That Blue Square Thing - OCR National iMedia

Creative iMedia

This page is part of an archive of the old iMedia spec – the one that existed until Summer 2023. People seem to find the resources helpful and I've had a number of requests to put them back online. I should think they'll stay here until I'm confident that the new spec is properly covered. Please be aware that this is out of date material and may not apply in the same way to the new iMedia syllabus.

R081 - Pre-production Skills - exam unit

Storyboards

Storyboard Key Learning slides - slides to tell you everything you need to know

The Key Learning slides can be used to answer the questions:

Storyboard Questions - just the questions

Storyboard Workbook - the same questions with spaces for answers

Storyboard Knowledge Summary - a printable sheet which summarises the key learning from the slides

An example storyboard might help:

Example Storyboard - for an interview about a kayaking event for a news report

There's a video to show you how to make this:

There are other videos linked at the bottom of the page.

There are two quizzes you can try to test your understanding:

Quiz 1

Quiz 2 (T/F)

Key Jobs and Camera Shots

Storyboards are most often used for video or film products.

It's useful to know some of the key jobs to do with video production. This can come up in the exam.

Key Jobs Slides - tell you the key points

Key Jobs Questions - use the slides to answer these

Camera shots also come up on the exam from time to time. There are some things you need to know about these.

Camera Shots Slides - tell you the key points

Camera Shots Questions - use the slides to answer these

Quiz version of camera shot questions

You can find exam questions about storyboards on the exam questions page. There's a link to the answers for the questions about jobs and camera shots as well.

Example Storyboards

Examples of Storyboards ideas

None of these examples is perfect, but they show the range of ways that storyboards develop into a final product.

A series of sketches without detail for a sequence in a TV programme. Notes would be needed before filming could take place, but sketches are often used as the first stage in storyboard production

A simples storyboard with some notes for a GCSE piece of work. More detailed notes and timings would be needed to make this commercially useful

The simple storybard I produced for an imaginary news broadcast. The detail in the notes would be suitable for an iMedia exam answer

A fairly detailed storyboard for a video shot in a school setting. This was included in an set of resources form the exam board

A basic storyboard showing visualisation for an animation involving a fox character. This storyboard isn't suitable for iMedia purposes, so this is more of a visualisation diagram

A storyboard with basic notes for a video product

A very basic set of storyboard ideas for a scientific video that I planned and shot with my wife. This isn't a true storyboard, but is just a starting point for the ideas that we planned to include in the video. The lines show the order that I planned to edit the shots in to. The sketches show the sorts of camera shots and camera angles I planned to use. In an exam, markers will look at your sketches and if they obviously show camera shots or angles you'll get marks for that even if you don't write the details down

A similar set of sketches for a GCSE video product. Again, the leve of detail of the notes isn't really suitable, but the sorts of sketches and notes would gain quite a lot of marks in an iMedia exam

It's important to think about the notes that would need to be added to these storyboards in order to make these helpful for a commercial video shoot or animation.

Video Resources

A really good video from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image about how storyboards are used. Short (2:10) and well worth watching:

Some other YouTube videos you might find helpful:

Tomorrows Filmmakers: storyboarding - longer (13:52), but the first four minutes are certainly worth watching
Using a Track and Dolly - this shows you how one works and how complex the set up is (4:42)
Tomorrows Filmmakers: types of shot - 10:50 long
How to shoot interviews - quite a nice video which covers a range of camera shots and methods, including the use of sound (8:28)

Storyboard templates

There are plenty of storyboard templates available on the web. Exam storyboards always use the same template:

Blank exam style storyboard - for printing

The exam board produces one that you could use in a portfolio if you needed to:

Storyboard template

This is a template produced by OCR which you are allowed to use. I'm providing it here because it's easier to do that than put it somewhere else. I'm not claiming it's mine and haven't changed it in any way (not even to make the header rows work properly...)