Sarmad Jahanara Promo Video
A promo video for professional MMA fighter Sarmad Jahanara, built from a morning training session and footage from his pro fights. Filmed in Dandenong, edited and graded in DaVinci Resolve.
This started as a cold DM. I was partway through a challenge to post a video every day for thirty days, and I messaged a run of MMA fighters offering to make them a promo for free. Sarmad was the first one I sent. He said yes almost straight away.
A week later I was driving out of Ballarat before sunrise to meet him at his gym in Dandenong at eight in the morning.
I filmed a full training session. Pad work, bag work, movement, hands being wrapped, the quiet parts between rounds. I wanted the footage to carry weight rather than just show someone working out, so I shot tight and low and let the sound of the gym do a lot of the work.
I also sat him down and asked him a set of questions about what drives him, what he is chasing, and what it costs him. That gave me the voice running underneath the edit.
He sent through footage from his professional fights, which became the payoff. The structure ended up being the work first and the result second. Training builds the tension, the fight footage releases it.
The edit was done in DaVinci Resolve. The grade is cold and high contrast, the cuts sit hard on the audio, and the whole thing is built to make him feel like someone you would not want to stand across from.
The video exists to get him booked. More eyes, more fights, a bigger stage. He was happy with the first cut, asked for a couple of small changes, and we put it out as a collaboration post across both our accounts.
It was the first promo I have made for a professional athlete. It will not be the last.
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