As microdramas win an ever-growing audience around the world, Hollywood-based Sunset Studios is seizing the opportunity with ready-made sets at its Las Palmas lot.

The studio lot on May 27 debuted an initial collection of standing sets that support courtroom, apartment and hospital scenes, among others. Developed in collaboration with short-form studio Knockout Shorts, the sets were adapted from previous major productions and were designed to fit the vertical screen format that microdramas are known for.

“These standing sets are about removing friction from the production process,” said Sean Griffin, senior vice president of sales at Sunset Studios, in a statement. “Creators can walk onto a completely built, and fully lit high-quality set and start shooting right away, while also enjoying the infrastructure and support of a premier Hollywood studio lot.”

Microdramas in L.A.

While the rise of microdramas can be traced to China back in 2018, the bite-sized, high-stakes melodrama format has been rapidly gaining domestic popularity since the pandemic.

One of the first microdrama studios in L.A., Quibi, rose to prominence with an astronomical $1.75 billion investment in April 2020 before shutting down later that year. Despite its short lifespan, it has helped steer the audience towards the highly addictive format.

This May, two microdrama applications named ReelShort and DramaBox beat Netflix as the most-downloaded video-streaming apps worldwide, according to market researcher Sensor Tower. The U.S contributed almost half of global short drama app revenue last year.