This document outlines the planning for a digital graphic narrative project adapting an existing children's story. It considers costs, available resources, target audience, quality factors, copyright, health and safety, and includes a production schedule divided into 10 sessions. The target audience is 6-8 year olds and the resources needed are a computer, Photoshop, photographs and a script, which are all available. The production schedule details tasks like character designs and text pages to be completed over the sessions. Health and safety risks like eye strain are addressed.
1. 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:
As I am creating this book at college, the costs will be lower than if I was actually publishing my book. I am
provided with a computer and all the materials I need are installed on to the computer. I will be using Adobe
Photoshop to create my book and will not need any other resources. The only cost I will need to consider is ho
much it will cost to print my final book.
Available resources:
I will only need three resources in order to create my final product. I will need a computer, Adobe Photoshop
and images from the internet in order to rotoscope certain features or poses for my characters.
Quantity:
As my book will be for children and is an adaptation of an existing story, if I were to sell my book, I think I
would start by selling my books in the hundreds and if it sells well then I would consider changing to the
quantity to thousands. Personally, I don’t think mass market would be a good idea for my book as there is a
lot of competition for children’s books, for example; the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck book sold 3,010,093
in 2013 and was the biggest selling book in that year.
2. Audience and Target Market:
My age target group is 6 to 8 year olds as there will be a few sentences on each text page and I think a
younger audience will struggle to read and understand the story and an older audience may think the book is
too childish for them, but the age range 6 to 8 year olds was my initial target audience. Even though the story I
have chosen has two leading character who are male, I will not be gender specifying my book as any gender
can enjoy reading stories. The geodemographic of my audience will mainly be English-speaking countries,
which can be expanded to North America and Australia. Also, my book could be translated into various
languages.
Quality Factors:
The quality of my book will depend on my personal experience of reading children’s books, and also what
influenced me to choose the specific style and the actual story. I have proof read and finalised a draft version
for my script for the story and have planned detailed and annotated designs for the images that will be used in
my book, to make sure my book will be as naturalistic as possible. Also, I will make sure my book is as
consistent as possible.
Codes of Practice:
The Publisher’s Code of Practice is a legal document covering how an author interacts with the publishers and
vice versa. Section 2 states “the contract should be clear about ownership of the copyright”. This means any
of the author’s work is theirs and theirs only, no one else can take it as their own. Section 6 states “the
publisher must handle manuscripts…keep the author informed of progress.” The publisher must be made
aware of any activity happening with the author’s scripts and how much progress the author is making.
Regulation:
Any books falling under the definition of a toy will have to be complaint with the new Toy Safety Directive
200948/EC if sold in the European market as younger children could injure themselves if parts of the book are
sticking out or are very sharp. Other acts associated with these activities are the Obscene Publications Act
1959 and the Equality Act 2010.
Copyright:
For my book, there isn’t an author so therefore my work is out of copyright. If I decide to use other people’s
images while creating characters, I will have to consider the copyright of those specific images. Fonts will
need to be copyrighted, even though I will be using them for personal use only.
3. Ethical Issues:
Ethical issues might need to be limited in my story as my target audience will be too young to understand
certain things.
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 will need 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?
Photoshop Yes Open the application on my Mac at college.
Photographs Yes Open the application on my Mac at college.
Script Yes Open the document on my Mac at college.
4. 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:
Jack face and costume
Giant face and costume
Session 2:
Mother face and costume
Wife face and costume
Cow detail
Giant castle
6. Session 5:
Jack Kitchen
Depending on how much progress made, go back to characters and make little details
Same as above
Same as above
Session 6:
Text page 1
Text page 2
Text page 3
Text page 4
7. Session 7:
Text page 5
Text page 6
Text page 7
Text page 8
Session 8:
Text page 9
Text page 9
Text page 10
Depending on progress, correct and finalise houses and characters
8. Session 9:
Same as above
Same as above
Same as above
Same as above
Session 10:
Same as above
Same as above
Same as above
9. 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?
COSHH (Control of Substances to Hazardous Health
regulations)
Don’t use substances such as glue, for longer than five
minutes to avoid any consequences.
Display Screen regulations 1992
Take regular breaks every hour or half hour to avoid back
ache and eye strain.
Safe practices Using safety precautions when in a studio and workshop.