Sean Kimber envisioned a career in film when he embarked on the long journey from upstate New York. There he began editing commercials and working for a local station. Eventually, he and his wife moved to Washington, D.C. area, partly due to his current job at NBC Sports in his Washington.
Around 2016, he worked in the video division of Leading Authorities, Inc. His work with groups promoting the summit caught the attention of Meangreen Media’s Glenn Greenstein, who enlisted Kimber. He is currently a senior designer, editor and animator for the Democratic Post Production Shop.
C&E: How has political creative changed since you started in terms of what clients want?
Kimber: Style has changed. When I started working, he always felt a little punchy because of what was called MTV editing at the time. I remember when grunge was all the rage and ink splatters were everywhere. I remember when that glow effect was on everything. I could see the glow behind every letter in the motion graphic title. Various trends have emerged over the years. Now, in many ways, it’s almost back to a hand-drawn look, at least with his Gen Z videos.
C&E: Is AI still playing a role in video editing?
Kimber: At the moment it’s still very new so I guess everyone is trying to understand exactly how it can be used. When creating political ads, we need to pay close attention to AI. Because we seek trust and honesty in what we create. In other words, we don’t want to deepfake. It would be nice to have a background remover or something like that, but that doesn’t seem to cross the ethical line.
C&E: How do you see editing going with AI?
Kimber: It’s exploded this year, so I have a feeling it’ll be part of our workflow, if not earlier, then probably by the 2026 political season. Whether it just removes the background or generates some elements, it’s not necessarily what we want to say happened or whatever, but rather the video we already have It’s like enhancing a video or scaling up a video. they look better. That’s what I’m seeing. But I accept the fact that in the end it might explode even more than I expected.
C&E: How much influence has TikTok had on editing political spots these days?
Kimber: You don’t have to create a TikTok-specific ad yet. However, it is often necessary to use a 16×9 format for TV and YouTube, then a 1×1 format for something like Instagram, and a 9×16 format for something like TikTok. I try to create graphics in a way that is not too difficult to convert to TikTok if I know in advance. Of course, there are times when you don’t know ahead of time and have to create another version in a hurry later. The need to reformat things really started probably in 2020 and is almost an expected part of the workflow at this point.
C&E: How are you preparing for 2024?
Kimber: 2024 is going to be a big year. We just had a meeting about it and we’re trying to figure out what we need in terms of staffing, what we need in terms of technology and tools. Therefore, we expect to have an even bigger team this year. Of course, we plan to re-evaluate the tool towards the end of the year. It’s a little early now because who knows what will come out.
We are doing more of the actual video production and will be out on the field. Therefore, we expect to do even more next year as well. Now, we usually don’t have much say in messaging and such. But one of the things we try to do is set up creative meetings with our clients in anticipation of the season. That way, everyone can sit in the same room and see different creatives, some made by them, some made by them, some made by other agencies.and think about how you want to shape it [our] Be creative next year.
C&E: Do clients who ask for animated spots understand how long it takes to produce?
Kimber: We have a large repertoire of agents who seem to keep track of the trends. They know it takes longer when it comes to graphics-intensive spots. [and] It probably costs more. This helps set expectations, but we rarely hear the question, “What do you mean we can’t get this done by tomorrow?” If it’s like 30 seconds of incredibly intense video.
C&E: How did you learn how to make animations?
Kimber: Over the years, I have acquired many things. At each job, I learned a lot and entered a plateau, then moved on to the next job, got a new editor, seemed to be making a new type of video…and that was mine. Even more that will help you develop your skills. After joining Sports Station, I started learning to work in Cinema 4D and 3D. Then, after moving to LAI Video, I felt like I learned a lot more about design and started incorporating it more into my motion graphics and animations. And by the time I came to MeanGreen, I felt I had a very solid foundation in animation and motion graphics. And obviously, I’ve learned a lot more since joining the team.
