New York Music Video Production Company

It takes a song from the track to the finished video and the rollout around it: the idea and the treatment, the director, the crew, casting, styling, locations, the shoot, the edit, color, VFX and every version the release needs. RIOT is a music video agency and a production company in one, so the people who write the idea are the people who make it.

A music video production company makes the film from a director's idea. A music video agency also develops the idea, the visual identity around the song and the plan for the release. RIOT does both: we can bring the concept and the director, or produce the vision your artist already has.

It depends on the idea more than anything: how many shoot days, how many locations, how big the crew and cast, how much art department, and how much VFX or animation the world needs. A performance video in one location is a focused day. A narrative video with a cast, several locations or a built world is a production. Send a brief with a link to the track and your budget, and we come back with an approach and a bid shaped to it within a couple of business days. More on how a music video budget works is in our glossary.

Roughly in this order: the shoot days (crew, camera, lighting, grip), locations or studio, cast and extras, art department, wardrobe and styling, travel, then post: edit, color, VFX, animation, titles and the deliverables. The biggest lever is the number of shoot days; the second is how much of the world has to be built rather than found.

Every song is different, so every video is scoped to the track, the idea and the release. The shapes we make most often are a performance video in one day, a narrative or concept video over two or three days, and a post-led world that lives mostly in VFX and animation. For scale: The Xcerts' Hold On To Your Heart was shot in a single day in Brighton with a crew of three; John Smith's Hold On took several days across North and South Wales. Tell us your budget and we will tell you which shape fits it best.

Most music videos take four to eight weeks from brief to master: a week or two for the treatment and the plan, one to three shoot days, then two to four weeks of post. A performance video can move faster; a VFX world takes longer. If there is a release date, tell us the date and we plan backwards from it.

A treatment is the idea on paper before the shoot: the story or concept, the look, the references, the locations, the cast and how the video moves with the song. Yes, we write it, with frames and references, and it is the document the artist and label sign off before we plan the shoot. Our glossary explains how a music video treatment works.

RIOT's own directors, led by our founder Chris "MUG5" Maguire, who directed The Xcerts' album campaign and Bleed Electric's This Is My Masterpiece. If your artist already works with a director, we can produce their vision: crew, locations, schedule, budget and post.

The director owns the idea and how it looks and moves: the treatment, the performance, the shots, the edit. The producer makes it possible: the budget, the crew, the schedule, the locations and the permits. On a RIOT music video you get both, from the same team.

At RIOT: the treatment, the director, the crew and equipment, casting, styling, locations and permits, the shoot with playback, stills from set, the edit, color grade, VFX and animation, titles, and the deliverables: a 4K master, clean and explicit versions, vertical and square cuts, teasers and Spotify Canvas loops, delivered to the label's spec.

A music video is a film made for the song, with performance, story or a world. A visualizer is moving artwork that loops or evolves under the track. A lyric video puts the words on screen, designed and animated to the song. Many releases use all three: the visualizer and the lyric video first, the music video as the event.

Yes, New York is home. We shoot across Manhattan and Brooklyn, on the street, in venues and in apartments, and in our own studio when the idea needs control, a white cyc or a built set. We handle the permits and the locations, and we have filmed live in New York for a global stream: Wild Rivers at Le Poisson Rouge.

Yes. Casting for actors, dancers and extras, wardrobe and styling, hair and makeup, and choreography when the idea moves. For The Xcerts' Feels Like Falling In Love we cast the actor Lucy Griffiths (True Blood, Preacher) as the love interest. It is all planned in the treatment, so the artist knows who and what will be on set before the day.

Both. We have made videos for labels like Nettwerk, for bands with their own management, and for independent artists releasing on their own. The process is the same: the song first, then a treatment and a plan that fits the budget.

Yes, and we plan them with the video, not after it. Vertical teasers for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, square cuts, the premiere clip and the Spotify Canvas loop. For Call Me When You Land the rollout had a fifteen-second vertical, a thirty-second square and an eight-second Canvas. More on the music video rollout.

Yes. We have shot in Brighton for The Xcerts, in Los Angeles for Luke Sital-Singh and in Wales for John Smith, and we directed a lockdown video across Nashville and Los Angeles by sending the cameras to the artists. We travel with the song.