Anthony Albanese receives light-hearted dressing down for Contiki-tour look during Great Wall of China visit
Some media commented that he looked more like a Contiki-tour traveller than a Prime Minister, in stark contrast to his fiance Jodie Haydon who received plaudits for her costume choices throughout the six day trip.
She made a fashion nod to her hosts at the Great Wall by wearing a $599 short-sleeve midi-dress with a floral print and mandarin collar by Leo Lin.
'As an Australian-Chinese brand, we are thrilled to see Jodie Haydon wearing Leo Lin in Leo's home country,' said Laura Good, head of brand at Leo Lin.
Walking alongside her, Mr Albanese opted for a light blue polo shirt and baseball cap of his beloved South Sydney Rabbitohs.
There were also comments on social media deriding his casual attire as unstatesman-like. But others pointed out it would be too stuffy climbing the steps in anything more formal, especially on a hot day.
There were negative comments about him looking even more blokey — wearing a Hawthorn Football Club shirt — when visiting visited a panda conservation centre in Chengdu on Thursday. But what is an Australian PM meant to wear to the zoo?
Mr Albanese, who was similarly chided for wearing an Akubra to Pope Leo XIV's inauguration mass, will no doubt care more about whether his trip achieved its delicately navigated political aims.
Some commentators pointed out his casual style, akin to many other Australian men in their 60s, and approachable ordinary-bloke persona was part of his political appeal and a factor in his stunning election victory in May.
His predecessor Scott Morrison endured his own fashion critics and was accused of having a 'daggy dad' dress sense, when not in a suit. He also never lived down the loud tropical shirt he wore while holidaying in Hawaii during the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires.
Like Mr Albanese, Mr Morrison was fond of polo shirts and baseball caps, albeit for the Cronulla Sharks.
Another former Liberal PM Tony Abbott had an excuse for his frequent over-exposure in budgie smugglers and lycra — it was an authentic accoutrement of his sporting hobbies.
Former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was a leader in fashion diplomacy on the international stage. The Perth politician and social queen made a point of supporting Australian designers at home and abroad.
On the male side, few Australian leaders have looked as effortlessly stylish as former US president Barack Obama, who frequently appeared in GQ, Esquire and Vanity Affair.
Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating came closest, with their bespoke suits giving them extra presence when representing their country.
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The Advertiser
2 hours ago
- The Advertiser
'Pop is not a dirty word': Illy's living the Good-er Life on tour
The old saying, never meet your heroes, doesn't wash with Illy. The genre-defying, ARIA Award-winning hip-hop artist otherwise known as Alasdair Murray has met his, and not only are they now his best mates, they've influenced every step of his career to date. "The people in Australian hip-hop that I look up to, like Drapht and Hilltop Hoods, they are examples of how to conduct yourself in this business," he says. "I started rapping in an Australian accent because of the Hoods and they're some of my best mates now, you know? I've been at their weddings, they're coming to my birthday overseas later this year, we're really good friends and they deserve their success. "I still look up to them, same with Drapht." Illy is about to hit the road for the 27-date Good-er Life Tour, having toured Australia's capital cities for the Good Life Tour in March. The regional run follows the recent release of Good Life Deluxe Edition, a follow-up to his seventh studio album, Good Life, released in November 2024. The deluxe edition includes a 2023 standalone single Hopeless (featuring Indiana Massara), new track Free Hand and acoustic versions of singles Kids and Good Life. "Finally getting to do the Good Life tour was, no shit, life-affirming. I loved every second of it, whether it was playing the new album, the big bangers, or meeting people after," Illy says. "I even loved the hungover flights the next morning (maybe not as much). "So now that we've got a taste for it, I am ready and counting down the days 'til the Good-er Life tour starts. "We're the most locked in we've been in years on stage, and when we're in this mode, no one does it better." Illy has seamlessly straddled the line between hip-hop and pop throughout his career, embracing new sonic inspirations on each of his albums. On Good Life, it's clear he now has it down to a fine art. He even sings on the album, drawing on a few years of singing lessons and ever-growing confidence in his abilities. "I've done a few interviews about this album now, because it is the one that goes in the most different directions," he says. "I have known, from the very start, that I couldn't make the same album over and over again and still be doing it on a seventh album. I just couldn't. "If I was just doing this as a gig, and not for love, and rehashing the same shit over and over again, I would have been doing something else years ago." He's copped some criticism from diehard hip-hop fans, but he takes it in his stride. "When people say some of my songs are pop songs, they say it as a dismissive thing because it's not what I'm known for," he says. "The thing is, I'm not embarrassed about that, I don't think it's a dirty word. "You know, the title track alone is somewhere between Oasis and an Aussie pop song. Doing that shit is hard, and it takes balls. "Staying in your lane and doing the same thing, nothing impresses me about doing that. "When people are like 'I don't really rock with this new stuff' or whatever, I pretty much say 'I appreciate you supporting me, I appreciate your honesty, I want you to like this stuff but if you don't, I get it, but I'm not going to not challenge myself for the sake of appealing to as many people as possible'. "I'd rather do what I'm doing and stay inspired and enthusiastic about it." Not being afraid to follow his creativity where it takes him is a sign of maturity for Illy. He recognises it himself. He's never been more passionate about his craft and his career. "I have, in the past, not kept healthy, and not taken care of myself, but then I realised that to keep doing what I do, I needed to put more effort into eating right, getting sleep and exercising," he says. "I quit smoking a couple of years ago, which has helped my voice, and we don't drink before the shows. "I still have fun, of course I do, but this is my favourite thing to do in the world. It's all I've ever wanted to do, I have to give it the respect it deserves. "And you're not going to be around very long as an artist if you're not taking it seriously and not giving the audience their money's worth, either." The old saying, never meet your heroes, doesn't wash with Illy. The genre-defying, ARIA Award-winning hip-hop artist otherwise known as Alasdair Murray has met his, and not only are they now his best mates, they've influenced every step of his career to date. "The people in Australian hip-hop that I look up to, like Drapht and Hilltop Hoods, they are examples of how to conduct yourself in this business," he says. "I started rapping in an Australian accent because of the Hoods and they're some of my best mates now, you know? I've been at their weddings, they're coming to my birthday overseas later this year, we're really good friends and they deserve their success. "I still look up to them, same with Drapht." Illy is about to hit the road for the 27-date Good-er Life Tour, having toured Australia's capital cities for the Good Life Tour in March. The regional run follows the recent release of Good Life Deluxe Edition, a follow-up to his seventh studio album, Good Life, released in November 2024. The deluxe edition includes a 2023 standalone single Hopeless (featuring Indiana Massara), new track Free Hand and acoustic versions of singles Kids and Good Life. "Finally getting to do the Good Life tour was, no shit, life-affirming. I loved every second of it, whether it was playing the new album, the big bangers, or meeting people after," Illy says. "I even loved the hungover flights the next morning (maybe not as much). "So now that we've got a taste for it, I am ready and counting down the days 'til the Good-er Life tour starts. "We're the most locked in we've been in years on stage, and when we're in this mode, no one does it better." Illy has seamlessly straddled the line between hip-hop and pop throughout his career, embracing new sonic inspirations on each of his albums. On Good Life, it's clear he now has it down to a fine art. He even sings on the album, drawing on a few years of singing lessons and ever-growing confidence in his abilities. "I've done a few interviews about this album now, because it is the one that goes in the most different directions," he says. "I have known, from the very start, that I couldn't make the same album over and over again and still be doing it on a seventh album. I just couldn't. "If I was just doing this as a gig, and not for love, and rehashing the same shit over and over again, I would have been doing something else years ago." He's copped some criticism from diehard hip-hop fans, but he takes it in his stride. "When people say some of my songs are pop songs, they say it as a dismissive thing because it's not what I'm known for," he says. "The thing is, I'm not embarrassed about that, I don't think it's a dirty word. "You know, the title track alone is somewhere between Oasis and an Aussie pop song. Doing that shit is hard, and it takes balls. "Staying in your lane and doing the same thing, nothing impresses me about doing that. "When people are like 'I don't really rock with this new stuff' or whatever, I pretty much say 'I appreciate you supporting me, I appreciate your honesty, I want you to like this stuff but if you don't, I get it, but I'm not going to not challenge myself for the sake of appealing to as many people as possible'. "I'd rather do what I'm doing and stay inspired and enthusiastic about it." Not being afraid to follow his creativity where it takes him is a sign of maturity for Illy. He recognises it himself. He's never been more passionate about his craft and his career. "I have, in the past, not kept healthy, and not taken care of myself, but then I realised that to keep doing what I do, I needed to put more effort into eating right, getting sleep and exercising," he says. "I quit smoking a couple of years ago, which has helped my voice, and we don't drink before the shows. "I still have fun, of course I do, but this is my favourite thing to do in the world. It's all I've ever wanted to do, I have to give it the respect it deserves. "And you're not going to be around very long as an artist if you're not taking it seriously and not giving the audience their money's worth, either." The old saying, never meet your heroes, doesn't wash with Illy. The genre-defying, ARIA Award-winning hip-hop artist otherwise known as Alasdair Murray has met his, and not only are they now his best mates, they've influenced every step of his career to date. "The people in Australian hip-hop that I look up to, like Drapht and Hilltop Hoods, they are examples of how to conduct yourself in this business," he says. "I started rapping in an Australian accent because of the Hoods and they're some of my best mates now, you know? I've been at their weddings, they're coming to my birthday overseas later this year, we're really good friends and they deserve their success. "I still look up to them, same with Drapht." Illy is about to hit the road for the 27-date Good-er Life Tour, having toured Australia's capital cities for the Good Life Tour in March. The regional run follows the recent release of Good Life Deluxe Edition, a follow-up to his seventh studio album, Good Life, released in November 2024. The deluxe edition includes a 2023 standalone single Hopeless (featuring Indiana Massara), new track Free Hand and acoustic versions of singles Kids and Good Life. "Finally getting to do the Good Life tour was, no shit, life-affirming. I loved every second of it, whether it was playing the new album, the big bangers, or meeting people after," Illy says. "I even loved the hungover flights the next morning (maybe not as much). "So now that we've got a taste for it, I am ready and counting down the days 'til the Good-er Life tour starts. "We're the most locked in we've been in years on stage, and when we're in this mode, no one does it better." Illy has seamlessly straddled the line between hip-hop and pop throughout his career, embracing new sonic inspirations on each of his albums. On Good Life, it's clear he now has it down to a fine art. He even sings on the album, drawing on a few years of singing lessons and ever-growing confidence in his abilities. "I've done a few interviews about this album now, because it is the one that goes in the most different directions," he says. "I have known, from the very start, that I couldn't make the same album over and over again and still be doing it on a seventh album. I just couldn't. "If I was just doing this as a gig, and not for love, and rehashing the same shit over and over again, I would have been doing something else years ago." He's copped some criticism from diehard hip-hop fans, but he takes it in his stride. "When people say some of my songs are pop songs, they say it as a dismissive thing because it's not what I'm known for," he says. "The thing is, I'm not embarrassed about that, I don't think it's a dirty word. "You know, the title track alone is somewhere between Oasis and an Aussie pop song. Doing that shit is hard, and it takes balls. "Staying in your lane and doing the same thing, nothing impresses me about doing that. "When people are like 'I don't really rock with this new stuff' or whatever, I pretty much say 'I appreciate you supporting me, I appreciate your honesty, I want you to like this stuff but if you don't, I get it, but I'm not going to not challenge myself for the sake of appealing to as many people as possible'. "I'd rather do what I'm doing and stay inspired and enthusiastic about it." Not being afraid to follow his creativity where it takes him is a sign of maturity for Illy. He recognises it himself. He's never been more passionate about his craft and his career. "I have, in the past, not kept healthy, and not taken care of myself, but then I realised that to keep doing what I do, I needed to put more effort into eating right, getting sleep and exercising," he says. "I quit smoking a couple of years ago, which has helped my voice, and we don't drink before the shows. "I still have fun, of course I do, but this is my favourite thing to do in the world. It's all I've ever wanted to do, I have to give it the respect it deserves. "And you're not going to be around very long as an artist if you're not taking it seriously and not giving the audience their money's worth, either." The old saying, never meet your heroes, doesn't wash with Illy. The genre-defying, ARIA Award-winning hip-hop artist otherwise known as Alasdair Murray has met his, and not only are they now his best mates, they've influenced every step of his career to date. "The people in Australian hip-hop that I look up to, like Drapht and Hilltop Hoods, they are examples of how to conduct yourself in this business," he says. "I started rapping in an Australian accent because of the Hoods and they're some of my best mates now, you know? I've been at their weddings, they're coming to my birthday overseas later this year, we're really good friends and they deserve their success. "I still look up to them, same with Drapht." Illy is about to hit the road for the 27-date Good-er Life Tour, having toured Australia's capital cities for the Good Life Tour in March. The regional run follows the recent release of Good Life Deluxe Edition, a follow-up to his seventh studio album, Good Life, released in November 2024. The deluxe edition includes a 2023 standalone single Hopeless (featuring Indiana Massara), new track Free Hand and acoustic versions of singles Kids and Good Life. "Finally getting to do the Good Life tour was, no shit, life-affirming. I loved every second of it, whether it was playing the new album, the big bangers, or meeting people after," Illy says. "I even loved the hungover flights the next morning (maybe not as much). "So now that we've got a taste for it, I am ready and counting down the days 'til the Good-er Life tour starts. "We're the most locked in we've been in years on stage, and when we're in this mode, no one does it better." Illy has seamlessly straddled the line between hip-hop and pop throughout his career, embracing new sonic inspirations on each of his albums. On Good Life, it's clear he now has it down to a fine art. He even sings on the album, drawing on a few years of singing lessons and ever-growing confidence in his abilities. "I've done a few interviews about this album now, because it is the one that goes in the most different directions," he says. "I have known, from the very start, that I couldn't make the same album over and over again and still be doing it on a seventh album. I just couldn't. "If I was just doing this as a gig, and not for love, and rehashing the same shit over and over again, I would have been doing something else years ago." He's copped some criticism from diehard hip-hop fans, but he takes it in his stride. "When people say some of my songs are pop songs, they say it as a dismissive thing because it's not what I'm known for," he says. "The thing is, I'm not embarrassed about that, I don't think it's a dirty word. "You know, the title track alone is somewhere between Oasis and an Aussie pop song. Doing that shit is hard, and it takes balls. "Staying in your lane and doing the same thing, nothing impresses me about doing that. "When people are like 'I don't really rock with this new stuff' or whatever, I pretty much say 'I appreciate you supporting me, I appreciate your honesty, I want you to like this stuff but if you don't, I get it, but I'm not going to not challenge myself for the sake of appealing to as many people as possible'. "I'd rather do what I'm doing and stay inspired and enthusiastic about it." Not being afraid to follow his creativity where it takes him is a sign of maturity for Illy. He recognises it himself. He's never been more passionate about his craft and his career. "I have, in the past, not kept healthy, and not taken care of myself, but then I realised that to keep doing what I do, I needed to put more effort into eating right, getting sleep and exercising," he says. "I quit smoking a couple of years ago, which has helped my voice, and we don't drink before the shows. "I still have fun, of course I do, but this is my favourite thing to do in the world. It's all I've ever wanted to do, I have to give it the respect it deserves. "And you're not going to be around very long as an artist if you're not taking it seriously and not giving the audience their money's worth, either."
7NEWS
9 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Can this $1 house design help solve the Australian housing crisis?
When you think of the great Australian dream, it's likely you picture a freestanding house. But as governments look to boost the amount of homes available, new visions of what that dream could look like are diversifying. This week, the NSW government launched the NSW Pattern Book of low and mid-rise designs, alongside an accelerated planning pathway, designed to speed up the delivery of new homes significantly. And for a limited time these designs are available for a mere $1. "This Pattern Book is about giving people more choice, faster approvals, and affordable, high-qualityhomes-whether you're a young person trying to get in, a family needing more space, or a downsized looking to stay close to the community you know," NSW Premier Chris Minns said at the launch. The scheme seems to me to have all the building blocks, pardon the pun, to get Australians on board with a dwelling style that is higher density, but still fits into our suburban dream. All up there are three styles of residential buildings that are available in the eight designs approved by the government architect. They are townhouses, terraces and manorhouses. What's old is new again While townhouses and terraces are easily recognised styles, the manor house is an interesting concept. Conrad Johnston, the director of architecture firm Studio Johnston, which created one of the selected manor house designs, said that they took inspiration from a style of unit blocks that already exist. "Our design reimagines the classic 'four- or six-pack' apartment buildings of the Interwar period with modern living standards and sustainability," Mr Johnston said. Manor Homes are just two storeys and contain four apartments. It seeks to be the answer to the "missing middle" - the shortfall of low and mid-rise housing options that sit between the typical detached house and high-rise apartments, according to Mr Johnson. While this is a particularly acute issue in major capital cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, it is also very much a concern for major centres and regional cities such as Newcastle and Wollongong in NSW and Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria. "Many people want to live in well-connected suburbs, close to jobs and services, but the traditional suburban model just isn't sustainable at our current densities," Mr Johnston says. "Manor Homes 01 is about adding gentle density and creating homes that people genuinely want to live in." Why I know this works Full disclosure here, I live in one of those six-pack style inter-war apartment blocks that Mr Johnston refers to, and the advantages of this scale of building are not lost on me. My street is a mix of freestanding homes, along with these smaller apartment blocks, and they do not jar or overwhelm, but sit harmoniously together. Similar to the suburban property that so many of us are familiar with, there is a dedicated front and back yard. Loading content... Yes these garden areas are shared but that leads to beautiful shared moments. For example children from different apartments meeting together to play in their backyard. That garden is also a great common area for people to host family and friends in the barbecue and dining area, giving them access to a large suburban-sized yard. The smaller number of apartments in a human-sized block creates a strong sense of community with residents, while also allowing privacy. Admittedly, these original apartments lack somewhat in capturing light and airflow, for example. However, a few key renovation fixes that. A modern approach The manor houses available n the pattern book, including Manor Homes 01 have been designed to prioritise sustainability and provide good access to sunlight and clean air. Passive solar design, cross-ventilation, daylight access, sun-shading and the potential for rooftop solar panels are all at the forefront. Efficient planning and simple construction systems help to contain costs, ensuring the design remains an achievable solution for diverse sites and developers. "Our goal was to create a pattern that's elegant, liveable, and replicable," Johnston explains. They are also designed to fit in with various streetscapes with flexibility in material choices,colour palettes, and dwelling mixes. Making it happen While the concept of these new home designs is good, making sure they are taken up and therefore increase housing supply, delivery is important. For the first six months, the NSW government is significantly subsidising access to these designs with each pattern being made available to everyone for $1 per pattern. After that time they will still be available at a very reasonable $1000 a design. The price for each design is a significant discount on the professional fees that potential builders or homeowners would usually pay for a custom architecturally designed home. That could be estimated to cost over $20,000. Every purchase of a design, also comes with a complimentary Landscape Pattern to help new home-owners design their own garden that maximises biodiversity and suits the climate they're living in. Most importantly a new ten-day approval pathway has been developed by the NSW Government alongside the Pattern Book to fast-track these high-quality homes, cutting major costs and delays that normally plague home-builders. It is designs like these that might help us rethink the great Australian dream.
Sydney Morning Herald
15 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘So bad, it's good': The two-minute soap operas changing the way we watch TV
F ated to My Homeless Billionaire Alpha. Tricked into Having My Ex-husband's Baby. Signed, Sealed, Secretly Married. Believe it or not, these are not the blurbs of teenage fan-fiction erotica. Rather, they're select titles of one of the fastest-growing media phenomenons: vertical micro-dramas. Known as 'duanju' in China, vertical micro-dramas are feature-length movies fragmented into about 60 to 120 bite-sized episodes of one to two minutes, and filmed specifically for smartphones. 'The fundamental storytelling you see in the mainstream market is still there, but everything is really quick – the pacing, tone, all of it,' says Daniel Chua, a producer at Australian vertical production house Turtle Media. In terms of the stories they tell, Chua says they most closely resemble traditional soap operas or telenovelas, replete with cliffhangers, romance and 'crazy shenanigans'. However, micro-dramas pack the intensity of an entire soap into a minute-long episode hundreds of times over. Despite micro-dramas still being a 'sunrise industry', Chua says they have gained momentum. Production houses span the globe – from Content Republic in China to DramaBox in Singapore and ReelShort in California. The latter even overtook TikTok as the most popular entertainment app in Apple's US app store last November. And they're expected to keep growing. China-based industry watchers iiMedia Research estimate the vertical micro-drama market will be worth over $21 billion by 2027, up from $7.9 billion in 2023. So where did these micro-dramas come from, and how did they get so popular? Where did it begin? Short-form videos gained serious traction during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Meg Thomas, a PhD candidate in the University of Queensland's school of communication and arts. 'With everyone stuck at home, platforms like TikTok and DouYin [China's equivalent to TikTok] really exploded,' she says. 'TikTok went from having 653 million users in 2019 to over 1.4 billion by 2021.' At the same time, Chinese romance web novels were booming. Selina Yurou Zhang, a film director at Turtle Media, says the creators of these novels began filming short trailers to promote their books, many of which attracted major attention from viewers. This opened the door for micro-drama producers to purchase the IP from popular online novels and adapt them into mobile-friendly videos. Since then, micro-dramas have travelled the globe, including Australia. Zhang and Chua's production house was the first to set up shop Down Under. It has released popular titles such as Light My Fire – which sees a woman fight to save her loveless marriage – and Fake It Till We Make It, which follows an event planner who hires someone to be her fake fiance following her partner's affair. Both videos claimed hundreds of millions of views over their first two weeks online. Why are they so popular? With clunky (and vaguely pornographic) titles like Captured and Bound by My CEO, it may be surprising that these melodramatic series are performing so well. However, Zhang says it's simply part of the evolving media landscape. 'People have short attention spans now. We have busy and stressful lives, and we just want to scroll on and on to see what's next. [Micro-dramas] are designed for that, designed to hook people.' We're also drawn to the intimacy of micro-dramas, Chua says. A vertical episode needs to frame one character – two at a maximum – at a time, thus bringing viewers closer to the story on-screen. Though Western media still prioritises landscape filming for traditional screens, audiences are becoming more open-minded. 'They're essentially importing a proven Chinese format into markets that are technically ready, but haven't yet developed their own vertical storytelling traditions,' says senior RMIT media lecturer Dr Daniel Binns. 'It remains to be seen if there's a Western appetite for this kind of content, though the overlap with BookTok's preference for formulaic romance suggests an audience is ready and waiting.' How are they made? Vertical micro-dramas are incredibly quick, and often cheap, to produce. Entire seasons can be shot in 10 days to two weeks, Binns says, using minimal sets and focusing on character interaction rather than elaborate production values. Nicholas Westaway – an Australian actor who used to star on Home and Away and worked as a production assistant on shows such as The Good Doctor, but has since moved into acting in micro-dramas – says he has filmed almost 20 verticals over the past year, including Double Life of Mr President. 'An average vertical is filmed in seven to nine days … I normally review scripts before committing to a project, so roughly two to three weeks before a production starts,' he says. UTS associate professor in media Alex Munt says verticals are becoming a 'mini studio system' in China, with many productions using the same sets and casts. 'They replenish the same screen stories [and tell them] in superficially different ways,' he says. 'They cost between $5000 to $10,000 to produce, making them microbudget productions shot with relatively small cameras, like DSLRs, and crews of four to five people. Most have a hyperreal look. The quality of the scripts and the acting is that of student films.' Loading This may not sound appealing, but Munt says their low-budget, corny aesthetic often works in their favour. 'Like television soaps, there's a comfort with the generic storylines and returning actors. There appears to be a sense of the 'so bad it's good', which suggests audiences outside of China engage with the content in a playful, fan-fiction way.' What does this say about our current media landscape? We're no longer as concerned about consuming media in a traditional, chronological way, Zhang says. All micro-dramas are produced with the idea that viewers may be dropping in halfway through a series, or watching out of order. Some may not even watch them at all, instead just listen to them while cleaning the house or walking to work. 'Traditional cinema shows, it doesn't tell. We have to do both,' she says. 'So there's a lot of voice-over … Our statistics show if you don't put the most obvious information in the dialogue at the beginning of each episode, the audience might skip.' There's also an economic dimension, Binns says. 'Vertical video platforms typically charge per episode or per series rather than subscriptions, which solves a key problem big streamers like Netflix face. They can generate big subscriber jumps for popular series like Stranger Things, but then struggle to maintain production momentum to retain those subscribers. The micropayment model makes the economics much more pragmatic – viewers pay for what they actually consume rather than betting on future value.' Could they take over the world? Verticals are expanding beyond China thanks to translation, Zhang says. 'You can add subtitles to shows very quickly with technology, or it could be voiced over. Then it's just remarketed globally,' she says. 'It's already been tested in another market, so you're minimising risk.' However, micro-dramas are usually culturally specific, Zhang notes. For example, A Flash Marriage with the Billionaire Tycoon features a contract marriage – something Western viewers are less familiar with. Subsequently, production houses like Turtle Media are prioritising original micro-dramas, which cater to local audiences. 'Story is king for us,' Chua says. 'Our writers have worked in the film and television industry for over 20 to 30 years. Understanding the fundamentals of storytelling helps us create original content, rather than just regurgitating.' Loading They also work more slowly than their Chinese counterparts, often producing 10 to 15 series a year compared to 70 to 100 in China. While Turtle Media sees progress in micro-dramas outside of China, Munt is less convinced. 'Vertical dramas lure audiences with a soft pornography feel. They cast attractive young actors – often not wearing much and playing out cliched storylines fuelled by lust, desire and transgression – in a middling way.' Are there pitfalls? Zhang and Chua say micro-dramas have become a training ground for emerging actors, directors, screenwriters and cinematographers. However, the MEAA recently released a warning to those auditioning for verticals, citing potential unsafe practices due to the nature of the stories, lack of stunt or intimacy co-ordinators, and so on. This doesn't apply to every production house, Zhang notes, especially those like Turtle Media, which produce less content per year. 'Verticals are like a baby, so when people highlight these negative comments, it breaks my heart because we don't want to be like that [at Turtle Media]. This genre is still growing and if we don't treat it properly, it won't grow in the right direction.' Westaway says he has only had positive experiences in the vertical space, and hopes specific negative experiences won't tarnish the industry as a whole. 'The vertical space is creating many jobs for cast, crew and other creatives. I hope it continues to,' he says. 'If productions fall short of modern industry standards, I hope industry bodies view those situations not as opportunities to punish or make an example of anyone, but as a chance to guide companies to improve and make better overall working environments that can ripple out to the whole industry.' Five popular micro-dramas to watch 1. Fake It Till We Make It (Turtle Media) An event planner enlists someone to be her fake fiance following her partner's affair. As they navigate this sham engagement, jealousy, secrets and societal pressures threaten their growing bond. 2. The Killer Is Also Romantic (MGTV) Two secret agents are about to be married, but when they both suddenly disappear, it's revealed they each work for opposing assassins' organisations. 3. Forever Was a Lie (DramaBox) A girl is taken in by her mother's family after her parents go bankrupt. However, years later, the nanny's daughter encourages the family to turn on her. 4. Fake Married to My Billionaire CEO (ReelShort) After Sam's ex cheats on her and steals her money, Calladan Vandalay marries her at first sight. But he leaves one vital detail out: he's secretly the richest billionaire in the country. 5. Secret Surrogate to the Mafia King (ReelShort)
