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WGSA Webinar: The Vertical Shift: New Formats, New Opportunities for Writers
Vertical storytelling is rapidly gaining traction across global platforms – but what does it actually mean for writers? Is it simply short content filmed for phones, or does it require a different way of thinking about story, pacing, and audience?
Join us for a conversation with Harriet Meier and Julie Hall as they unpack the rise of vertical formats. Together, they will explore what vertical storytelling is, what it isn’t, and address some of the common myths surrounding this emerging space.
In a time when the industry is navigating significant challenges, this session will look at how writers can engage with new formats, think differently about storytelling for mobile audiences, and identify potential opportunities within the evolving screen landscape.
Webinar details
Date: Saturday, 28 March 2026
Time: 10:00 – 12:00 SAST
Register HERE
NB: Registration is essential. WGSA members may attend free of charge. We also invite members of our sister organisations Safrea and DFA to attend free of charge. Non-members pay R 75.00.
Meet the Speakers
An award-winning writer/producer, content creator and published author, Harriet Meier rides a thin line between being a creative and a business woman. A past chair of the Writers’ Guild of South Africa, Harriet is passionate about bringing Africa’s stories to the world market. She has local and international experience in film and television, and is adapt at multi-media storytelling and writing for new platforms like Vertical micro-dramas. She is an internationally qualified trainer for Audio Description and runs a content creation and scripting company called Wild Words Content and Creative with Julie Hall as her partner.
Julie Hall is a Screenwriter, Story Editor and Lecturer/Mentor
Recent TV projects include: Kings of Joburg S3 and BARE for Netflix, and Critical But Stable and 016FM for Showmax. Julie has worked as Story Editor on multiple projects with SA’s film commissions, including commercial break-outs: Happiness Is A 4 Letter Word, The Kandasamys franchise of films and the multiple award-winning Valley of a Thousand Hills. Feature film scripts as screenwriter include co-writing Zulu Wedding which won the Festival Director’s Choice for First Feature at the Pan-African Film Festival LA 2020. As a script trainer, Julie mentored on the NFVF Sediba-SPARK Narrative Screenwriting programme from its inception and served as Discipline Chair of Screenwriting for AFDA Johannesburg from 2014 to 2021. In 2025, she served as Programme Director for the Botswana Ignite Storylab, a Concept Development Lab for high-end TV series.