RTVE bets on the vertical format with ‘Stupid Cupid’, a youth romantic comedy that combines fiction and improvisation and is designed to be consumed from a mobile phone. The series, presented this Friday at the FesTVal in Vitoria, will have more than 80 episodes lasting between one and a half and three minutes and will later have a horizontal version of ten episodes available on RTVE Play and YouTube.
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Produced by RTVE in collaboration with Kokoro Content and directed by Daniel Sama, the production takes elements from the so-called microdramas, short fictions popularized by Asian platforms, and mixes them with a formula that its creators have called “improserie.” The actors start from defined characters, roles, and objectives, but sometimes do not know how their partner will respond or where a scene will evolve.
The result is, according to Sama, halfway between script and improvisation. “I would say we are at about 50-50,” explained the director during the presentation. The plots were previously planned, but some scenes were modified during filming as the actors found new ways to develop their characters.
The main challenge, however, was the script. The short duration requires each episode to move quickly and end at a point of tension that invites continuation. “It was a challenge to make the series of more than 80 episodes, to make 80 endings that end on a high note,” Sama said. The episodes, between 90 seconds and three minutes, are designed to be consumed consecutively during short trips or moments.
RTVE’s bet responds to the change in audiovisual consumption habits of young people. Alberto Fernández, director of RTVE Play, defended during the presentation that short vertical video has become one of the main formats consumed by people aged 18 to 30. “It is a symptom of how consumption is changing,” he said. The new Playz app, precisely, will be oriented towards vertical video aimed at a young audience.
A boarding school full of rivalries
‘Stupid Cupid’ sets the action at Parthenon Superior College, a prestigious boarding school where romantic relationships, rivalries, and revenge mix with permanent exposure on social networks.
One of the plots is led by Mía (Ana Alonso), a student who returns to the school after being expelled the previous year following an incident for which she considers herself unfairly blamed. Her return has a goal: to take revenge on Valeria (Lucía Prieto), her former friend, and get closer to Eric (Izan Ibáñez), her current boyfriend.
In another story, Marcos (Pablo Triviño), team captain and one of the most popular students, maintains a rivalry with Dan (Sergio Bueno). A conflict that ends up becoming a controversy on social networks related to homophobia forces both to join forces and pretend to be a couple to avoid expulsion.
The third plot revolves around Álex (Irene Silva), a new student who returns to the boarding school and reunites with the twin siblings Caleb and Nat (Alen and Dafne Vicente), two childhood friends. The reunion brings out feelings that complicate the relationship among the three.
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The cast is completed by Bome Errafai, Givany Londoño, and Ricard García. The choice of actors also responds to the intention to connect the fiction with the audience it targets: all of them have a significant presence on social networks. “On social media, we are very much ourselves. In the end, if you are given a character that changes your personality, it is more complicated,” explained Triviño, one of the six protagonists of the production who attended the presentation in Vitoria.
However, the actor considers that the series may be recognizable to young viewers. “Many young people today will feel very identified with the characters because this is what is happening right now in schools, in boarding schools, everywhere,” he said.
The series also incorporates plots related to diversity and plays with some of the usual clichés of romantic and teenage fiction. For Sama, it is about taking advantage of those codes known to the audience and giving them a twist from comedy.
The drama continues on social media
The story will not end in the fiction episodes. The project extends to Instagram and TikTok through ‘Divino Salseo’, an account presented by journalist and content creator Javi de Hoyos, who will act as commentator on the boarding school conflicts. His interventions will also appear within the fiction itself and help advance the plots.
The project is completed with ‘Beyond Stupid Cupid’, eleven special programs in which Daniel Sama will show the filming from inside, with rehearsals, bloopers, the coexistence between the protagonists and the team, and various games and content for social networks and Playz’s YouTube channel.
The first release window will be the more than 80 vertical episodes on the new Playz app. Once published, the fiction will also have a horizontal run with ten episodes on RTVE Play and YouTube.
With ‘Stupid Cupid’, Playz also recovers a line of experimentation with vertical video that it had already explored with ‘An Unforgettable New Year’s Eve’, a horror fiction premiered on Instagram Stories in 2018, and ‘Circular’, another horror series designed for Instagram and launched in 2019. The difference now is that the vertical format ceases to be a one-off experiment to become the center of a distribution strategy specifically conceived for an audience accustomed to consuming fiction from the mobile screen.
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