What does a music video director do?
The music video director is the author of the video. They hear the track, find the idea, write the treatment that wins the job, and then make it: casting, locations, the visual world, how the artist is directed in front of the camera, and the shape of the edit. On a small video the director may also shoot it, cut it and grade it. On a large one they lead a crew of dozens. Either way, the decisions that make a video memorable are theirs.
The job sits between two kinds of filmmaking. Like a commercial director, they work fast, to a brief and a fixed budget. Like a film director, they are expected to have a voice, and artists choose them for it. Some directors are known for performance, some for narrative, some for design-led worlds built in animation or effects, and the right match for a song often matters more than the size of the name.
Why it matters
Why a music video director matters
An artist's videos are their image. The director decides how the artist looks, moves and comes across, often at the moment a new record is being introduced to the world, and that impression lasts for the whole release. A director who understands the artist makes them look like themselves at their best. One who does not makes them look like a guest in someone else's reel.
The director is also the person who protects the idea under pressure. Music videos are made quickly, on budgets that rarely match the ambition, with an artist who may have one free day between tour dates. Every compromise lands on the director's desk, and the good ones know which ones the video can survive. It is also a long relationship. An artist who finds the right director will often work with them across a whole record, so the videos build one world together instead of starting from zero each time.
In practice
How a music video director works in practice
- 01
Most videos are commissioned. The artist, the manager or the label's video commissioner sends a brief to a few directors, often through the production companies that represent them, and the directors pitch treatments. Once one is chosen, the director works with a video producer who builds the budget, the crew and the schedule. Pre-production covers casting, locations, wardrobe, art direction and a shot list built around the song's structure.
- 02
On the day the director runs the set: blocking the performance to playback, shaping each take with the artist, and making sure the coverage the edit needs actually exists. Afterward they sit with the editor, then the colorist, until the cut and the grade are right, and they take the finished film to the artist and the label for notes before release.
At RIOT
Music video directors at RIOT
Our founder, Chris "MUG5" Maguire, directs. He directed an album campaign of three videos for the Scottish band The Xcerts in Brighton, from "Feels Like Falling In Love", the first single from Hold On To Your Heart, to the title track that closed the campaign. He also directed Bleed Electric's "This Is My Masterpiece", a 2009 song brought back in 2025 as an apocalyptic vision. For artists looking for a music video director in New York, we have our own studio in the city, and our music video production page has the rest.
Watch out
What people get wrong about music video directors
Hiring from the reel alone. A reel shows what a director has done with other artists' ideas and other people's money; the treatment shows what they will do with yours. The second mistake is confusing the director with the producer. The director owns the creative; the producer owns the money, the schedule and the logistics, and a video needs both. The third is directing the director by committee. If the artist, the manager and three people at the label all give separate notes on every cut, the video ends up as the average of their opinions, which is nobody's idea. The fourth is briefing a video when the release needs a campaign. A director given the rollout from the start can shoot the vertical cuts, the stills and the loops on the same day.
