For most of his career, Scott Brown has worked at the intersection of Hollywood and the creator economy. Long before YouTube creators were producing television-scale projects and racking up billions of views, Brown was experimenting with digital storytelling formats that sat somewhere between traditional film and the internet.
Over the past two decades, his résumé has zigzagged across the evolving media landscape: producing hundreds of hours of programming for Larry King’s digital shows, helping Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson launch a YouTube channel that gained a million subscribers in less than two weeks, and even orchestrating large-scale stunts for MrBeast.
Now Brown believes the next major evolution in digital entertainment has already arrived: microdramas, short, vertically shot scripted series designed specifically for smartphones.
“These things represent the first truly native form of scripted storytelling for the phone,” Brown said. “When a new medium emerges, it eventually develops its own grammar and its own relationship with audiences. I think we’re just getting started with that.”
Brown is now producing his own microdrama series through his company, Second Rodeo, betting that the format could become a major new lane for scripted entertainment.
In a recent interview, Brown explained how he stumbled upon the emerging format, why he believes it represents the first truly native form of scripted storytelling for phones, and how his own microdrama projects are helping push the medium toward higher production quality.
Let’s jump into it…
Discovering Digital Storytelling Before the Creator Economy
Brown’s entry into digital media predates the modern creator economy entirely. After graduating from film school with a screenwriting degree, he found himself entering the industry at a difficult moment: the 2007–2008 Writers Guild strike.
At the time, traditional Hollywood opportunities were scarce. But Brown soon discovered a growing world of early online video—particularly web series. One show in particular caught his attention: Clark and Michael, a comedic web series starring Michael Cera.
“That show really opened my eyes to the idea that you could create TV for the internet,” he said.
Inspired by those experiments, Brown created his own web series, Blue Movies. The first episode attracted about a million views—an impressive feat at a time when online video audiences were still relatively small.
“That was really significant back then,” he said. “It started my journey into digital.”
Like many early web creators, Brown initially viewed online video as a stepping stone into Hollywood.
“At the time we all thought we were a couple years away from web series becoming the gateway into traditional television,” he said. “The idea was that someone important would see your show and invite you in for a meeting.”
That transition didn’t happen exactly as many early creators expected. But Brown’s web series did open doors.
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