Victoria Fringe Artists 2015

FRINGE TUTORIAL #2: Program Guide Images and Promotional Photos

This is kind of a long tutorial, but there's lots of important info so please read it carefully. We talk about two different but related things in this section.

PART 1: your program guide image, which will illustrate your 60-word show description in the Fringe Program Guide (in print and on our fringe website). This is due June 30.

PART 2: promotional photos, which the papers or online media might print alongside a review, or might be used to help promote the Fringe itself throughout the year. You can send these any time.

PART 1: Program Guide Image

What we call your Program Guide Image is the small photo or graphic that will accompany your show description in the Fringe print program and website. This can be one of your promotional photos, or, if you prefer, a logo or illustration. Our print guide is full colour, and it’s also posted online, so by all means send your image in colour.

Program Guide Images can be one of the following (see samples below):

1) your best Promotional Photo

2) another photographic image that is representative of your show, that you have the rights to use.

3) A logo or illustration

4) A "doctored" photo, for example, with your show title in it.

Here's a sample at full size next to a show description, so you can see it's not very big.

 Specs for Program Images

 We prefer electronic files. The  program image should be

• 300 dpi
• 2 inches minimum size ( or 600 pixels square minimum) but larger is better particularly if it’s supplied as a JPEG)
• RGB mode - Full Colour
  
• TIF or DNG or best-quality JPEG format

Bigger files are welcome - we can crop and scale your image to the appropriate size. If this is all greek to you, go to your local copy, photo or computer rental place and they will be able to help you.

Have a look through last year’s guide online , and it’s easy to see what works and what doesn’t.

PART 2: Promotional Photos

This is the most important tip we will give you all year. The best investment you can make in the promotion of your show is having professional photos taken. It's all about the first impression. A picture is worth a thousand words, and if you have pictures that make your show look great, the media and the public are more likely to pay attention. In a relatively small city like Victoria, it is possible to get attention in the form of a full-page, full-colour cover of the weekly arts mag or Go! Section of the daily paper. Think of how valuable this free publicity could be to your show.

1-2 really great shots are all you need – we don’t even want more than three. All the images you send will be available to the media online in our Fringe Web Gallery to be used in Fringe preview articles, editorials and reviews. We'll give you the link as well, so you can also access your own hi-resolution photos here any time.

General Guidelines for Photos:

It’s harsh, but we can tell in less than a second if the print media will be interested in your photos. These are general rules, but if you want to see good exceptions, visit the Artist Page Photo Gallery, which shows good examples from last year’s fringe with a little commentary about why they work.

Please think twice before sending:

1. Long distance shots.

2. Outdoor Shots

3. Shots with more than three people in them.

4. Non-theatrical “location shots,” such as your living room

And don’t bother sending:

1. Group shots of your company being themselves (ie “the cast photo” )

2. Still-lifes of inanimate objects (“art” ) - this may work in your program graphic but media won't use it.

3. Anything out of focus or poorly lit

4. “Resume” style head shots, unless you are really, really famous.

5. Any image that is under copyright that you don’t have permission to use (ie. a photo of a famous person or work of art from a museum.)

6. Logos, titles, or any image with text on it. Again, in your program image this may be fine, but the media won't use anything that has text in it.

Your goal should be to produce a well lit, in-focus photo that features no more than three humans against a neutral background. Think visual impact. Consider spending the money to hire a professional photographer. It may cost you more initially than taking snapshots yourself, but if we can’t use your photos, you’ll be wasting money and losing the audience that may have more than paid for the investment in a professional photographer. If your great photo gets printed in the paper, the box office return will pay for your investment over and over.

Technical Specifications

We prefer electronic files, no smaller than 4x6 inches, up to 11x17 inches is fine, jpg only, at 300 dpi. Label each photo with your company name first, ie: mycompany1.jpg, mycompany2.jpg, mycompany3.jpg, and when you send them to us, include photo details in your email - who is in each picture, and a photographer credit.

You can email or dropbox them to us at [email protected]

FAQs

Colour or Black and White? Colour.

Should I use a "graphic filter" in photoshop to add a texture or tint to my photo? Definitely no.

Should I include show details as part of my image, like on my poster or flyer?: Nope, just the photo. A photo with details on it is considered an ad, and won't be used.

When should I send them? You can send Promotional Photos any time, up to July 30, for inclusion in our Web Gallery for media. However, if you send them sooner, and they're good, we will start sending them out to long-lead publications that are looking for photos now (monthly and quarterly magazines, summer tourist guides) to promote the festival in advance.

Where do they go? We post all (or up to 4 shots per show) of the photos you send on the https://www.flickr.com/photos/intrepidtheatre/sets/72157642507899055/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Fringe Flickr Gallery , and we direct the print and online media to it when they are looking for images for specific shows or the Fringe in general. It's handy for artists too, because if you are on the road or away from your computer, you can still access your own photos there.