lesson 3.3.2 planning the narrative
Master the art of digital project management by creating a robust project plan and storyboarding a compelling video narrative for your target audience.
Welcome back, Digital Project Managers and Creative Technologists! Now that we know what our client wants, it's time to figure out how we are going to build it. Today, we are stepping into the design phase. Before we touch any cameras or editing software, we need a watertight project plan and a storyboard. This is exactly how professional Video Editors and Content Creators ensure their projects stay on track and deliver a fantastic story!
Learning Outcomes
The Building Blocks (Factual Knowledge)
Recall the critical, sequential stages of a formal project lifecycle.
Describe the purpose of a storyboard in planning a visual and audio narrative.
The Connections and Theories (Conceptual Knowledge)
Analyse how tracking milestones and deadlines ensures a project remains viable.
Explain how a storyboard acts as an abstraction of the final digital video.
The Skills and Methods (Procedural Outcomes)
Create a robust project plan that identifies key deliverables and allocates realistic chronological deadlines.
Design a structured storyboard that maps out the sequence of images, timing, and audio.
Digital Skill Focus: Today you will focus on Digital Project Management, specifically drafting a robust project plan with key deliverables and chronological deadlines.
The Master Plan
Welcome to the design phase! Before we open our video editing software, we need a roadmap. A professional Project Plan ensures we meet all the client's needs on time without busting the buudget!
If you missed our last meeting with EcoSchools UK, or if your notes are incomplete, do not panic! Our client, Sarah Jenkins, has given us a very strict set of success criteria for "The Green Campus" campaign. We must evaluate our final project against these exact rules:
Success Criteria for EcoSchools UK Project
The video must be exactly 60 seconds long.
The file must be exported as an .MP4.
Include an introductory title screen with "The Green Campus" and the charity logo.
Clearly explain exactly three easy classroom energy-saving tips.
Include an upbeat background music track.
Include a recorded voiceover explaining the tips.
End with a final screen stating "Start Saving Today!".
Use only original or Creative Commons (copyright-free) assets.
In Digital Project Management, we use these criteria to create chronological deadlines. We break the project down into three phases:
1
Pre-production - where we planning the stages in our project
2
Production - where we collect and create assets
3
Post-production - where we edit and export our final product
Today we are focussing on Pre-Production or planning.
Turn these words into pictures! Draw 3 small doodles, icons, or emojis that sum up the main ideas in this panel. You don't need to be an artist—making it visual helps your brain remember!
Task 1 Map It Out!
A Project Manager never works blindly! Let's translate our client's success criteria into an actionable timeline.
1
Get Organised!
Draw a large table in your workbook or on paper with three columns:
1
Pre-production
2
Production
3
Post-production.
2
Sort the Tasks
Look at the success criteria in the white box in the lesson notes above. Analyse them and break them down into actionable jobs (tasks you can actually do).
Place jobs like "writing the script" or "planning the 3 tips" into Pre-production.
Place jobs like "recording the voiceover" or "finding images" into Production.
Place jobs like "putting it all together" or "exporting as an .MP4" into Post-production.
🤫 Help!
If you are stuck, here is a list of the tasks that you might want to put in the table but they aren't in order...
download upbeat music
find charity logo
sketch storyboard
add music/voiceover
export as exactly 60 seconds in .MP4 format
record voiceover
write voiceover script
download copyright-free images/video clips
add title/ending text
assemble clips in timeline
plan the 3 energy-saving tips.
3
Present your task list
Your teacher will likely ask you to give them examples from each phase to collate a class version of this task list.
Outcome: A three-phase project plan that accounts for every single piece of the client's success criteria.
Visualising the Story
Once our timeline is set, we need to design the actual video. We do this using a Storyboard.
A storyboard is a visual blueprint. It maps out the sequence of images, the timing of each shot, and the audio (music and voiceovers) that will play. By drawing a storyboard, we use abstraction—we ignore the complicated details of how to use the video editing software, and just focus on the core narrative and flow.
Each panel in a storyboard represents a scene and usually includes:
Visual: A rough sketch of what is on screen.
Action: What is moving or happening?
Audio: What are we hearing? (e.g., "Upbeat music starts", or the exact words of the voiceover).
Time: How many seconds this specific shot will last.
Boil this entire page down to exactly three bullet points. What are the absolute, unmissable facts you need to take away today?
Task 2 Scene by Scene!
It is time to put on your Director's hat. We need to sketch out exactly what the EcoSchools UK video will look and sound like before we build it.
1
Get Organised!
Take a printed storyboard template, or draw 5 large squares on paper or in your book.
Underneath each square, draw three lines for: Action, Audio, and Time.
2
Ask the AI Expert
Stuck on how to pace your video? Use our AI assistant to get some advice on structuring your 60 seconds.
Act as an expert storyboard artist. Explain how to split a 60-second educational video into 5 short scenes. Keep the response under 100 words. The audience is a 12-year-old Key Stage 3 student. Use an encouraging and easy to understand tone. Use exactly 5 bullet points. NO intro, NO outro, NO deviation from the topic, NO follow-up questions.
3
Draft Your Masterpiece
Panel 1: Must be your title screen. Sketch where the logo goes.
Panels 2, 3 & 4: Sketch your three energy-saving tips. Write out the exact words your voiceover will say. Need inspiration for free images to use later? Check out Creative Commons Energy Ideas.
Panel 5: Your final screen. Make sure it includes the strict "Start Saving Today!" message.
The Clock is Ticking: Add up the time underneath all your panels. They MUST equal exactly 60 seconds.
Outcome: A complete, timed storyboard that successfully incorporates all the client's visual and audio requirements.
Last modified: May 7th, 2026
