Director Bruna Pias Talks New Web Series The Stairs and The Rise In Vertical Filmmaking
When Minnie (Bibi Lucille) receives the wrong package at her doorstep, she embarks on a mission to return it to the fifth floor resident — not realizing her whole world is about to change. Created by Bruna Pias, the new web series The Stairs focuses on the central theme of “step up your consciousness” as it follows an asthmatic local artist with daddy issues. Pias spoke with Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado on unpacking the meaning of her web series, the success it’s received, breaking out in the film industry, and future projects.
Pias explained the inspiration for The Stairs came from an action scene in John Wick 4. The visual representation of stairs made for a good narrative and she ended up choosing to set every episode on a different set of stairs to tie into the magical realism genre she enjoys.
In doing preemptive research into the levels of the subconscious, Pias explains the web series theme. “It’s very much like a journey through Minnie’s subconscious and every character that she meets that has sort of a specific role within that and the levels of our subconscious,” she said. The messaging and themes of self-acceptance, guilt, unpacking family trauma, narcissism, and more help create a visual representation of the human’s subconscious.
Pias is thrilled with the fan reaction around the six episode web series so far. “The response for The Stairs has been great. We sort of didn't know what to expect from this because social media is so difficult. You just have to trust the algorithm will pick it up,” she shared. “We’ve achieved over 100,000 views on the YouTube channel across all the content.”
However, success in the film industry, especially for women and in the closed off UK industry, does not come easy. She turned to social media and vertical filmmaking on TikTok to keep creating and get her work out there. Then earlier this year she had a big break out with her short film Flowered. It has over one million views and has now accepted into its fourth vertical film festival. “That was what made me and my team realize that we could go out there and do more stuff like The Stairs. We could make a web series and trust that we’ll get some sort of audience from it,” explained Pias. “So TikTok definitely was a stepping stone to now doing something like this.”
Vertical filmmaking is a non-traditional approach, but rising in popularity due to social media creators on TikTok. Pias expressed how cool it is that film festivals, including international ones, are giving a platform for talented filmmakers who produce vertical films. And the grind doesn’t stop there! She teases that next she’ll be directing a music video, writing three feature films that she wants to pursue, working on two short films, and so much more. “The whole objective is that both the team and I could get to the point where we could make a feature,” she revealed. “That’s the ultimate goal.”
The first five episodes of The Stairs are available to stream on YouTube, with the finale releasing next week.
