Following its “Series” format and previous
partnerships with the Sundance Institute, TikTok is
embracing the creation of episodic video content through a new micro-series writing program on Sundance’s digital learning and community platform.
Highlighting a shift in social-media companies’ prioritization of episodic video content, TikTok’s
micro-series writing program is a four-week live online course focused on helping creators develop scripts for original “serialized, story-driven content.”
The program will bring together a cohort of applicants from TikTok’s creator community and Sundance Collab, an institution for filmmaker education and development that aims to support
emerging filmmaking talent.
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“TikTok has become a home for serialized storytelling,” Dawn Yang,
TikTok’s head of entertainment partnerships, said on Wednesday at the company’s Vertical Media Summit.
Over the past few years, soap opera-style microdramas have become a hit on TikTok, generating $1.3 billion in the U.S. in 2025 via direct payments from viewers, according to a recent Business Insider report.
To harness increased fandom surrounding serialized video content on the app, TikTok launched a
“Series” feature in 2023, which allows creators to package collections of premium long-form content behind a paywall. Last year, the company also launched a dedicated “Minis”
hub and a stand-alone mini dramas app in the U.S. and Brazil called “PineDrama.”
“The micro-series format is genuinely exciting to us
because its constraints produce exactly the kind of creative pressure that generates the most original work,” said Patty West, director of Sundance Collab. “We want creators to see this
format not as a lesser version of film or television, but as its own distinct craft that is wide open for new voices to define.”
In response to
episodic content trending in TikTok’s video feed, Meta announced its own “Series” feature earlier this week, tapping a handful of creators to create and publish video series that utilize their new and existing Reels.
