Social media shows · New York City, New York
Social media shows for brands
Athena Films is an Emmy winning studio making brand based TV shows distributed on social media. We build original episodic series for TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube: real places, real people, shot on location and finished in house in New York City, New York. Founded in 2024.
How we build a show
01
Format development
We design a repeatable format first: a hook that works in the first second, a structure a viewer can recognise by episode three, and a title that reads at thumbnail size.
02
Production on location
Small, fast crews shooting real places and real people. Vertical native capture, with wide coverage banked for cutdowns, paid usage and broadcast style delivery.
03
Post and finishing in house
Edit, colour, sound design and mix in one room. Every episode is delivered vertical, square and wide, captioned and platform ready.
04
Publishing and iteration
We read retention, not vanity metrics. Hooks, pacing and packaging get revised episode to episode while the season is still in the field.
Formats we make most
- Local experience series: the best thing to do in a city, found and filmed on the ground.
- Travel series: multi part, on location, built to travel across feeds.
- Brand based TV shows: a brand carries the show without narrating it.
- Short form video: cutdowns, trailers and social first one offs from the same shoot.
Questions we get
What is a social media show?
A social media show is an episodic series built for feed platforms rather than a TV slot: recurring format, recurring host or subject, vertical first framing, and episode lengths tuned to how people watch on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube. It is a show, not a one off ad.
How is this different from a normal branded video?
A branded video is a single asset with a campaign end date. A show compounds. Each season builds an audience that comes back, which is why brand based TV shows on social media keep earning attention long after a media buy ends.
What does a season cost and how long does it take?
Scope drives both. A short season of a local experience format typically moves from greenlight to first delivery in weeks, because development, production and finishing all happen with one standing team in New York City.
Do you work outside New York City?
Yes. The studio is based in New York City and travels for local experience and travel series work across the United States and abroad.
Athena Films · New York City, New York · Est. 2024