Days 3 and 4: Introduce Vocabulary, Discuss Social/Political Issues and Create a StoryboardHave students take out their list of issues and ask who would like to share. Chart the issues and have them share any ideas they have for a scenario for their narratives. Remind them that they will be placing Capt'n Eli in a situation where he must respond to the issue. Refer back to The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli and have them brainstorm instances where Eli was heroic. It may take you longer to conduct the mini lessons needed for artistic techniques, but remember that students will be developing a storyline in conjunction with their artistic creation. The vocabulary listed below needs to be introduced and shown by example. Also, make sure you tell the students that their final comic strips will all be included in an online classroom Comic Newspaper. Knowing that they will be published provides great incentive and gives them a worldwide audience. Combining comic strips and using a newsletter template will allow you to easily create the online newspaper. Make sure to publish the newspaper online when finished. Introducing Storyboarding:
Explain to the students that a storyboard is a map with visuals that tells their story. Each frame should continue the storyline. On the storyboard they sketch the basic action but use very few words. The program Comic Life can be used right from the beginning for sketching the story or students can sketch with pen and ink. They should keep in mind a few key guides. The Story:
The Characters:
Drawing the Storyboard:
How to use Balloons - (see example below)Explain that a balloon is the space used for the dialogue of the story and is important to the overall meaning of the story. There are a few simple things to remember about using balloons.
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Anatomy of the page |
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Wide shot | Long shot | Medium shot | Close up | Splash panel |
Spread | Gutter | Speech balloon | Recto/verso | Caption box |
Borderless panel | Bleed | Indicia | Sequential art |
Wide shot - the name for a shot taken from far away. The subjects appear small in this kind of shot. Usually a scene that introduces the reader to the place occurs in the beginning.
Spread -Two pages facing one another in a printed book
Borderless panel - Panel or frame without dark border
Long shot - this is closer than a wide shot but you can see the person top to bottom and see
what surrounds them.
Close up - Shows just the head of a person. This is important when showing the emotions of characters.
Gutter - The space between panels in a comic strip
Bleed - When the image runs off the page (full bleed is when the entire image runs off the page on all sides)
Medium shot - This shows a person from just below the waist to above the head. You can see their expressions, and what they are doing with their hands.
Speech balloon - The space used for dialogue of the story.
Indicia - Important legal information/copyright printed in the beginning of a book
Recto/verso - The technical terms for pages in a spread. Recto- right page and verso -left page.
Sequential art - telling a story with graphics in sequence
Splash panel - full panel drawing (can also be a splash page if it is a whole page)
Caption box - Square text box around narration