Storyboarding

The idea with storyboarding is that you plan your video, animation or presentation. There are different ways to do this, depending on what you are making and what works for you.
One possible template is provided by the Center for Digital Storytelling. This is a pdf showing ten shots on a page. It has lines for images, transitions, effects, voiceover and soundtrack. If this looks good to you feel free to print it and use it. You can also see an example of a completed storyboard and the story that goes with it.

Action Plans

To write an action plan, you need to do the following things. You can choose whether you want to use a Word table or an Excel spreadsheet or another method of organising your thoughts.

1. List all the steps you need to take a to solve the problem.
2. Put the steps into order.
3. Include testing the solution if you have not done so.
4. Include consultation with clients and stakeholders if you have not done so.
5. Decide on milestones. A milestone will occur after a group of related steps have happened. An example of a milestone might be "All resources have been located and saved".
6. Set target dates for each milestone.

Example Code of Practice: Website Design

Rules of making a good website include:

1. Homepage called index.htm
2. Images in a folder called images
3. Consistent use of colour schemes and fonts
4. Each page laid out the same way with navigation in the same place
5. Text organised with headings, subheadings and lists
6. Images all copyright free, or used with permission and acknowledged.

This list of rules came from my head, but I also looked at these websites to help me:

• http://www.articlealley.com/article_82455_4.html
• http://www.corriswebsitedesign.com/website-design-rules.html
• http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol23/rules.htm
• http://www.grantasticdesigns.com/5rules.html
• http://www.sharpened.com/web/about/rules.html

Relevance to my project

In my project I am making a website for my client XXXX. Because they are going to use this website to get people to join their organisation, it is important that it is a high quality website and I want to follow these rules which are important to me.

Screen shot of work

A screen shot of the file structure would provide evidence of rules 1 and 2.

A photo of your sketched page layout would provide evidence of rule 4 and possibly rules 3 and 5.

Evidence for rule 6 could be a screen shot of copyright policy from an image site, or permission to use from the owner of an image.

Evaluation (written after the project is finished)

I followed these rules carefully. It was hard finding copyright-free images of the ****. Breaking the content of each page up into small chunks was good because I had to make sure that I understood it all. I am pleased with my finished website, and the client says "I am thrilled with what you have done for me. It looks really professional. And I love the colour scheme!"

Screenshots for evidence

In your Code of Practice I have suggested taking a screenshot of your work. For example, when you do the survey CoP, you might screenshot your final survey. You can do this using your keyboard - find the print screen key, usually top right. You might like to use it with the ALT key, or the CTRL key, or try it on its own. What this does is put a copy of your screen (or part of it) onto the mysterious "clipboard". When you go to Word, or any other application, you then paste (CTRL+V) and it will appear. You may need to "crop" your picture - use the Crop tool under Picture Tools to cut off the parts you don't need. Then resize as necessary by dragging a corner handle.

Questions for Christchurch City Council

After writing your initial brief, you need to think about what further information you need so that you can create a good video for the Christchurch City Council. You should

1. write a list of questions that you would like to ask the Council
2. print out the questions with space between them
3. use the Briefing Paper in iNet to answer as many of your questions as you can - there are links to some resources at the bottom of this document.

Any questions that are still unanswered should be kept for when we have a person from the Council come to visit us.

Key Factors and Implications

Key factors are the "factors which have a bearing on the outcome of your project" (Camilla Reith). Another explanation is that they are "elements of a project considered more important than others". I suggest you start by brainstorming all the thigns that you can think of that affect you and your project. If you have more than seven, then group them into related ideas and give each a heading.

In the My Project Management Tools folder in iNet you will find a file called Key Factors.

• In the first column, list your key factors (the headings if you had to group your factors)
• In the next column, explain what this key factor means for your project - what you have to DO or THINK ABOUT.
• In the third column, put a number that shows the priority for each key factor, with 1 being the mots important.
• In the last column, explain why you have given this priority number to this key factor.

Codes of Practice

Remember we talked about the Road Code, and how it is the rules of how to drive well?
A lot of the things we do in the world have rules about how to do them well. These sets of rules can be called Codes of Practice.
While you are working on your project, you need to collect evidence of the Codes of Practice that you have investigated and used. You will collect evidence from two places

1. Research on what the rules are - from the Internet, a text book, interviewing an expert...
2. In your own project, you should show how you followed the rules.

There is a file in iNet that you can use to do this with, called - wait for it! - Code of Practice.
In the top left box, you put the rules in yoru own words, and where you found them.
In the bottom left box, you explain how you have used these rules in your project.
In the top right box you can put a screen shot or other picture of your work.
In the bottom right box, you write about how well you have done this part of your project.

You will need to work on Codes of Practice several times during your project. The one we started tow ork on in class was about writing a survey to collect information. Other possible topics to do Codes of Practice for are

• storyboarding
• copyright
• video editing
• credits
• file management

I suggest that you do at least three relevant Codes of Practice, and show this in your (revised) Gantt chart as happening throughout your project.

Software and Hardware

Software you may wish to use includes

• Movie Maker for making the video - we have some text books to help with this
• Audacity for recording and editing your sound track
• Adobe Premier Elements for working with video - the C3 computers may find this hard going
• Any animation software on the school system
• PhotoShop for working with photos - we have text books for this as well

Hardware available:

• Scanner
• Headphones with attached microphone
• Still and video cameras for use around the school

If you want to take your own video or still photos, you are welcome to do this with your own gear in your own time.

Key Factor Research

When you have chosen your key factors, you need to researach them. You may not need to research every key factor, and each key factor may need researching in different ways.
So, you should take one key factor at a time, ask yourself the following questions, and record the answers - probably in a Word document.

1. What information do I already have about this key factor?
2. What questions do I have about this key factor?
3. Where can I get answers to these questions?
4. What are the answers to these questions?
5. Are there any more questions about this key factor? If so, go back to Step 3!

Key factor interactions

When you have identified your key factors, you need to consider how each key factor affects each other one. You can do this by

1. Finding the Key Factor Interactions file in iNet > ICT > Mr Molyneux > My Project Management Tools.



2. Copying and pasting your key factors down the side of the table.



3. Copying and pasting your key factors across the top of the table.



4. Filling in the boxes for half of the table - see example above.

Briefs: Initial and Refined

Your initial brief should include:

• a statement of the problem in your own words
• who the client is
• who the stakeholders are
• what solution you are going to make

Your refined brief is written after you have done some research and consultation. It will include more details of what the solution will involve - these are called specifications. Also, any things that are definitely required - these are called constraints. You can do it by taking your inital brief and adding more details about the problem and solution.