Outlining the Story
Once the groups have been formed and have come up with an idea or two, they should begin research on the topic - this might include:
- research of related facts
- thinking about local impact - consulting local experts on the topic
- research of media (e.g. public domain or creative commons license media) that might be used in conjunction with the project.
Next, they can create an outline and from that a Storyboard. Alternatively, some people prefer to write out the full script at this point and then story board.
Storyboards
Storyboards are used to give a graphical representation of the main ideas of a movie script. Using a sequence of still images and notes about them, it gives an overview of the story. An image and description is used for each major event, mood change or important camera angle but obviously not for every single frame of the movie! Generally each drawing in storyboard represents what the audience would see on screen at the moment (close ups, panorama shots, etc).
Have you ever seen a comic book or graphic novel? A storyboard is kind of like that.
Take a look at this page from a Fantastic Four Comic: http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/mafft1/page02.html
Notice how the images tell enough of the story that you can almost imagine them as frames of a film. Also notice the use of a close up to capture a strong emotional feeling (fear of falling in this case).
It is believed that storyboards were first used in the 1930’s in the Disney studios for animation. By the 1940’s just about every film started with a storyboard.
Example
Let’s look at a story board for an instructional video teaching parallel parking:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ricky/etec/example.html
A few things to take note of:
- Each card has a graphic or sketch of the camera shot
- A note about transitions in and out of the scene
- A note about added audio/music
- Estimated time of shot
Activity
Using these story board cards (or your own), have your group come up with a storyboard for your video. For a 3-5 minute video you should probably have at least 10 cards. More is fine if needed.
Pitching and revising
Often storyboards are used to “pitch” a movie idea to producers. This is of course much cheaper and quicker than filming first and then getting feedback.
Example
Here are some examples showing storyboard pitches for the movie Shrek
Activity
Have groups use their storyboards to pitch their ideas to the class, teacher or members of another team. Have them take notes on the feedback. After the pitch the team should meet and discuss feedback and make changes if needed.
