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• Film producer Tommy Harper is shutting down his micro drama app VeYou after about six months.
• Harper, who sought to build the "HBO" of the genre, said he would still produce for other platforms.
• The micro drama space has shifted as tech giants push in.

The app that wanted to be the "HBO" of micro dramas is shutting down.

Prolific film producer Tommy Harper is shutting down his app, VeYou, after about six months. A message on VeYou said the service would end November 6.

Harper told Business Insider he would continue producing series, distributing them via TikTok's micro-drama app PineDrama, YouTube, and other partners.

Harper, whose credits include "Star Wars" and "Top Gun: Maverick," is one of several Hollywood vets trying to bring their prestige sensibility to micro dramas, the soapy, low-budget series that got their start in China and have exploded in the US.

The move shows how fast the space is changing as Big Tech companies lean in. Micro dramas — also called "verticals" — cost a fraction of a traditional feature-length movie, but apps often lose money because of the high cost of marketing, and VeYou didn't have massive financial backing.

"In the past year, TikTok, Meta, and YouTube all moved hard into short drama," Harper emailed. "When the three biggest attention platforms commit to a format, distribution is decided. The opportunity for an independent company is to be the best supplier to those platforms, not to compete with them for installs. So we're focused where we have the edge: making the shows."

Harper raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding for VeYou from investor S32, a venture firm started by Google Ventures founder Bill Maris, who's also backed 23andMe, Impossible Foods, and Nest. VeYou has made a handful of originals, starting with "Love Under Fire," a romance drama starring Kasey Esser, who wrote the series alongside Harper.

The micro drama market is changing fast

The micro drama space has changed dramatically in recent months.

In the past year, AI-generated characters have increasingly taken their place alongside human actors, and free, ad-supported offerings are competing with the "freemium" apps that had dominated the landscape.

A report by media consultancy Owl & Co. found two-thirds of films released by leading apps in the third quarter of this year outside China were AI-generated, up from 3% in the first quarter.

TikTok's free app PineDrama rolled out in January, and by the third quarter, it accounted for more than half of all micro drama views across 16 leading apps, according to the Owl & Co. report.

Other tech giants have also moved quickly into the space and made themselves bigger viewing destinations for micro dramas.

YouTube released a new feature that allows creators to bundle their short videos in a series of episodes or seasons, designed to be viewed sequentially.

On Meta, the dominant platform used by micro drama apps to acquire customers, some apps are running portions of their films lasting 20 minutes or more as ads to get people to subscribe.

Lori Golden-Stryer, the CEO of RIVR Media, a producing partner for VeYou, said VeYou's films set themselves apart through their scripts, acting, and direction. She said she was encouraged to see its series perform well on TikTok, based on platform data and her company's monitoring.

"People want live characters," she said. "I don't think they want AI. I've seen a lot of different verticals, and I'd like to think ours were a little cut above."

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‘I dislike the idea that individual stories aren’t meaningful unless they lead to something else’ says the director

Una storia nata dal dolore che, attraverso il cinema, è diventata memoria collettiva e che ora trova una nuova forma sul palcoscenico. Il ragazzo dai pantaloni rosa arriva al Teatro Sistina dal 29 ottobre al 1° novembre, prima di intraprendere un tour che porterà il musical in diverse città italiane. A trasformare il racconto cinematografico in spettacolo teatrale è Massimo Romeo Piparo, che firma l’adattamento insieme a Roberto Proia, sceneggiatore del film. Al centro resta la vicenda di Andrea Spezzacatena, quindicenne vittima di bullismo e cyberbullismo, la cui storia ha aperto una discussione profonda sulle conseguenze della violenza psicologica, sull’isolamento e sul peso che le parole possono avere soprattutto durante l’adolescenza.

Una storia che cambia linguaggio

Il passaggio dal grande schermo al teatro non è però una semplice trasposizione. Piparo sceglie infatti la strada del jukebox musical, costruendo il racconto attraverso alcune delle canzoni più conosciute del pop-rock italiano. La musica diventa così parte integrante della narrazione e accompagna emozioni, ricordi e passaggi della storia. Nella selezione trovano spazio, tra gli altri, Canta ancora di Arisa, brano simbolo del film e vincitore del Nastro d’Argento come miglior canzone originale, insieme a 100 messaggi, A modo tuo, Gigante, Il filo rosso, La fine, Sogna ragazzo sogna di Roberto Vecchioni, Una musica può fare e Volevo essere un duro. Gli arrangiamenti sono affidati al maestro Emanuele Friello.

Il teatro come specchio della società

La scelta teatrale nasce dalla volontà di non fermarsi alla rappresentazione della tragedia, ma di utilizzare il palcoscenico come luogo di confronto. Il bullismo diventa così il punto di partenza per parlare di adolescenti, famiglie, scuola e responsabilità collettiva. Non soltanto una denuncia, dunque, ma un invito a interrogarsi su quanto sia necessario imparare a riconoscere e rispettare l’unicità degli altri.

Uno sguardo sul futuro

È questa, per Piparo, la sfida più significativa del progetto: trasformare una vicenda drammatica in un racconto capace di lasciare spazio anche alla speranza. Una prospettiva che lo ha portato a immaginare Andrea non soltanto come il protagonista della sua storia, ma come una presenza narrativa capace di accompagnare il pubblico. Il personaggio torna idealmente sulla scena nella versione adulta, attraverso la figura di un Andrea ventisettenne che guarda al passato e racconta ciò che avrebbe potuto essere il suo futuro.

A interpretare Andrea adolescente sarà ancora Samuele Carrino, già protagonista del film e tra i giovani interpreti più interessanti della nuova generazione. Con lui torna anche Sara Ciocca. Nel ruolo della madre di Andrea ci sarà Rossella Brescia, chiamata a confrontarsi con un personaggio di forte impatto emotivo. Christian Roberto interpreterà invece Andrea a 27 anni, assumendo anche la funzione di narratore e voce del “domani”. Il cast comprende inoltre Donato Altomare, nei panni del padre Tommaso; Matteo Volpotti, che interpreta il professor Gioli, insegnante di musica eccentrico e trascinante; Tommaso Pieropan, nel ruolo di Christian, il ragazzo che incarna la dimensione del bullo; e il giovanissimo Michele Mula, che interpreta Daniele, il fratellino di Andrea. La squadra creativa completa il progetto con la direzione musicale di Emanuele Friello, le coreografie di Dalila Frassanito, le scenografie di Teresa Caruso, i costumi di Cecilia Betona, le luci di Umile Vainieri e il suono di Stefano Gorini. Il musical raccoglie l’eredità di un film prodotto da Eagle Pictures e Weekend Films, nato dal libro scritto da Teresa Manes, madre di Andrea Spezzacatena.

L'articolo Il ragazzo dai pantaloni rosa, il dolore diventa musical: al Sistina la storia di Andrea che ha commosso l’Italia proviene da Affaritaliani.it.

Maka Gogaladze’s debut feature looks at generational differences in the context of Georgia’s education system and emphasis on collectivism

The scars imprinted on impressionable young minds can never fully fade away. Aiming her lens at a rocky beach thrashed by crashing waves, Maka Gogaladze opens her intimate film with a painful anecdote from her adolescent years. Through on-screen texts against a stormy sky, the Georgian film-maker recalls the time she dumped all of her poems into the garbage. The impulsive decision was a gesture of rebellion against her domineering mother; Gogaladze had wanted her to feel guilty.

This debut feature would appear, at first glance, to be another act of revolt. Putting her mother in front of the camera, Gogaladze asks probing, at times blunt, questions about the strict education thrust on her in childhood. Together, they talk about piano lessons that ended in tears, and tough academic exams that continued to haunt the director well into her adulthood. Their contrasting personalities are fascinatingly revealed across these conversations in all their tension, yet these sequences also represent a moving effort to reach across generational differences.

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