The Jay & Tony Show Show - Vertically Challenged

Kristen Brancaccio is back with Jay and Tony to talk about directing Screen Time for Issa Rae's company, navigating the sometimes bizarre demands of international microdrama platforms, and why a drunk guy drinking beer in a hospital might be exactly what audiences want. She also shares how Project Greenlight helped launch her career, reveals details about her upcoming horror film Crush Party, and weighs in on whether AI is the future of filmmaking or just an endless factory of digital slop. Turns out there's still something to be said for actual humans making movies.

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Director Kristen Brancaccio has made roughly 21 vertical dramas, worked with Finneas, and survived enough chaotic productions to know a thing or two about getting stuff done. She joins Jay and Tony to talk about directing at breakneck speed, why the microdrama paywall might be doomed, and whether anyone actually understands how these platforms make money. Spoiler: Even the people making the shows don't seem to know. But Kristen has some pretty compelling ideas about where this whole crazy business is headed.

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Susan Rovner is back with Jay and Tony to explain why a little jankiness might actually be a good thing. They dig into A Twist's deals with BET and Kevin Hart, bringing stars like Paris Hilton and Mario Lopez into verticals, and why the next big Hollywood stars might already be on your phone. Plus, AI, zombie musicals, and why Susan would rather shut down her app than make the misogynistic garbage some platforms keep pumping out.

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What happens when a Hollywood powerhouse decides to ditch the old playbook and jump into verticals? Jay and Tony sit down with former Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal executive Susan Rovner to talk about launching A Twist, why the microseries business model needs a rethink, and why good storytelling still beats chasing algorithms. Plus, Susan shares the wild story of how Netflix passed on a fan favorite series twice before it became a monster hit.

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In this episode, Jay and Tony pull back the curtain on the chaotic realities of shooting vertical micro-dramas overseas, diving headfirst into the messy intersection of human production and artificial intelligence. After a disastrous experience with a newly hired assistant director forced them into a midnight crisis, Jay recounts how turning to an LLM to generate schedules, call sheets, and script sides essentially saved the shoot from total collapse. Together, the hosts unpack the complex nuances of using AI on set, the backlash against industry slop, and why finding the right balance between technological tools and human crew members is the ultimate challenge for modern producers trying to survive a low-budget schedule.

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Jay and Tony stagger back from a six-microdrama production bender spanning Northern California, Los Angeles, and Colombia with stories, scars, and a rapidly deteriorating relationship with logistics.

They compare the joys of shooting at home, and other uniquely LA ways to turn money into paperwork, with the sweat-soaked chaos of filming in South America, where the challenges are different but somehow no less absurd. Along the way they get into lost Gold Bond, language barriers, banking disasters, cultural whiplash, and the increasingly undeniable fact that vertical content has gone global.

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As vertical micro-dramas lurch into the mainstream and everyone pretends they saw them coming, Jay and Tony are back to unpack the booming industry through the only lens that makes sense… production trauma. Well, that and the physical laws governing life. From Hofstadter's Law to The Dunning-Kruger Effect to The Pareto Principle, they break down the universal laws that govern indie sets, impossible deadlines, micro-drama chaos, and the terrifying moment when "we'll figure it out on the day" becomes an actual business model. Then the break down a few principles of their own design, like The Chipotle Doctrine, The Producer Credit Ratio and The Pizza Cheese Principle. Tired, wired, over-caffeinated, and still somehow employed, they wrap another week from the trenches of modern entertainment.

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Jay and Tony get into the chaos of directing actors in the microdrama trenches, where forgotten lines, phone distractions, and big movements can derail an entire day. They break down how performers can actually survive fast-turnaround shoots, why vertical framing turns every eyebrow twitch into a backstory, and how the Kuleshov effect lets audiences project a whole reaction onto one controlled stare. They dive into facial recognition, stress management, and the delicate art of keeping actors emotionally alive without letting the set become group therapy. The takeaway: there is absolutely no crying on the yacht.

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Jay and Tony unpack the gold-rush nonsense currently flooding the microdrama business, where every headline has a higher number than the last, and everyone suddenly owns a calculator from Fantasyland. They dig into the "$150 billion market" claim, how ad spend can shove AI-driven apps up the charts and make it look like a movement, and what is actual business versus beautifully packaged delusion. Along the way, they question whether big names play, and if names like James Franco are real audience drivers or just expensive trade-press confetti.

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The Jay and Tony Show: www.jayandtonyshow.com

Instagram: @vertically_challenged_pod_jtss

It's late August, deep summer, and we're buried in production shooting a whole new slate of vertical micro-dramas. Since we didn't have time to record a brand-new episode this week, we're opening up the time capsule and taking you all the way back to September 2014.

Long before AI, micro-dramas, and vertical video were things, we were just making TV and recording our very first podcast. Tune in to hear our inaugural 2014 episode, "Don't Kill the Cast," from a time when Tony and I were younger, happier, and talking unscripted TV. Regular programming returns next week!

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Contact: [email protected]

The Jay and Tony Show: www.jayandtonyshow.com