Unlocked: Interview with Jimmy Wu
Raising the bar in vertical drama production
Behind the Verticals is taking a short summer break. We’ll be back in soon with the latest vertical drama industry news and more, but in the meantime, we’re unlocking an interview originally published in April 2026 with cinematographer-turned-vertical-producer Jimmy Wu for you.
🎙️ Interview with Jimmy Wu
Jimmy didn’t plan on pivoting to verticals. As a TV movie cinematographer, he had a career, a crew, and a pipeline. Then the industry-wide strike brought everything to a halt. When the phone stops ringing for a freelancer, he says, it etches itself into your brain.
In December 2023, he was approached to shoot the first vertical production to take place in Vancouver. The budget was low, the format was new, and he didn’t think much of it at first. But in the months that followed, he dug deeper and realized he was looking at a real, growing market.
“That’s when I knew I needed to make my pivot,” he says. “Not just for me, but for the people I work with.”
He hasn’t looked back. Today, Jimmy has around 30 vertical shows to his name and a growing reputation for bringing a cinematic eye to a format that hasn’t always demanded one.
Jimmy’s tip for those looking to enter the space: LinkedIn.
Vancouver as a Strategic Bet
Vancouver was already well-positioned when Jimmy made his move. Known as Hollywood North, the city had spent decades absorbing overflow from LA productions, building out crew bases, infrastructure, and location networks along the way. Production costs run 20 to 30% below LA, and locations that had never been touched by the film industry were suddenly available. Large private mansions, whose owners were happy for rental income in a difficult economy, opened up as shooting locations.
While LA still has more resources on the ground, Jimmy found a simple workaround: fly cast members in.
“There are still quite a few untapped resources up here,” he says. “It’s just not as commercialized as LA.”
The Crew That Grew Up Together
One constant across all 27 of Jimmy’s shows is the people behind the camera. He works with the same core crew, many of whom he has known for five to eight years, going back to student short films on shoestring budgets. After wrap, they still hang out.
For those trying to break in on the crew side, his advice is simple: get on LinkedIn and start messaging people. His own first vertical gig in Vancouver came directly through the platform.
“Outreach is everything,” he says. “And your presentation has to be dialed in. It’s a game of telling as many people as possible what you do and hoping something lands.”
The Cinematic Argument
The prevailing logic in early vertical production was volume over quality. Move fast, keep costs down, don’t overthink the lighting. The result was a lot of content that looked exactly like what it was: flat, rushed, and forgettable.
Jimmy, coming from a cinematography background, pushed for something different. He wanted a darker, more considered look, closer to what you’d see on a streaming platform than on a quickly produced mobile show. He was advised against it more than once. He did it anyway.
The show that resulted became his best performer to date, in terms of viewership, revenue, and overall numbers. And it didn’t cost significantly more to make.
“Going cinematic doesn’t mean slower or more expensive,” he says. “It means hiring the right people and having a system for blocking and lighting. That shoot was one of the smoothest I’ve ever done. We wrapped early on several days.”
AI as a Working Tool
Jimmy uses AI daily, though not in the ways the industry tends to sensationalize. No synthetic actors or AI-generated imagery. The applications are practical: administrative tasks, preliminary budgeting and scheduling, and occasional late-night creative brainstorming.
“It’s just a more efficient way to work,” he says. “I use it to get a preliminary read on a project before it even gets greenlit.”
On AI-generated content more broadly, he is measured. North American regulators are actively working to separate AI imagery from live-action production, treating them as distinct categories rather than one undifferentiated bucket. Jimmy expects that distinction to hold, with each finding its own audience.
60 Premieres a Month to 3,000
Three years ago there were roughly 60 vertical premieres per month globally. Today there are around 3,000. For Jimmy, that number tells you where the industry is headed and why quality has become a competitive necessity rather than a nice-to-have.
“More competition means the cinematic, well-made content is what stands out,” he says. “The cheesy, poorly lit stuff gets buried.”
What started as a format originating largely from China has drawn serious attention from the UK, Europe, and North America. New genres are emerging. New companies are experimenting. Jimmy sees the next phase as one of higher investment and higher standards, with the market increasingly rewarding execution.
The IP Question
Across 27 shows, no two deals look the same. Roughly 70% of Jimmy’s work involves executing on platform-owned IP, where the client owns the content and Section Cinema handles production. The remaining 30% is self-funded development, where his team builds and owns the IP and licenses it out.
“All 27 of my shows have individual deals,” he says. “You learn what works and you make deals based on that. It’s a beautiful thing.”