96 6 Designing Your Project

StoryboardsUnlike a mock-up, which represents a static text, a storyboard repre-sents a text that moves through time, such as a video or an anima-tion. Like mock-ups, storyboards may include rough visuals, but they use visuals to show the sequence of the text, as well as written descriptions of the actions or sound effects that need to take place at each moment. Storyboards can be incredibly complex but a simple storyboard consisting only of stick figures and a few arrows to show directionality can also be surprisingly effective. As with mock-ups, the important thing is not how artistic the storyboards are but that they indicate what elements (images, audio) and actions (move-ment, lighting, camera angle, etc.) need to occur at which point.

Figure 6.3 A Storyboard about Making Storyboards

Taking into consideration the rhetorical situation for The Kitchen Sync mock-up in Figure 6.1, use the Mock-Up Guidelines to deter-mine whether that mock-up is effective. Then compare it to the actual Kitchen Sync Web site at http://thekitchensync.com. Did the stakeholders make the same choices you would have made?

Process!

97Storyboards

The goal of an effective storyboard, no matter its level of complex-ity, is to capture as much information as possible and help you decide what shots you’ll need to film, what audio you’ll need to record, or what images you’ll need to capture before the filming, recording, or animating begins. Similar to a mock-up, a storyboard can also help you get feedback on your basic design so that you can

When creating your storyboard, you’ll want to think about includ-ing notes on the following elements:

make notes on other elements as well.

For instance, Courteney was creating a three-minute video-based analysis on effective action films and had 64 panels in her story-board. Figure 6.4 is a small segment of Courteney’s entire story-

detail so that your audience or instructor can figure out what you intend to do and give you feedback on it, and so that you have an outline to work with once you do start capturing your content.

Storyboard Guidelines

setting or segment change represented auditorially, visually, spatially, or linguistically — via intertitles, transitions, or other means?

some way (if it’s necessary to do so)?

example, if it’s important that a character is seen rolling his or her eyes, have you used arrows around the eyeballs or some-thing else to indicate that movement? Or if a car is supposed to exit the right side of the frame, how have you shown that?)

98 6 Designing Your Project

board visuals? If not, what are the key ideas that need to be expressed in each scene or segment?

dialogue or scene)? Do you indicate what these audio elements will be and how long or loud they will be?

Figure 6.4 The First Six Panels of Courteney’s Storyboard

These panels show her introduction of the topic (Panel 1), the beginning of her narrative-based analysis (Panels 2–3, in Courteney’s bedroom), and the main characters in the analysis (Panels 4–6, Courteney and her “muse”).

99Storyboards

Figure 6.7 Courteney’s Drawn Introduction of Her “Muse” (Panel 6 of 64)

Figure 6.5 Courteney’s Drawing of Herself in Bed (Panel 2 of 64)

Figure 6.8 Courteney’s Muse as She Appears in the Video

Figure 6.6 Courteney’s Video of That Scene

Drafting Your Mock-Up or Storyboard

Are you creating a static, visually based project that would need a mock-up? Or are you creat-ing a temporally based project such as a video, an audio project, or an animation that would be better served by a storyboard? Decide which method will work best for your text and begin drafting! Refer back to your genre conventions checklist and your conceptualizing documents/drawings from Chapter 3 to make sure you have included all major design features (or have purposefully not included them). Also keep in mind the guidelines for mock-ups and story-boards from earlier in this chapter, and make sure you’ve included everything you need for planning your project and for helping others understand what you are going to compose.

write/design assignment