Project Management

[ Project Management Topics ]

Storyboards

What They Are

Official definition per dictionary.com: "A panel or series of panels of rough sketches outlining the scene sequence and major changes of action or plot in a production to be shot on film or video."

A storyboard diagrams everything that will be contained in the program including what screens will look like, how the menus or navigation will work, what pictures/video will be seen (time and duration), what audio and/or text will be used either synchronously (time and duration) or hyperlinked.

A multimedia story is some combination of video, text, still photos, audio, graphics and interactivity presented in a nonlinear format in which the information in each medium is complementary, not redundant. So your storyboard should be put together with all those elements in mind.

Remember, a storyboard is more than an outline, it adds the life, or action, to what you plan on doing.

Why you do it:

• Organize and focus your story
• To secure preliminary funding (demonstrate our great idea)
• Define parameters of a story within available resources and time
• Determining appropriate mediums
• If your storyboard looks wrong your final product probably will too
• Spotting omissions and taking into consideration all elements
• Knowing what you are getting into. Gives you a better idea of the big picture
• A common point of reference for all
• Ensuring all people are "seeing" the same thing
• The better your storyboard, the more likely you will get things right the first time, hopefully ensuring less revision
• Speeds up content writing process
• Can be a test-of-concept model
• Documentation of project and project specifications

Some samples

• http://oit.wvu.edu/itrc/coursedev/production/blank_sboard.php (simple)
• http://www.itrc.wvu.edu/coursedev/preproduction/itrcstoryboard.pdf (complex)
• http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/authoring/studio/guidebook/sb.html
• http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/techknowpark/LoopCoaster/storyboard.html (very simple)

Additional information

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyboard
• http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/starttofinish/storyboarding/

Sample outline for storyboard

project: ______________________________

author: _______________

screen ___ of ___

links from screen(s):

links to screen(s):

functionality/interactivity:

sketch (width ___ / height ___):

background:

audio (include filenames if already available):

color scheme(s):

video, animation or other (include filenames if already available):

text attributes:

images / stills (include filenames if already available):