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:

For this project I need to consider what the cost of my resources will be. For my illustrations I will need to think

about how much pencils/colourings pencils will cost and how much I need to buy the right amount of pages I need. I will also need to think how many copies of my book I want and calculate how much that would cost to

make all them copies and how much it will cost to get the copies to all the shops in different places.

Available resources:

The resources I have available to me that I will need to use for this project are the internet, Photoshop and children’s books that are already for sale or have been for sale for years. I can use the internet to look up

ideas of how to design my illustrations and see how the characters of my story have been represented in different adaptions of the original story. I could also use existing children’s books to help me choose what design will use for the Illustrations and how they have set out their book pages. I will use Photoshop to create

my Illustrations and it will help me set out my pages in a way that looks presentable and readable for the children.

Quantity:

My children’s book will be a special addition book as my story is based on the fairytale Rapunzel but with the

story changed a little so it isn’t the same as the other Rapunzel books that have been published for kids. Because my book will be limited addition, there will only be around 400-500 copies of my book available in

store.

Audience and Target Market:

My target audience will be children aged 5-11 and I will be aiming mostly at females. I chose this age range

because younger children will just be learning to read and have it red to them. But as they get older they will be able to read it themselves so I want to aim it 5-11 year olds so it will still be interesting to them when they can read it themselves. I think my book will appeal more to females as the main character is a princess, which

mostly appeals to younger girls and not boys. I won’t be including the prince in my story, which won’t appeal to young boys, as there won’t be a brave prince to save the day. I will be aiming to release my book in mainly

the UK, maybe USA, as they create a bigger audience, plus my book is in the English language so I will need to release in the biggest English speaking countries.

Quality Factors:

I will need to make sure my book is published at its best quality. To do this I will need to work hard and spend

a lot of time creating the Illustrations and making sure that they are at their best quality. I will need to make sure the equipment I use is used at its best quality and that when I don’t rush when using the equipment.

Codes of Practice:

When creating and publishing books as an author, I need to follow the PA Code Of Practice. In this code of

practice I need to make sure that the contract for my publisher I need to make it clear and I need to honour it. I need to make sure I keep to the time scale I give the publisher otherwise they could terminate my contract

and find another book to publish. They could also terminate my contract if the standard isn’t up to their expectation or there is defamation or Illegality within my book. The code of practice also says I need to make the terms reasonable in the contract for the rights of the book. I need to give fair rights to anyone that I use for

my book; i.e. Publisher, Illustrator, Author.

Regulation:

Before I publish my story, I need to look at The Obscene Publications Act 1959 and Equality Act 2010 to make

sure none of my work breaks any laws of these acts. If I’m thinking of publishing my book around Europe I will have to follow the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC to make sure that if my book can be interacted with, I

need to make sure the book is safe for small children and will not cause them harm of any type.

Copyright:

When you’re creating something that is based off a well know idea, you make sure none of the work is

copyrighted. My book doesn’t break any copyright as my story is based on a fairytale that was made years ago which means the copyright rules don’t apply because the creator of the tale has been dead for longer than 70 years. If my book did have copyright within it I would either have to ask the original creator of that part

if I could use it in my work. If the answer is no or I don’t want to waste time waiting for their answer, I could just change the bit(s) of the story that are seen as copyright and make it more of my own work.

Ethical Issues:

I need to make sure that if my characters are representing any culture that they are represented truthfully and

that they have not been made up in anyway. This is in case adults read the story that they don’t get offended by what I right about a culture because it isn’t the truth. I think my work doesn’t need any further investigating

regarding Ethical issues because my characters aren’t representing any specific culture.

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?

Pens Yes

Paper Yes

Photoshop Yes

The Internet Yes

Existing children’s books No I will need to go to a shop and buy some exiting books.

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:

Create Rapunzel character from her right side. Have her in a pink dress and with her long blonde hair

Create the Witch character from her left side. The Witch must be in black with little hints of green somewhere

Make another Rapunzel character but from the font with the same outfit and hair

Create King Character from his right side, holding out baby Rapunzel in his arms.

Session 2:

Finish off any characters I need to

Create the Tower scenery that I will be using for multiple pages. Make sure the scenery is inside a big circle that takes up most of the page. The ground parts will come out at the bottom but not too much.

The sky must be a dark blue with the clouds being grey. A tree will be placed on the left of the scene to a more real feel to the scene.

Create inside of the tower scenery to use for a couple of pages with the same style as the Tower

scenery. The sky must be seen from the open window and must be the same dark blue.

Session 3:

Finish off the scenes, adding any extra parts that I need.

Put The Witch character on a page with the King character and baby Rapunzel

Create the inside of the castle around the characters and add in text, this will create Page One

Session 4:

Create scenery close up for The Witch being at the bottom of the tower with Rapunzel’s blonde hair falling down.

Add in small details like grass sticking up or leaves being on the tower

Add the text at the bottom with the right part of the story

This will create Page 2

Session 5:

Take the Rapunzel and The Witch characters and put them on a page with the inside tower scenery

Place Rapunzel on the left and the Witch on the right.

Add the right text for this page at the bottom and this will create page Three.

Session 6:

Put in the tower scenery and place the witch at the bottom with a small front-faced Rapunzel in the

window of the tower.

Add parts to the top of the tower to make it look like there is a magic spell on the tower.

Create bended lines from the Witch’s hand to the top of the tower to make it look like she is casting the

spell.

Add in the text for this page, this will create page 4

Session 7:

Put right face Rapunzel inside the tower, put her on the right so it looks like you are actually looking at

her left side.

Add text in and that will create page 5

Do the tower scenery with the spell on top with Rapunzel’s hair coming out the window and add the Witch at the bottom of the tower. Add the text for this page and this will create page 6

Put Rapunzel and the Witch back inside the tower but place the witch further towards the reader so it looks like Rapunzel is nearer the window. Add in text for this page and that will create page 7

Session 8:

Create a close up scene of the middle of the tower with Rapunzel using her hair to get down from the

top. Add text for this page and this will create page 8.

Create a horse character that is standing and another horse character that is running away with both of

them with Rapunzel on the horse. Place the horse in any past pages that will need him.

Create a close up scene of the top of the tower with a front facing witch at the window. Add the right text

to this page and this will make page 10

Session 9:

Put the long shot of the tower scene on the page with Rapunzel on the stood still horse at the bottom of

the tower. Add the right text to this page and this will make page 10

Keep the long shot of the tower scene but put Rapunzel on the running away horse at the bottom of the

tower. Add the right text and this will create page 11

Session 10:

Create a castle scene with flags, window, and trees in the background with birds in the sky. Change the

sky colour to bright blue to change the feel of the scene.

Add in the right text to this scene and you will have page 12.

Once finished, go over the pages and see if there’s any room for improvements.

Health and safety:

Your health and safety and that of those around you are 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?

Sitting at a desk for a long time looking at a computer for

too long.

Taking advice from the Display Screen Equipment Regulations 1992, You will need to take significant breaks every hour and a half to help focus your eyes and move

your back. Each break should be at least 10 minutes as in this time your eyes will focus more and you will be ready

to work some more.

Wires going across the room that you could trip up on.

Make sure that if you are using a cable that you are

closest to the plug socket as possible to prevent wires running across the room and becoming a trip hazard.

Using water near a computer

Using the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974, you will need to make sure when you are drinking water that you

are away from the computer, and make sure you put your drink in your bag or put it away from the computer so it

doesn’t spill on the computer.

Using harmful substances

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health regulations covers hazardous substances like chemicals,

fumes, gases and vapours. If the packaging of equipment has hazard symbols on them, then you must be careful

and be fully prepared for using that substance. If not, you should not use it in case it harms you or anyone around you.