Above all else, Peru’s Roma King sees herself as a storyteller. As an editor, that is exactly what she does, she shapes a story. She goes through endless amounts of footages and transforms it into an engaging work of art, deciding just how her audience will take in the script.
“I realized early on that editors are very much directors, picking out best performance takes from the actors, and also writers, shaping the story and figuring out what works best for it. I love organizing things and I love doing it in creative ways and creative organization is the basis of editing,” said Kong.
Kong is now a leader in her industry, working with some of the world’s most prolific production companies. Creating online content for Disney, Kong has worked on many unique projects for the celebrated company, exemplifying her versatility as an editor. Whether she is showcasing nail art with some of Disney’s most beloved characters with Tips Disney, showing audiences how to make different crafts with some of Disney’s most well-known films on DIY Disney, or creating various videos for Babble, Disney Style, and Oh My Disney Show, Kong knows just how to captivate her audience.
Kong is also known for her work with Nickelodeon, the first major production company she worked with. Earlier this year, she created several successful online videos that allowed audiences to go behind-the-scenes of their favorite Nickelodeon television shows, seeing exclusive interviews with creators and cast members for BTS Nickelodeon. Working with the company has been one of the highlights of her career.
“Working with Nickelodeon is a dream come true. I grew up watching the network and its shows and so working there has been absolutely amazing. It’s a company everyone knows and when I tell someone I work for them, they always ask if I’ve ever been slimed. And yes, I have, and it was awesome,” she said.
One of Kong’s longest running projects with the company was Inside Nick, which she worked on from November 2016 to May 2018. The video series details what it's like to work at Nickelodeon, one of the biggest animation studios in the world. The videos were extremely important to Kong, as they displayed how great the studio is and what makes it an amazing place to work. She had a first-hand look at what working at the studio is like, so making videos about life at the studio was a perfect way to summarize her own great experience.
“These videos made everyone at the studio very proud to work there and made fans want to work there. It was very fun to do, because they were videos that highlight how great of a company Nickelodeon is and what their main goal as a studio is, and because Nick is all about kids and fun, I got to try really cool and fast cuts and I wasn’t afraid to show some silliness because the company embraces it. The videos featured people I worked with every day and so, editing their interviews was a great experience on a personal level,” said Kong.
Kong was extremely proud of all the videos she put out for the series. Not only was she the editor, but she also was the videographer, making them completely her own. One of the videos, “Women of Nick Animation” was in honor of Women's History Month. Kong sat down with the women of Nick Animation to spotlight their wins, discuss the challenges they face and celebrate their aspirations for the future.
“Working on the ‘Women of Nick Animation’ project was incredibly inspiring because we got to talk to many of the women who have worked at Nick for years and we got to honor them with the video. We even got all the women at the studio to get together for a photo-op specifically for this video. It was a very precious moment,” she said.
Another video, “The Nickternship Experience” allowed audiences to learn all about the Nickelodeon Internship Program in Burbank, from past and present NICKterns. From interactive studio classes to real on-the-job experience, the program is at the top of its class in preparing NICKterns to be well-connected, well-versed and ready to start their careers in the entertainment industry. Kong had a lot of creative freedom for the clip. She had the opportunity to tell the story of being an intern at Nick based on her own previous experience and had almost complete creative control over it. It was a very personal project for the editor.
The “Our Culture” video was particularly rewarding for Kong. It went from cereal bars to celebrations, showing that Nick work culture is all about inclusivity and opportunity. She had the opportunity to meet some of the most recognizable faces at the studio, hang out with them and see their day to day. Because it was such an important video for the company, she got more time to truly polish it and the result was something that she is extremely proud of.
“The fact that the studio executives were sending each other the video and loving and sending their appreciation for it our way was icing on the cake,” said Kong.
Every video was published through Nickelodeon's social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Together they are some of the most viewed social media videos published by the studio, gathering hundreds of thousands of views.
“Seeing the fans comment, yearning to work at Nickelodeon thanks to the videos is incredibly fulfilling. As a storyteller, it’s my way of knowing I told the story the right way and that it achieved what it needed to achieve. Getting great comments from executives and other employees at the studio, is even better, because I can tell that the videos were truthful to their experiences and that they made them feel even more proud to work there. And seeing them featured on the big screen at the studio makes me so proud of my work because I know that I was part of something that was considered significant and important enough to be put up at the center of the company,” she concluded.