LO4: Production Schedule revision

20 mark question

• Intro- define the planning document. This is why it is an effective document (2-3 sentences)

Strengths - good layout, links to the brief throughout

Improvements - add conclusion, 2 or more ineffective comments (tasks and milestones need to be clear)

Effective and ineffective features- include examples based on the brief for ALL 

• Allows the team to be organised in regards to tasks as they are written in chronological order, order of completion
• Working document therefore it can be edited and adapted, in regards to contingancies, at anytime throughout planning and production
• Key staff within the company have allocated roles (coder is to code in the graphics/create thesitemap)
• The milestones would be allocated to each task. Has a domino effect on tasks that are not completed to the milestones and tasks that follow. This has a negative effect on the launch date. 
• Room for collaborations between team members. 
• Tasks, job roles and milestones must be clear
• Can be made and viewed by ALL members of the team as it is easy to create and this will benefit the team as they can use the production schedule to organise and plan for their job roles.
• Milestones need to be realistice and factor in contingency time.
• Production schedule doesnt consider legal and ethical issues, this is because it is not something that needs to be recorded but done as it goes along. This is something that the job roles would do such as the graphic designer and researcher targeting ethical issues. Some legal issues can be addressed such as permissions from models. 
• Wouldn't show a production schedule to a client. This is more for "in house staff" to be organised.Instead you would show them pre-production documents which illustrate design ideas. (visualisation diagrams, storyboard, sitemap). Needs to be supported with design documents. 
• Tasks and milestones beed ti ve soecific and clear.

"To conclude, a ..., is effective because overall it mas more effective features when planning a ... than inneffective features."

Examples that can be used for ANY scenario

• Extra time owing to copyright permissions- waiting for it so could delay the production 
• Client feedback or negative audience feedback from questionairres or focus groups could delay the production

Job Roles - Researcher

In pre-production of planning a product the job role of the researcher is to gather information about the market, target audience and infomation on what they purchase along with their likes and dislikes and what will draw them in to want to buy a product. They will have the knowledge of existing products and competitiors. They know how and why the product works. They must be able to woek inderpendantly but then also contribute to the team. The reasearch they do will influence the content and design of the product. If the product that is being created needs to have information gathered for it, such as a rode safety game, the researcher would have to find relevent information that they could use to make said product educational and informative.

They will mainly do secondary research such as looking on specific websites on the internet in order to gather informations, they may also look at books, magazines, TV documentary, film adver or any exsisting product. The secondary research must be reliable, this can be through looking at something that has been written by a professional. If it is a webiste we know that it is reliable if it ends in .gov, .edu. The implications of not using reliable research is that if not, the research done will be invalid.

Researches roles in different scenarios.

Educational game for school children on healty eating
The researcher would need to find information of different food group and the impacts of these in persons diet. The research would to include the daily sugar allowance for a child due to the target audience of the game and how this would differ to that of an adults allowance. This could be found on the NHS website or change for life. They could also look at books such as those written by a chef like Jamie Oliver.  
They would need to work with the graphic designer in order to create appropriate characters for the game, they would need to have a healthy body image and not give a bad example for children. They would also work together in the different levels such as going to a supermarket with a parent and buying food, having to make a balanced meal and deciding what is and isnt healthy. 

Social media app for 16+ 
The researcher may do some market research by looking at exisiting social media apps and competitors. They can look at competitors and get audience feedback to learn their likes and dislikes. They can also look at the demographics of different apps and see what their audience use most and find likes as to why this is the case. They can also look at gaps in the market and view housestyle, branding and layouts. 
A researcher would need to work with the coder to work out the navigation of the game. They would research the navigation of other games and then the coder would create the game based on the research. 

Promotional video for the launch of new swimwear aimed for paralympians
The market is very niche so a researcher will research different sports brands that create swimwear like nike. They may also contact paralympians to ask what they would want in a product so then they know how to use it. Research on representations of disabilities as well as looking at case studies and finding knowledge of the actual swimwear.
Working with the camera person or storyboarder to plan effective locations, shot types and angles to film the video, basedon what the researcher has seen as a part of existing promotional videos that they have looked at and researched. 

We need a researcher as they effect the content and design of a product. The infomation they research must be accurate and reliable. 

LO4: Storyboards

The purpose of a storyboard is to plan out the action, storyline and scenes which will be in an audiovisual product. This can include things such as film, animation, TV adverts and Television programs. You use a storyboad to plan the shot types that need to be taken, the mise-en-scene and angles to use throughout the product that you are creating. Storyboards show the chronological order of the scenes and it is a pre-production document that focuses on the main action of the scenes. A storyboard would be a document that will be used in all stages of a production, a script is also used in all stages of production as it will need to be referenced back to in editing when trying to sinc the audio and visuals.

A script would be completed before a storyboard as a storyboards is the visual representation of the script that has been created.
Key action in a scene.

Larger companies like Disney would have actual graphic designers to create the story board and that would be their job role just to create it.

What are the main features of a storyboard? - effectiveness of a storyboard (why it is effective) 

• Captions to explain the key piece of dialogue in each scene 
• Text to show shot type
• Information to describe the action 
• Illustration to show the shot type and mise-en-scene - especially location of shots (INT - interior, EXT - exterior) 
• Numbers to show the order of the storyboard and action
• Arrows to show the direction of movement of the actor 
• Camera movement shown through arrows
• Transition/ Editing info tells you whether the editing is a cut or a fade etc. 
• Timings of each scene - in seconds
• SFX that would be on screen during the scenes 
• Logo/ Title Graphics which are any words that show on screen as a part of the scene
• COULD be adapted

A storyboard is very effective however it could be seen to have some ineffectve features such as how you would need to have someone who has some graphic design skills in order to communicate the ideas. Also you need more than one pre-production document because you need a script in order to create the storyboard as you need it in order to explain the narrative of the story. There is not much information on the storyboard which is due to annotations being brief (needs to be brief due to it being used by the cameraperson as a visual product to aid the script). Any permissions, legal and ethical, and feeback on ideas is done early on as it is hard to change a storyboard once it has been created, it could also delay the making of a storyboard. Annotations need to be justified and cleat. 

Products that would use a storyboard:

• Music Video
• Film trailer
• TV advert
• Film
• Animation
• Computer games

What promotional videos include:

• Always include the product
• Show establishing shots of the building (school) 
• Shots of different subjects
• Graphics and texts (quotes) 
• Images of kids

Storyboards in the exam 

Spend no more than 12 to 15 minutes in the exam 

• Shot types
• Angle
• Editing info - "cut to"
• Location info - where? (EXT or INT)
• Key sounds - dialogue ( &who says it), music (pace - upbeat, slow, none diegetic) 
• Illustration (drawing) - matches shot type 
• Camera movements - arrows
• Timings 
• What is happening in each scene or shot 

Tips for the exam - 

• DO NOT spend more than 25 minutes 
• Unlike a sitemap or a visualisation diagram already have the annotations on it

Production Schedule

What a production schedule is used for.
The production schedule is used to plan the timescale that each part of the the project will need completing withing and how long they will take. Is used to make sure that deadlines are met or a milestone date (the date something needs to be completed by). Allows us to manage our time and see how long should be spent on different tasks or activities. Organising tasks and personalle. 

Planning Document used to organise and set timeframes (hrs/mins/weeks) and milestones ~(actual date) for planning taskes products and team members. 

Effective features of a production schedule.
Tasks listed in order so team knows what needs to be completed in chronological order
Prioritises order of tasks and time frames for eachtask
Can be viewed at all stages of production so can see if everyone is on task and can be refered back to
Identified team roles so who has to do each task
Adaptable as it is a working document so can be edited and manipulate
Plan for contingancies and backup plans
Plan for resources like hardware, software or equipment
Indervidual deadlines or milestones and launch date is identifiable
Time factored in for permisions or contracts from the client like a release and consent form (applicable to every scenario)

Ineffective features of a production schedule.
Doesnt have equipment
Doesnt have dates like a start date
All tasks are not included or clear about what needs to be done
Need to factor in additional time based on feedback, not meeting milestones
Need to be realistic about timeframes for activities and tasks, which task will take the longest amount of time
Other planning documents are needed to evidence the tasks like a visualisation diagram, storyboard, script
Wouldnt be shown to client, design matherials or planning materials would be shown
Timeframes need to be clear, so that if other parts of production are done then there would be delays
Resources need to be clear, hardware, software, models, personnel
No mention of ethical, legal issues that need to be addressed. Conciderations not taken into account, appropriate agencies to be contacted or forms completed like release and concent forms from models, intellectial property

• Sometimes can be called a Workplan
• Can look similar to a gantt chart
• Would be created by producer or production manager
• Important for team work as each task reflects and has an effect on the next task, the one after it

Garmz scenario:

Tasks listed in order so team knows what needs to be completed in chronological order- Alexia design vidualisation diagram, Ian create sitemap

Prioritises order of tasks and time frames for eachtask - Ian coding in features like the images of models, layout and navigation of the webpage takes longer than Alexia creating the visualisation diagram

Can be viewed at all stages of production so can see if everyone is on task and can be refered back to- If Alexia forgets what she needs to do next she can refer back to it

Identified team roles so who has to do each task - Alexia is a graphic designer so creates visualisation diagrams, Ian is coder so writes code language and creates sitemap 

Adaptable as it is a working document so can be edited and manipulated - If Alexia creates a visualisation diagram and Garmz doesnt like it there needs to be adaptablity for the diagram to be changed so a change in timescales and deadlines

Plan for contingancies and backup plans - have backup models if the one being used is ill, use a different software to code if the one that is going to be used stops working 

Plan for resources - camera & models for images, software like javascript or html5 

Indervidual deadlines or milestones and launch date is identifiable - would have milestones for creating visualisation diagram for Alexia and then a different milestone for imagery

Time factored in for permisions or contracts - models sign contracts as need consent for imagery of them or location permisions for taking images 

All tasks are not included or clear about what needs to be done - If John missed anything off of the production schedule such as the creation of a sitemap thne it would make it hard for Alexia and Ian to know what to do as it is one less planning document

Need to factor in additional time based on feedback, not meeting milestones - need to make sure that there is time left for Alexia to reflect on feedback and change the designs before the end of may when the release date is. 

Need to be realistic about timeframes for activities and tasks, which task will take the longest amount of time - 

Other planning documents are needed to evidence the tasks like a visualisation diagram, storyboard, script - Alexia to create  a visualisation diagram of the different pages of the webiste and app, Ian make sitemap to plan the naviagtion 

Wouldnt be shown to client, design matherials or planning materials would be shown 

Timeframes need to be clear, so that if other parts of production are done then there would be delays

Resources need to be clear, hardware, software, models, personnel - 

No mention of ethical, legal issues that need to be addressed. Conciderations not taken into account, appropriate agencies to be contacted - forms completed like release and concent forms from models so that their images can be used on the websites

A production schedule is a way of organising a project by setting timescales and milestones that each specific task need to be completed within. This allows for more effective planning and management of deadlines.

Visualisation diagrams - code and conventions

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Codes and conventions of visualisation diagrams - "effectiveness"

• The product - so that the audience knows/regonises it (£)
• The brand
• The name of the product
• House styles - 3 colours, san serif
• Slogan - (<5 words) used for branding to remember the brand
• Logo - branding, bold, bottom/top (eyecatching)
• Text to sell the product
• Product being used - see what it looks like
• Website URL, social media links - Shows digital naative audience and their habits (use ofsocial media) SYNERGY as the brand is beign cross promoted 
• Models - Ideal self/partner (pursuading to buy and use product) 
• Trademarks - Registered brand (audience can trust the products, has a good reputation) 

Annotations

Websites and Apps - they have pages

• What interactive features would be on each page with examples - photos, videos, sounds all linked to the brief
• Examples of how the layout and features would appeal to the target audience
• How the brand will be the same across all pages - colours, layout

Games - they have levels

• Scoring systems
• What each level would be like
• Interactive 
• Consept artist - designs the characters, levels 

Use key terms:

• Hierarchical structure
• Pages
• Links 
• Breadcrumb trail
• Sub pages

LO4: Site Structure Diagram

Conventions of a Website

• URL - website address
• Navigation bar - at the top of every website that allows you to browse content on the website
• Logos - so that it establishes the brand
• House style colours
• Name 
• Images or graphics
• Web banner - form of advertising (website owners get pay money to advertise as a form of revenue stream - appeal to your target audience)
• Legal disclaimers

Site Structure Diagram <-- might be asked to draw this in the exam or asked to evantuate (20 marker) 

A diagram that represents the navigation for the "end-user" when using an interactive product.  

Navigation - how you move / access different pages of an interactive product. Home page is the first thing that you see when you access a website and sub pages are the different pages that you can go to. e.g. Facebook's home page is the newsfeed but then the sub screens are things such as notifictaions, profile page, messenger, groups / events, friend requests. All the pages are linked together. 

End-user - Whoever is using the content once the content has been published. Target audience. Who the product has been designed for. 

Interactive (media) product - User or gamer physically operates and uses the product User physically affects the product and is normally something that you can touch like social media. Interactive media products force the end-user to engage with the product. Apps, websites, video games are all examples of interactive products. Websites are interactive due to the end-user have to navigate through different pages to find what YOU are looking for. You can write and add content to interactive products through chat features. Buttons allow you to go to different places, these are interactive. When buttons change colour or go in are called a hyperlink button which allows you to access all the different pages. Images are interactive as they grab your attention and allow you to be engages in the website or app. Videos are also interactive along with adverts. Everything you see in an interactive media product is an interactive feature as it keeps you attention.