ELearning/Course building/Storyboarding and scripting

Syllabus and module guides | Video production | Storyboarding and scripting | Animated lectures and presentations | Programmed interactions

Storyboading and scriptwriting go together like hand and glove. The storyboard is a series of sketches that communicate how to visually organize a narrative and a list of its contents. The script constitutes the verbal and behavioral actions taking place within the presentation, narrative, or story. There are several approaches you can take, depending on the nature of the project.

Narrated presentation using static or animated slides
Video production with multiple scenes
Nonlinear multimedia presentation with a combination of newscaster-style (i.e., talking head) video, action video, photos, animations, and/or interactivity.

Storyboarding

A storyboard helps you:

Identify the resources (time, equipment, assistance) you will need to complete the narrative and/or define the parameters within available resources and time
Organize and focus a narrative
Figure out what medium to use for each part of the narrative
Point out the holes in your narrative

Narrated presentations

The simplest form of presentation combines a "slideshow" and a narration, and can be accomplished live in the classroom or on the desktop. Videotaping live lectures and broadcasting them on the web is discouraged unless they are treated as video productions, discussed below.

Storyboarding for this type of recording involves making a number of decisions within your favorite presentation software including:

Slide design, including color, design elements and font. Elaborate designs are not recommended since they can detract from the content and take up valuable screen space. High contrast between fore and background is a must for web broadcasting.
Slide layout, using multiple layouts or just one.
Using animation effects (appear, fly in, fade, etc.) or not. We favor using these animations for progressive disclosure, but otherwise used sparingly.
Size and placement of graphs, photos, etc. Determining a stable position and size aids comprehension (e.g., all graphics are 400X300 pixels and appear in the top right quadrant).

Animated video production

Video production with live actors can be expensive and time consuming, and may not be adequate for all purposes. Animated video production costs less, can be accomplished by an individual, and offers some features not available for video production, including a wider diversity of characters, bending the laws of nature, creating context and perspectives, visualizing the abstract, and creating a wider range of emotional tones. Storyboarding for animated video is essentially the same as storyboarding for live action video, below.

GoAnimate uses a simple process to create animations with dialogue. Whether you use their product, another one, or create GIF animations, the process is basically the same. Note, however, that animated GIFs must be played with a separate synced audio file.

Choose a setting
Select the actors (characters)
Type in or record your dialogue
Select a voice for your actors
Create the scene
Add the actors
Choose poses and expressions
Move and rotate the actors
Pan and zoom
Add background music and sound effects

Video production

Video takes us into the world and portrays action. As such, it is more complicated and effortful to produce. For our purposes here, video production involves multiple shots, edited and combined to produce a narrative. General steps include:

Analyze your outline and picture it in terms of separate shots that can be visually translated into individual storyboard panels.
Begin by breaking the outline down into small steps, or shots. A shot is defined from the time the camera turns on to cover the action to the time it's turned off; in other words, continuous footage with no cuts. Figure out what you want these shots to entail and then transform those ideas into a series of storyboard panels.
Create a shot list and decide if you need to storyboard every shot or just the ones that require special planning. Keep in mind that the list is not set in stone; leave room for inspiration to occur.
Create storyboard panels using the approximate dimensions you plan for your video.
Determine what makes up each shot (setting, angle, zoom, movement, lighting). The two most common mistakes involve zoom and lighting. Experts advise getting close to your subject so they fill the screen or nearly so. Long shots can be useful for establishing the scene, but you always want closeups of the action. Remember the typical web video is 640X480 pixels in size. You will probably need more lighting than you think, so test before you begin shooting.
As Figures 1 and 2 demonstrate, sophisticated drawings are not the objective. Regardless of the format you use, storyboards consist of (a) drawing space and (2) space for describing the shot.


1. and 2. Storyboards need space for drawing and for describing the scene.

Multimedia presentation

A multimedia presentation is some combination of video, text, still photos, audio, graphics and interactivity presented in a nonlinear format in which the information in each medium is complementary, not redundant. So your storyboard should be put together with all those elements in mind. Since multimedia is non-linear, the process differs somewhat from linear video production.

Divide the outline into its logical, nonlinear parts, such as those listed below. This may simply involve breaking the major sections of a linear outline into nonlinear sections.

a home page addressing why this narrative is important and instructions for proceeding
profiles of the main person or people in the story
the event or situation
the process or procedure
pros and cons
the history of the event or situation
other related issues

Decide the medium or media you will use for each section -- video, still photos, audio, graphics and text.

Video is the best medium to depict action, to take the viewer to a place central to the narrative, or to hear and see a person central to the narrative.
Photos are the best medium for emphasizing emotion, for staying with an important point, or to create a particular mood. They're often more dramatic and don't go by as quickly as video.
Photos used in combination with audio is very useful. As discussed in the Media Characteristics article, photos reveal everything at once while audio can direct attention and explain parts of the whole. Zooming, highlighting, and fading other parts of the photo are excellent focusing strategies.
Animated graphics show how things work. Graphics go where cameras can't go, into human cells or millions of miles into space. Sometimes graphics can be a story's primary medium, with print, still photos and video in supporting roles.
Does the narrative need a map? Is the map a location map, or layered with other information? GIS and satellite imaging can be important tools for understanding. Interactive GIS can personalize a story in a way impossible by other means, allowing earners to pinpoint things in their own cities or neighborhoods - such as crime or liquor stores or licensed gun dealers.
Text can be used to describe the history of a story (sometimes in combination with photos); to describe a process (sometimes in combination with graphics), or to provide first-person accounts of an event. Often, text is what's left over when you can't convey the information with photos, video, audio or graphics.

Make sure the information in each medium is complementary, not redundant. A little overlap among the different media is okay. It's also useful to have some overlap among the presentation's nonlinear sections, as a way to invite learners to explore the other parts of the story. Try to match each element of the narrative with the medium that best conveys it. However, practical concerns like the assets you have currently may dictate some decisions.
Interactivity means giving the learner both input and control in a story. By making the presentation nonlinear, you've introduced an element of interactivity, because the learner can choose which elements of a story to read or view and in which order. By including online forums or chats, you give learners input into the subject.
From here you will storyboard each section following the same processes described above depending on the medium.

Example

Storyboarding "Dancing Rocks" by Jane Stevens

Resources

UC Berkeley digital media tutorials

How to make a storyboard:

Free storyboarding templates

Scriptwriting

Considering the three types of projects mentioned earlier, scriptwriting can be used for:

Voiceover narrative in a slide presentation
Dialogue for actors in a video or animation
Text-based dialogue for still photos and illustrations

In these instances, you're writing for the ear and not the eyes. As discussed in the Media characteristics article, speech is ephemeral; here and gone in an instant. Of course, one of the best advantages of digital speech is that it can be reviewed again and again. Even so, writing for the ears is different than for the eyes. Edited tips from Malamed (2010), Kesher (2011), and Cushard (2013).

Scriptwriting suggestions

Know your audience: Are you speaking to novices or experts, a general or specialized audience, native or second-language listeners? Will the audience understand your humor and language shortcuts (e.g., "in the command line . . .") This information, perhaps more than anything, will guide your style.

Write like you speak: Writing for the ear is more informal than writing to be read. You may find that it improves your style if you imagine that you are speaking to someone while you are writing. When you write like you speak, you will naturally use smaller words, a more conversational tone and shorter sentences.

Trim the fat: When you're writing for audio, you don't have much time to get to to the point. You have to get there quickly before you lose the listener. Focus on what's most important by using straightforward active language. Writing with clarity and brevity is important in all cases; especially so when scriptwriting.

Keep a consistent voice: Whether scriptwriting is accomplished by one or many, during a single session or over a periods of weeks, it is critical to maintain a consistent voice throughout the script. Consider:

Tone: Decide on a tone that will best connect with your audience (conversational, folksy, sophisticated)
Person: whether you'll be using first (I, we), second (you) or third (he, she, it, they) person.
Contractions: Will you use them or not?

Let one anointed editor read the scripts to smooth out all of the inconsistencies.

Keep sentences short but varied: The risk of relying on short sentences exclusively is that the script may sound stilted or simplistic. A better approach is to aim for short sentences that vary in length. This is closer to how we speak. To keep sentences on the shorter side: 1) stick to one idea per sentence; 2) delete all the extra verbiage; and 3) break sentences into two whenever possible.

Do not read onscreen text: This is so for two reasons, one physical and the other motivational. The first is cognitive load; people cannot attend to two competing media without a serious decline in comprehension. We read faster than we speak and so the visual/auditory nature of text necessarily conflicts with the purely auditory nature of speech. Second, adults do not like being read to when they are capable of reading for themselves.

Not everything should be communicated through audio: No one likes screens of text, but some subjects demand it, such as those involving legal or compliance training. In these cases, refer to the screen text in the script, state what it is and let the learner read it. To accommodate those who are visually impaired, provide an option for having the text read aloud.

Pay attention to rhythm: Speaking is similar to music-it's got a rhythm related to the tempo of the speech and the alternation of stressed and unstressed words. When you read your script aloud, you can improve the rhythm by considering the words as sounds and listening to their flow and timing. A pleasing rhythm has the potential to hold the listener's attention longer and to enhance the listening experience.

Provide pronunciation: If the scriptwriter is not the same person as the narrator, showing pronunciation is critical whenever there is a chance of getting it wrong - whenever you use specialized language. Otherwise, asynchronous (aa-sin-kro-nuss) may come out as (ah-sin-kro-ne-us), or affect (aaf-ect) as (uh-fect).

Use silence effectively: Silence is to audio as white space is to visuals. Listeners need time to process the verbal content and to watch what's on the screen. You can work brief pauses into your script by indicating where the talent should stop for a moment (often referred to as a beat) during the recording. Pauses can also give you time to add elements on the screen, and signal a transition to a new line of thought.

Watch your transitions: Transition words, such as yet, but, however, therefore and meanwhile, let listeners know that a change from the previous thought is coming. Use transitions as cues to help clarify your message.

Calculate the length of segments: You don't want things to run on and on. A rule of thumb for calculating time is that in one minute, a narrator will read approximately 100 words. If you want your segment to last a minute, pare it down to 100 words or less.

Consider sound effects: Many public radio producers add depth and realism to their stories through sound effects. When used with sophistication, sound effects can add richness to straight narration, scenarios, interactions and games. And their cost is minimal.

Scripting templates

You will find many different scripting templates which work well for varying purposes. Some combine the storyboard and script. None are inherently superior, so we present just a few sample formats and encourage you to customize your own for your purpose.

Tracking #	Media/Instructions	Script/Copy
1.1	Title: Three learning networks; fade in Neurons1.png	There are about 10 trillion connections between the 1 trillion neurons in the brain. The average neuron makes about 1,000 synaptic connections with other . . .

Scene #	Video	Audio
1.1	Wide shot of NYT front page	Our topic is an article appearing in the New York Times on March 15, 2012.
1.2	Close up of Xiaflex article	The article discusses a new drug, Xiaflex, for the treatment of Dupuytren's (Du-pah-trens) contracture, which contracts the hand inward toward the wrist.

Scene	Copy	Shot Description	Notes	Storyboard
1.1	If there is one piece of equipment that will improve your video, it's a tripod. The tripod is big and heavy. Who wants to carry one of these around?	Man clumsily carrying video equipment plus tripod	Location in garage walking toward car trunk

Which comes first?

Do we storyboard first and then write the script? Or might there be an advantage to first writing the script and then storyboarding? There is no hard and fast rule here. As with the instructional design process, storyboarding and scripting is an iterative process. Wherever you begin, the second step inevitably results in changes to the first. Perhaps the best advice is to begin where your vision begins. If your mind's eye is filled with scenes and action, begin there. If you're thinking about human interactions or the narrative you will use, begin there. Your aim is to meld the two into one learner experience that accomplishes its instructional goal.

Syllabus and module guides | Video production | Storyboarding and scripting | Animated lectures and presentations | Programmed interactions

#top

⇑ Up to Building specific components

⇑ ⇑ Up to Course building

⇑ ⇑ ⇑ Up to Course development

⇑ ⇑ ⇑ ⇑ Up to Home