The Art of Vertical Filmmaking with Cate Fogarty & Chrissie DeGuzman of Vertical Sunsets
The VertiGals chat with Cate and Chrissie about making elevated microdramas and expanding the audience while respecting the format. Cate Fogarty is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker passionate about crafting female-driven stories that equally entertain and erode stereotypes. After traveling the world to work on a dozen plus vertical series, she co-founded Vertical Sunsets, a boutique creative studio that develops and produces microdrama content for a global audience. Their original series continue to elevate the genre while garnering hundreds of millions of views and attracting a fiercely loyal fanbase world-wide. Focused on equity and sustainability in filmmaking, Cate and her co-founders believe that diversity on both sides of the camera fosters high-quality, binge-worthy content that captivates viewers, and Vertical Sunsets continues to lead by example. Chrissie De Guzman is an emotive storyteller, not only because of the amount of water in her birth chart, but because she firmly believes that the best stories are ones that are felt. Having directed thirteen vertical shows as well as co-writing ten originals and producing four, she has been able to collaborate with various platforms such as ReelShort, TikTok, GoodShort, DramaShorts and Webtoon shooting globally in LA, China and Canada. Being a pioneer in this medium, Chrissie has been interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Produced By Magazine as well as invited back to her alma mater of USC to speak on a panel of experts discussing The Rise of Microdramas in Hollywood. Outside of microdramas, as a queer Filipina, Chrissie’s work has been screened at Palm Springs International, Outfest, Newfest, American Cinematheque and Short of the Week. She is a CAPE New Writers Fellow, Viewfinder’s Viacom/CBS Emerging Director’s Fellow and a CAPE x BLACK LIST finalist. She resides in LA with her partners and two overly attached rescue sister pups.
