# Short-Form and Vertical Production: A Reading Path Source: https://storiara.com/learn/short-form-and-vertical Last updated: 2026-09-14 Author: Spencer Kaufman, Storiara > Short-form work uses the same breakdown, schedule, and budget skills as a feature, so learn those first. Then read by format. Vertical dramas are about a very high page rate, tight location grouping, and continuity across dozens of short episodes. Web series plan like a small TV season. Music videos and commercials are planned from treatments, boards, and setups instead of script pages. Short films compress everything into a few days. Short form covers several kinds of production that share little besides length: vertical dramas made for phone apps, web series, music videos, commercials, and short films. What they have in common is compressed prep and a pace that would be unusual on a feature. The basics are the same as long form, so if you haven't gone through [script breakdown](https://storiara.com/learn/script-breakdown) and [shooting schedules](https://storiara.com/learn/shooting-schedules), start with those. This path covers what changes by format. ## Vertical dramas A vertical drama season is written as dozens of one- or two-minute episodes and shot in a handful of days. The [vertical dramas](https://storiara.com/solutions/vertical-dramas) page works through the page math for a 70-episode season of about 105 pages over 9 shoot days: 105 / 9 = 11.7 pages a day, or about a page an hour on a 12-hour day. At that pace the board has to be grouped tightly by location, and boarding by episode wastes days. Many vertical scenes are 3/8 or 4/8 of a page, so check your eighths with the [page count calculator](https://storiara.com/tools/page-count-calculator), since small rounding errors across a hundred scenes add up to hours. Then read the vertical planning posts in order. Start with [how to plan a vertical drama shoot](https://storiara.com/blog/how-to-plan-a-vertical-drama-shoot) for prep and the camera package. After that come the [vertical series production schedule](https://storiara.com/blog/vertical-series-production-schedule) for a full board, the [short-form series budget](https://storiara.com/blog/short-form-series-budget) for the money, and [vertical video call sheets](https://storiara.com/blog/vertical-video-call-sheets) for the day itself. The vertical dramas page calls continuity the hardest department on these shoots. Seventy episodes shot out of order means characters' looks jumping between story days all week, and plots that skip weeks or months between episodes. Learn [story day](https://storiara.com/glossary/story-day) and [continuity](https://storiara.com/glossary/continuity), and set up a [wardrobe breakdown](https://storiara.com/templates/wardrobe-breakdown) and a [continuity log](https://storiara.com/templates/continuity-log) before the board is locked. Performers on these shows may work under SAG-AFTRA's [New Media Agreement](https://storiara.com/glossary/new-media-agreement), which covers programs made for initial exhibition on internet and mobile platforms. Confirm the agreement with the union before you budget cast; the [unions and compliance path](https://storiara.com/learn/unions-and-compliance) covers signatory basics. ## Web series A web series is usually shot as one block covering several episodes, so it plans like a small TV season. [Block shooting vs cross-boarding](https://storiara.com/blog/block-shooting-vs-cross-boarding) is the most useful single read, with six episodes and five locations boarded three different ways. Number scenes by episode so cross-boarded strips stay traceable; [scene numbering rules](https://storiara.com/blog/scene-numbering-rules) covers the conventions. The [web series](https://storiara.com/solutions/web-series) page covers the rest of prep, including actor availability across a block shot out of order. ## Music videos and commercials Neither starts from a screenplay. A music video is planned from the treatment and the track. The [music video script breakdown](https://storiara.com/blog/music-video-script-breakdown) maps the song by section and timecode, pulls setups from the treatment, and counts the artist's looks and changes before grouping setups into a day. [How to budget a music video](https://storiara.com/blog/how-to-budget-a-music-video) covers the money, and the [music videos](https://storiara.com/solutions/music-videos) page covers playback passes and working around the artist's glam time. Commercials start from agency boards and a bid, usually on the AICP form, and talent costs depend on usage. The [commercials](https://storiara.com/solutions/commercials) page and [how to budget a commercial shoot](https://storiara.com/blog/how-to-budget-a-commercial-shoot) explain how that differs from a film budget. Both formats are scheduled by shots and setups, so the [shot list template](https://storiara.com/templates/shot-list) carries more of the planning than a stripboard does. ## Short films Many people learn production on short films. [How to schedule a short film in one weekend](https://storiara.com/blog/how-to-schedule-a-short-film-in-one-weekend) builds a two-day board with call times and works out Sunday's call from Saturday's wrap. The [short film budget breakdown](https://storiara.com/blog/short-film-budget-breakdown) prices a 12-page, three-day short line by line against the SAG-AFTRA Short Project Agreement's $50,000 limit. If you're in school, the [thesis film pre-production checklist](https://storiara.com/blog/thesis-film-pre-production-checklist) and the [student films](https://storiara.com/solutions/student-films) page cover faculty approvals and equipment checkout. ## How the money works at this size Web series, vertical dramas, and short-form shows are often financed like independent films, with a platform deal, brand money, or equity. [Television greenlighting](https://storiara.com/blog/television-greenlighting-pilots-series-orders-and-streaming-economics) has a section on smaller series and short form, including picking a fixed number of shoot days per batch of episodes and writing to it. The [film financing path](https://storiara.com/learn/film-financing) covers the layers of a finance plan in more detail. ## Frequently asked questions ### How many pages a day do vertical dramas shoot? Far more than a feature. In the worked example on our vertical dramas page, a 70-episode season of about 105 pages on 9 shoot days averages roughly 11.7 pages a day. That pace only works when scenes are simple and grouped tightly by location. ### Should a vertical series be scheduled episode by episode? Usually not. Boarding by episode means returning to the same locations again and again. Most vertical and web series shoots cross-board the whole block by location and track story days for continuity. ### Which SAG-AFTRA agreement covers vertical or web series? Projects made for initial exhibition on internet or mobile platforms may fall under SAG-AFTRA's New Media Agreement. Confirm the right agreement with SAG-AFTRA for your budget and distribution before you budget cast. ### Do music videos and commercials use a stripboard? Rarely in the feature sense. Both are planned from a treatment or agency boards and scheduled by setups, so the shot list and the day's shot count do most of the work a stripboard does on a film.