Digital Graphic Narrative Planning

Use this booklet to help structure your planning and collate your planning documents.

Considerations:

There are lots of things to consider in this project. Fill out each section in detail to show you have thought about each one. You should imagine that this is a live project, so considerations like cost, quantity and codes of practice must be thought about in that context rather than just as a college project.

Costs:There will be no costs for all the work that will be done digitally on the computers. The costs for Photoshop will need to be considered because this will be the main programme used to create the book’s visual image. Costs for things such as printing and publishing will need to be thought about as well.

Available resources:Computer, pencils, paper, PowerPoint, Word, scripts, flat plans, Photoshop & graphics tablet.

Quantity:I think I will make 1000+ of my book, as it’ll be a mass-market children’s book. This is because it’s a well-known story already well known and popular.£1.58 is the price for each book to be printed.

Audience and Target Market:From creating my flat plan and test pages, I have decided I am going to aim at children ages 3-6. My original audience was going to be ages 4-8 but my test pages would attract younger aged children. It’s going to be primarily based at females but will also have aspects for males in as well to broaden my audience.

Quality Factors:My book will need to contain pages that are full and are able to tell the story both with and without words. This is because younger children may not be able to read and therefore need to understand the story through the images. This will give it a higher quality, as it’s showing detail within the pictures. I can influence the quality of the book by adding extra information and detail so it’s not boring and also by setting it out in a certain way that’s easy to read.

Codes of Practice:The Codes of Practice include things such as deadlines that are set. If you set a deadline with a publisher, you have to make sure that you meet that specific date with the book complete. It also should cover if you get an advance on a book where you should still make the book exactly how it was pitched before getting the money for it. This is so that the publisher is getting exactly what they paid for and therefore means you’re following the codes of practice correctly.

Regulation:I have considered making my book into a toy, for example by using touch and feel, sound and pop up aspects, but have decided not to as it’d have to follow the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC and therefore would have to consider more things, making sure it’s appropriate. The content of my work needs to be thought about so it’s not going against any ethnicity, sexuality, etc. If it was seen to be discriminative, the Obscene Publications Act 1959 and the Equality Act 2010 may apply.

Copyright:As I’m working with a story that is already created, I would have to get permission to use the initial idea of the story as well as having to share any profits that are made. I will also have to take into consideration copyright when I’m creating the characters for my story. I would have to get permission for the artwork’s creator in order to use the character or style that they have, unless I’m changing or editing it dramatically.

Ethical Issues:Representation of characters will play a large role when thinking about ethical issues. For example, not all the bad characters/villains can be female, as this would be seen as a false representation. Especially as the audience is young children, they can be very impressionable and what they learn from a book can form and shape their opinions in the future. Another ethical issue is if you’re doing a book focusing on a different culture specifically. You can’t include any content that will be sensitive to them or it might be seen as offensive and goes against their beliefs. Lastly, content cannot be indecent as it is a children’s book.

Resources:A successful project relies on good planning. Considering all the resources you will need for a project and then assessing which you already have and which you need will help ensure you are ready to start your project.

If there is a resource you don’t currently have, then consider how you are going to get it before you go in to production.

Resource:Do you have it? What do you need to do to get it?

Computer YES

Story Board/Flat Plan  YES

PowerPoint  YES

Word  YES

Photoshop YESGraphics Tablet NO  See a technician in order to get the graphics tablet. They will be

able to give you advice as well as showing you how to use it.

Production Schedule:Delivering your project on time is vital. In order to do this, you need a solid plan of action. This will help you divide up your work in to manageable chunks to be tackled one at a time. It will also allow you to plan which tasks need to be done in which order. It will also allow you to track your progress each day. If you are falling behind, you will need to modify the way you work. If you work faster than expected, you can clearly see what the next steps you need to take are.

Each session is a half day of college.

Session 1:

In this session, I will aim to make the first page. This involves creating a page introducing the parents and the evil witch outside their houses, which are next door to each other. It will show where part of the story is set and show that the woman is pregnant.

Session 2:Second page. This will be a close up of the flowers, in the witch’s garden, that the mum is looking at and in the background you’ll be able to see her looking at them through the window of her house.

Session 3:

Page three. This will be a set inside the house of the couple and will show the woman asking the man to get some of the flowers or she will become more ill.

Session 4:

Fourth page. The witch finds the man stealing from her garden. He agrees to her deal that when his first

child is born, the witch will take the baby and raise it as her own. This page is set in the garden again.

Session 5:

Fifth page. The woman gives birth to a baby girl who happens to have very long hair. As the witch said, she came and took her. This page will be set outside the front of their houses and at the front door to the couples’ house.

Session 6:Page six. On Rapunzel’s 12th birthday the witch takes her and locks her up in a tower in the middle of a forest.

Session 7:

Page seven. Set on a sunny day in the forest, this page will show the King’s Son riding through the forest on his horse. That will be the main focus of the page but in the background you’ll see the tower with Rapunzel in the window (there will be singing notes around her).

Session 8:Page eight. Showing Rapunzel has let down her hair and the prince climbing up it to the top of the tower.

Session 9:

Ninth Page. Shows the Prince and Rapunzel leaning out the tower looking down and shows the Prince pushing the witch down to the ground.

Session 10:Last Page. This will feature the King’s son and Rapunzel on their wedding day showing that they lived happily ever after.

Health and safety:Your health and safety and that of those around you is very important. Just like in industry, an accident could prevent you from working. Whilst we don’t work in a highly dangerous environment, there are still risks. Some are short term, such as trips and spillages whilst others, such as long term damage to eyesight or back problems, may affect you much later in life.

Consider the risks based on the activities you will be undertaking during the project. Explain how you could prevent them from happening.

Ensure you reference appropriate pieces of legislation, design to protect people at work.

Health and Safety Issue How can you prevent it? Back problems from sitting at a computer for too long. You can prevent this by sitting up straight at your chair

and have the computer at eye level. You should also sit with your legs uncrossed and your feet flat on the floor. Take regular breaks to stretch.

Eye straining from looking at a computer screen for a prolonged period of time.

Because of having to look at a computer for a long time, the Display screen equipment regulations 1992 should be read as it gives advice on how to use computer screens safely.

When actually creating the book, you’ll need to consider COSHH.Burns or irritations to the skin due to misuse of chemicals.

If using specific paints, inks or other potentially hazardous chemicals/substances, you can look online to see if you’re following health and safety regulations. For more information on this you can go to http://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/ .