New York’s first microdrama film festival searches for its audience

本文为原文前 6,000 字符的节选翻译，完整内容请查看原文。

It remains to be seen if people really want to watch vertical content on horizontal TV screens, but many filmmakers and creators were confident that their latest projects would play well at Alza — New York City’s first microdrama film festival. Founded by former Tribeca Festival chief operating officer Pete Torres, Alza, which took place October 16th through 18th, was billed as a showcase for the “the creativity, innovation, and growing cultural impact of stories made for the vertical screen.”

人们是否真的愿意在横屏电视上观看竖屏内容还有待观察，但许多电影制作人和创作者都坚信，他们的最新项目会在纽约首届微短剧电影节“Alza”上大放异彩。Alza电影节由翠贝卡电影节前首席运营官皮特·托雷斯（Pete Torres）创办，于10月16日至18日举行，旨在展示“为竖屏而生的故事所具备的创造力、创新性以及日益增长的文化影响力”。

That proposition felt rather dubious as I sat down in an AMC theater in Manhattan for screenings of director Jerry Bradford’s vertical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and the original Billionaire’s Broken Vow starring Eric Roberts. Though both of those projects were full-length features, they were filled with jarring jump cuts and abrupt soundtrack changes that reminded me how the films are cut up into short “episodes” for microdrama apps.

当我坐在曼哈顿的一家AMC影院，观看导演杰瑞·布拉德福德（Jerry Bradford）执导的竖屏版《傲慢与偏见》以及由埃里克·罗伯茨（Eric Roberts）主演的原创剧集《亿万富翁的破碎誓言》时，这种主张显得相当可疑。尽管这两个项目都是长篇作品，但其中充斥着突兀的跳剪和生硬的配乐切换，这让我意识到这些电影是如何被切割成短小的“剧集”以适配微短剧应用的。

Most fans of vertical videos and microdramas consume them through their mobile devices, but platforms like Instagram and Vurt have been rolling out dedicated smart TV apps that are designed to keep vertical video viewers glued to their couches. The popularity of YouTube — which you can access in so many different ways — has spooked major streaming services like Disney Plus, Netflix, and HBO Max into experimenting with feeds of vertical clips.

大多数竖屏视频和微短剧的粉丝都是通过移动设备观看的，但Instagram和Vurt等平台一直在推出专用的智能电视应用程序，旨在让竖屏视频观众能够安坐在沙发上观看。YouTube的普及——用户可以通过多种方式访问它——已经让迪士尼Plus、Netflix和HBO Max等主流流媒体服务感到恐慌，促使它们开始尝试竖屏短视频流。

As odd as I personally found much of what was playing at Alza, it did seem to entertain some of the festival’s other attendees, many of whom were middle-aged women. None of the screenings were packed, but while watching a few steamy, romance-forward dramas, I was surprised to hear peals of laughter and gasps coming from the front of the theater, where festival staffers encouraged people to sit in order to have the best viewing experience.

尽管我个人觉得Alza电影节上播放的大部分内容都很奇怪，但它似乎确实娱乐了其他一些与会者，其中许多是中年女性。虽然放映现场并不拥挤，但在观看几部火辣的浪漫题材剧集时，我惊讶地听到影院前排传来了阵阵笑声和惊叹声，电影节工作人员曾鼓励观众坐在那里以获得最佳观影体验。

“We’re making content that speaks to mainstream women who are part of this mobile-first movement,” explained Amy Sullivan, head of development at GammaTime. “We have easy watches, we have rom-coms, and we have stuff that’s a little spicier — but not too salacious — for perhaps later at night. We’re trying to meet everyone where they are at every time of day.”

“我们正在制作的内容旨在吸引那些参与‘移动优先’浪潮的主流女性，”GammaTime开发主管艾米·沙利文（Amy Sullivan）解释道。“我们有轻松的观看内容，有浪漫喜剧，还有一些稍微火辣一点——但不过分淫秽——适合深夜观看的内容。我们试图在一天中的任何时间满足每个人的需求。”