Dom Midgley

Digital Graphic Narrative Planning

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:After analysing my project, I’ve concluded I should have no cost implications. I won’t be taking any pictures of my own, so everything I use in the project will be made either from scratch, or using royalty free stock images as a template for my assets, ie lion, mouse, trees etc.

Available resources:The resources I have available to me include a Mac computer, with photoshop and other photo editing software on it, to help me produce my book. There is also a plethora of stock images across the internet for me to access and use for my project.

Quantity:I think my book has the potential to sell widely. It’s a simple story, with vibrant and eye catching illustrations, and a nice moral to the story. This book could appeal to any child of age or gender, so I easily think this could be sold globally.

Audience and Target Market:The audience I’m aiming for is the demographic of children aged 5-8, of any gender and class. The moral of the story is a positive message that everyone of every age should follow, so aiming at the more developed age of children in terms of reading/writing means reinforcing the message from an early age.

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Quality Factors:I’ve found whilst working on other projects that I work most efficiently in a professional-like environment, ideally a classroom setting, surrounded by other busy workers and with no distractions. I’ve also found listening to music with no lyrics is particularly helpful for concentration, so I would to do as much work in college as possible, especially as I don’t have photoshop outside of college, so I wouldn’t be able to work on my book at home. Possible factors that would be detrimental to my work work ethic would be spending too much time on one aspect of the project, and going off schedule. Keeping to a tight schedule will be the best way for me to get this done efficiently.

Codes of Practice:As an author, you have guidelines to follow in terms of author/publisher relations. The author is expected to make a book on time and to the publishers specifications, or to the expected standard that was displayed in the book sample, which is supplied by the author before the main production of the book, to give the publisher an idea of how the book will look/read. These guidelines are outlined in the Publishers Association Code of Practice on Author Contracts 2010, and the most relevant section to myself would be section 7, “The publisher must not cancel a contract without good and proper reason”. The subsections for this include Time; if an author fails to produce the work on time, the publisher has the right to reclaim any advance paid to the author. However, it’s commonly accepted that any advance cannot be reclaimed until the publisher has given proper notice of intent to cancel the contract within a reasonable period from the date of such notice. The second subsection covers the fact that if the author has produced on time and as expected, but the publisher decides not to publish it, they cannot reclaim any advance paid to the author. However, if the author has produced work that was not up to the expected/agreed standard, the publisher does have the right to reclaim the advance paid to the author. Finally, the publisher is under no obligation to publish any work they believe to be defamatory or otherwise illegal.Regulation:If the book I’m producing had any kind of texture of extra features on it, such as pop out elements, it would be considered a toy, and would have to be compliant with the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC, which outlines what can and cannot be on a toy which is aimed at someone under 14 years old. Other I would have to consider would be the The Obscene Publications Act 1959 and the Equality Act 2010. Neither of these necessarily apply to my project, as this is nothing obscene within the book, and nothing that would go against the Equality Act.

Dom Midgley

Copyright:The main premise of my book is taking stock images and editing to such a cartoon-like extent, that they are unrecognisable from the original image. Because of this, I don’t believe I would have any copyright issues with illustrations produced. One possible issue that may arise is the use of certain fonts on dafont.com. The ones I’ve chosen are free to download from the site, however, some may be restricted to personal use, so if I was going to use them commercially, I would have to make sure the producer of the fonts I used were paid accordingly.

Ethical Issues:The story of my book is very PG, so there should be no ethical issues whatsoever with all aspects of my book. However, it could be worthwhile to consider the implications of portraying the Lion in the net. This could be a sensitive matter to parents of children who may support animal rights actively, and may find the portrayal of an animal being captured possibly effective. For the most part, I think it will be ok to include this in the story, as it doesn’t directly show the animal being captured, nor does it display any kind of violence. Also, changing this aspect of the story could mean the whole story would have to be altered as well, so I think leaving this aspect in will be fine.

Dom Midgley

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 -

PhotoshopYes, only at college -

Source images Not allUse the internet to find royalty/copyright free stock images of the assets I plan on making. Ie lion, mouse.

Memory stick Yes

Production Schedule:

Dom Midgley

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:

- Get the digital flat plans I made previously, remove the illustration sides so only the text remains. I will now have the templates ready for each page, with the text positioned where I want it, so I just need to add the final illustrations. (30 mins) - Add the assets I have already made to each page. Ie the sky, trees and grass. Use my digital flat plans as reference to get the composition of the scene right, ie how close the characters will be to the reader so to speak, so I can pinpoint how much of the trees, grass and sky the viewer will see. Once I’ve made the characters, I can add them to the page after and scale them up accordingly (60 mins)- Carry on working on the rotoscope of the lion. Try find a more appropriate image of a lion side on, to reflect what I want it to look like, and where I want it to look etc. Make the basic version, just it standing and looking side on. Add more details of it roaring and sleeping later. Once I have the basic version, it will hopefully be easier to manipulate later.

Session 2:- Carry on working on the lion. Add details such as eyes, mouth, claws, more intricate details. Shadow positioning on the screen.

- more work on lion

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Session 3:

- Finish work on basic lion

- Start work on mouse

- Add details to mouse

- carry on work of mouse

Session 4:

- Finish work on basic mouse

- Start work on lion roaring

- work on position of lion, ie paws, legs

- carry on work of lion

Session 5:

- carry on work of lion

- start work on lion sleeping/lying down

- carry on work of lion

- finish work on lion

Session 6:

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- work on lion lying down looking sad

- carry on working on lion

- work on mouse with teeth out gnawing at the net

Session 7:

- finish work on mouse

- work on shrubbery/more trees to fill the blank space on the illustrations.

Session 8:

- positioning characters on screen, composing the shots

- carry on working on positioning characters on screen, composing the shots

Session 9:

- work on double page spreads, pages 6 and 12

- finish double page spreads

Dom Midgley

- add onomatopoeic words to pages where necessary

- contingency

Session 10:

- contingency

- contingency

- contingency

- contingency

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.

Dom Midgley

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

Health and Safety Issue How can you prevent it?

- Other students bags/wires; trip hazards.- The room can be quite close quarters, could injure yourself walking into a table or stubbing your toe on a chair.

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 - The Act sets out the generic duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, and employees have to themselves and to each other.These duties are used in the Act by the principle of ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’. In other words, an employer does not have to take measures to avoid or reduce the risk if they are technically impossible or if the time, trouble or cost of the measures would be grossly disproportionate to the risk.One way to prevent these would be to ensure everyones bags and wires are either put away under a table, or in a cupboard of some kind. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 is there to protect you whilst working at a computer for prolonged periods of time. The act outlines 9 steps to working in a healthier environment. These include the screen, it should be adjustable and glare free. The keyboard should be usable, adjustable and have legible key tops. You should have spacious work surface, with an adjustable work chair, plus foot rest. You should have plenty of leg room, and the lighting should be suitable; no direct or indirect glare or reflections. Distracting noise should be held to a minimum, and there should be an adequate humidity level. Finally, the software used should be appropriate to the take

Dom Midgley

and adapted to user capabilities.