If you’re going to a wrestling promotion for the first time, here are some important things you might want to send over. Unfortunately, these issues are something I’m all too familiar with. Why is that? Because I have the questionable fortune of having to design posters and banners, and I’m usually responsible for music, and sometimes, audio tech as well. Thus, these are some of my pet peeves, and I’d like to help fix them.
These are all easy things to take care of. You can create a cloud folder (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and upload everything in there. Then, share a simple download link to the promoters. Easy peasy!
Promotional photos
It’s good to have 1-5 proper photographs of yourself in wrestling gear. And I don’t mean just shoot it with your phone, but instead, find a photographer using an actual camera and lighting. It absolutely blows my mind how many talents lack these. If I mentioned some names, you would not believe me.
Far too often, I receive crappy image files in low resolution, with weird optical distortion and funky colors, or under-exposed. Some of them might have the top of their head or a part of their arm cropped away. What do you expect the designer to do with photos like that?
I’m sure the lovely blue light in your picture makes for a great effect, but most likely, it proves to be a terrible challenge when trying to fit different photos together in a poster.
Personally, I think it’s good to have your legs in the picture, perhaps, from the knees or mid-thigh up. With simple horizontal banners, this is mostly a non-issue. But, there are times when a vertical format poster or banner is needed. Your picture, cropped from the waist up, can be really challenging in terms of composition.
Shooting the pictures from a fairly horizontal angle should prove to be a good starting point. Imagine a poster where the talent is pictured from a horizontal angle, but you’re the only one photographed from high up, sticking out like a sore thumb.
A popular trend amongst girls seems to be the butt shot, with their backs turned to the camera. As a photo, per se, it can be just fine. Will that butt shot, by default, fit a wrestling poster or graphics perfectly? Most likely not.
I’m sure most promotions might not need large printed posters, but in case they do, it highlights the importance of quality photos even more. I’ve had to resort to all kinds of weird trickery to scale someone’s photo to a much larger size, which is not favorable. In the end, it’s still going to look like crap.
If the basic things in your promo pictures fail, all those 100 billion pixels won’t help. It’s just going to be the same problems in higher resolution.
Some helpful questions:
- Do you want to look great on the promotional materials?
- Do you want the promotion’s marketing to look great?
- Do you want to make the promotion’s work much easier?
If your answer is yes, I would advocate for taking care of proper promo shots.
Entrance music
It’s not uncommon when, a day prior to a show, I’m creating a playlist of songs, and we’re still missing entrance music for a visiting talent. Then, we have to start reaching out and ask for audio files, which they might not even have. Sometimes, they manage to send a link to a YouTube video at the last minute.
Well, I’m not in favor of this. A smoother experience would be to have an mp3 file ready and uploaded to your cloud folder. Most often, it does not have to be a video file. A simple mp3 should be enough.
Sometimes, depending on the song, you might even want to have an entrance version and an exit version of the song. Your song might have that cool 10-second intro before it actually starts to rumble. Now, imagine the scenario—you get the pin, 1-2-3, aaaand… your music is not popping. Instead, we wait, we wait, and wait… By the time your song actually pops, it has already missed its mark.
I’ve had to fix these things countless times. This is just something to think about, if your song has a long intro.
Entrance video (optional)
This is only for the occasions when needed. The venue might have a large screen, and they want to show something visual when your song plays. So, if you happen to have a Titantron video, that’s fine. But, I’m sure the promotion will let you know well in advance, and could very well be producing the entrance video themselves.
Promo videos
Not everyone needs these. Some companies tend to be more promo-heavy and might ask you to cut a video promo. It’s perfectly fine to use your smartphone for these. Before going about it, it’s good to find out if they favor a horizontal or a vertical one, and how long it should be.
Of course, the usual things – make sure you get the date, the city, and the name of the show right. Also, finding a quiet setting is usually a good idea. Block excess background noise, so your dialogue is clear. Your bedroom might not look like the most dynamic setting, either.
I hope these things were helpful. Thanks!