Setups
Professional Productions
On professional vertical drama sets, it’s common to see two or now even three cameras filming at the same time. Each camera may be positioned to capture a different framing, such as:
Wide shot – showing the full scene or environmentMid shot – focusing on the characters’ upper bodies
Close-up – capturing emotional reactions and dialogue
Using multiple cameras allows the production to capture all these angles simultaneously, which dramatically speeds up the filming process.
This is particularly important for vertical dramas because many productions aim to film dozens of episodes in a very short timeframe. It is not uncommon for a production to shoot 10-15 pages per day.
Professional productions often use mirrorless or cinema cameras from companies like Sony, Canon, or Panasonic to achieve a cinematic look.
Independent Filmmakers
Independent filmmakers can absolutely produce vertical dramas using just one camera. Instead of filming multiple angles at once, a single-camera setup simply requires filming the scene several times from different angles.
This approach takes a little longer during filming, but it can keeps equipment costs much lower (but may increase your crew costs).
Many indie creators even shoot vertical dramas now using modern smartphones, which are already designed for vertical recording and can deliver surprisingly high-quality video.
Tripods and Vertical Mounts
Whether you’re filming with one camera or three, you’ll need equipment that allows you to mount the camera vertically. Common solutions include:
Tripods with a vertical mounting option
L-brackets that rotate cameras into portrait orientation
Smartphone tripod mounts
Stability is especially important in vertical video because the narrow frame means small movements are much more noticeable.
Vertical dramas also often use shallow depth of field because it:
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draws the viewer’s attention directly to the actor’s face
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makes the image feel more cinematic
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helps separate the actor from the background
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hides less interesting or low-budget locations
Since vertical dramas are usually close-up performance driven, this technique works particularly well.
Lighting
Lighting is one of the fastest ways to improve the quality of your production. Due to the fast-paced filming of verticals and microdramas, there isn't a lot of time to move lighting around. Professional vertical productions often use full, pre-set lighting setups including:
Key lightsFill lights
Back lights
If you watch a lot of vertical productions, you'll also notice they tend to have nice clean, clear images. Darker, cinematic-style, lighting can sometimes cause information be lost when viewing on a mobile - if the viewer can't see an actors expression or what is going on, then they are likely to lose interest.
Independent filmmakers can achieve great results using simpler setups such as:
Because vertical dramas often feature tight framing on actors’ faces, good lighting helps avoid harsh shadows and creates a more polished look.
Note: Ring lights can also work, but you need to be careful as they can reflect in the actors eyes, which may impact your overall look of the film, so I would not recommend using these.
Audio Equipment
Clear sound in any film is just as important as good visuals. Professional sets typically use a combination of:
Lavaliere microphones (clip-on mics worn by actors)
Shotgun microphones on boom poles
For independent filmmakers, lavaliere or wireless microphones are often the easiest and most affordable solution. They capture clear dialogue while allowing actors to move naturally within the scene.
Note: Due to many vertical dramas being watched on mobile phones, it is not uncommon for viewers to watch a drama without the audio. So whilst audio is important, the visual in verticals can take a higher priority. And as the audience can be global, English subtitles / captions will always be recommended.
Stabilizers and Movement
Many vertical dramas rely heavily on static shots, especially during dialogue scenes.
However, if needed, professional productions often use motorized gimbals or stabilized camera rigs.
Indie filmmakers can use handheld gimbals, but If your scene includes camera movement, stabilizers can help maintain smooth footage. Too much camera movement on a small screen can be distracting for the viewer.
Editing Software
Once filming is complete, the footage is edited using professional software that supports vertical video formats. Popular editing tools include:
Adobe Premiere Pro (Paid)
DaVinci Resolve (Free or Paid)
Final Cut Pro (Paid)
These programs allow editors to work in the 9:16 vertical aspect ratio, which is the standard format used by most vertical drama platforms. Remember to always include English captions on your final edit.
Why You Should Always Film Vertically
One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is filming horizontally and then cropping the footage into a vertical format during editing. While this might seem convenient, it causes several problems:
1. You Lose Image Quality
Cropping horizontal footage removes a large portion of the image. This effectively reduces the resolution of the final video. This might seem insignificant if your film is intended to be watched on mobile phones, but ideally you want the film to be the best quality you can get from your equipment.
2. Important Visual Information Gets Cut Off
Actors may move outside the cropped frame, forcing editors to constantly reposition the image during editing. Or if you have several actors in shot, they may not be close enough to each other to fit in the vertical frame when edited.
Also, closeup shots on a horizontal film when edited into vertical can end up looking way too close - which can be a bit too confronting on a mobile phone screen.
3. The Composition Doesn’t Work
Because vertical storytelling uses a completely different style of framing, Directors will intentionally compose shots to guide the viewer’s eye from top to bottom, rather than across a wide frame. Filming vertically from the start ensures that:
actors are framed correctly
compositions feel natural
the final image maintains its full quality
Final Thoughts
Vertical dramas are unique because they can be produced at almost any scale.
A professional production may use multiple cameras, full lighting setups, and a large crew in order to film dozens of episodes quickly.
But independent filmmakers can still create compelling vertical dramas with a single camera, basic lighting, and good audio equipment.
Ultimately, the most important thing isn’t how much equipment you have—it’s understanding how to frame and tell stories effectively in a vertical format.
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