It’s an unseasonably warm September day in Chatsworth, and the air conditioning at the Capital Arts soundstages has gone out. The crew has one day to churn out four microdramas for Nithya Raman‘s campaign for Los Angeles mayor. They are running a little behind schedule.
Action!” Raman is due on set in about 45 minutes, and the crew is trying to squeeze in as many takes as possible of a telenovela-themed spot before resetting for the candidate’s scene. The actors, Hannah Martinez and Adriana Palacios, zip through melodramatic Spanish dialogue punctuated by a farcical face slap. To no one in particular, he adds: “I am sweating out of every part of my body.” Raman, a councilwoman, is doing well with young voters.
Times poll, she led incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, with 66% choosing Raman and just 4% choosing Bass among those aged 18-29. But young voters are also hard to reach. So the campaign has turned to microdramas — short-form vertical videos that appeal to younger audiences — in an effort to attract more of them.
The crew behind this production are mostly in their 20s, and are all part of the microdrama ecosystem that has sprung up in Los Angeles in the last two years. Wagner, 31, got his start in independent film and is now creative director at CandyJar, one of many microdrama platforms. His directing credits include “The Arrangement,” “Double Take,” and “Loving My Brother’s Best Friend.” He volunteered to knock on doors for Raman during the primary, but quickly chafed at it.
In their spare time, he and his friends would produce a few microdramas free of charge. If they liked them, they could post them. The campaign reviewed the scripts but was otherwise uninvolved.
It was only after the videos were produced and delivered that the campaign staff truly got it and embraced it, said Kemma Filby, a producer who often works with Wagner. A lot of people just still don’t understand them,” she said. Young people want to see politicians who can engage with the culture and be a little silly.” The videos produced during the primary were campy and extremely wonky, pairing soap-opera plotlines with detailed discussions of Raman’s positions on public transit, tenant protections and rent stabilization.
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