Behind every great creative project is a team of talented individuals who bring it to life. At Ambassadors, we’re proud to work with an incredible team of artists each bringing their own creativity, expertise, and passion to what we do. In this series, we’re taking you behind the scenes to showcase the people behind the craft. Today we’re catching up with our talented editor, Zon van Noordwijk.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Zon, and I’ve been an editor at Ambassadors for almost four years now.

How did you get your start in editing? 

As a kid, I’d always play around with my dad’s camera, creating stop-motion Lego animations and making short films starring my little brother and me. As I got older, I still often carried a camera with me, capturing moments wherever I went. What I loved most was piecing everything together into a cohesive story.

That passion led me to study at HKU, where I enrolled in a broad creative program where I learned about many different disciplines. But my love for editing always remained. During my studies I did two internships – one at Grolsch, which was quite broad and where I worked on editing, photography, and copywriting. Then I interned at Ambassadors, where I focused solely on editing. That’s when I really made the shift and specialized in editing, and I haven’t looked back since.

Where do you look for inspiration? Who or what inspires you?

I get such an energy boost when I see something that's really well edited. Whether it’s a scene in a series, a commercial, or a creatively cut reel on social media. I follow a lot of other editors online and often come across really cool stuff. I’m especially drawn to edits with a strong rhythm and a bold visual style, like implementing aesthetic graphics using cutout shots in a collage-like composition. It creates this textured, dynamic feel that really grabs your attention.

I love it when a movement creatively carries over into the next shot. But also those fast, sharp cuts where you’re not even sure what just happened, but it works perfectly.

What’s been your biggest learning in your career so far?

One of the biggest things I've learned is how my job is not just about editing but also about guiding people through a project. Everyone has their own opinion, and you need to be able to filter that and remember that it’s just an opinion. After working on many projects over these last years, I now have a much better understanding of what clients expect and how to make sure we’re all on the same page.

What do you like most about your job?

I love the feeling of becoming fully immersed in an edit and seeing everything eventually fall into place. I also really like the social side, working closely with clients and bouncing ideas.

What project or piece of work are you most proud of and why?

I’m most proud of Uber’s ‘On Our Way’ campaign. It’s the biggest project I’ve worked on and it was exciting to be involved from the very beginning. I had the chance to help think about multiple aspects of the creative process, like the copy, selecting music, and choosing the right visuals. We worked with titles that connected in interesting ways and managed to bring together a lot of different types of content into one cohesive piece.

Another project I really enjoyed working on was Borre’s vision with Johan Kramer. There was so much fun footage to work with, and I had a lot of creative freedom to play with it.

Is there a project that you wish you’d worked on?

I don’t have specific projects I wish I’d worked on, but something I came across that really inspired me is this teaser for a boxing match. It’s a short teaser but the editing is really creative and well done.

How do you think the creative industry will change over the coming months/years? What are you most excited about? 

I think there will be fewer shoots and manipulating takes will become easier. Extending shots with AI for example and fixing small details like when someone accidentally looks into the camera will be possible directly in the edit rather than sending them through VFX. These are exciting developments that can save time, but I still believe that creativity ultimately comes from people.