How do you plan and produce a multi-platform content project for IA2?
designing and producing moving-image media content across two interconnected platforms for IA2
A focused QCE Unit 3 (Participation) answer on the IA2 multi-platform content project. Covers the treatment, choosing two interconnected platforms, the storyboard, the pilot sequence, designing participation across platforms, and how the key concepts inform the making.
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What this dot point is asking
QCAA wants you to design and produce a moving-image media project that tells one story idea across two interconnected platforms. The IA2 multi-platform content project is the major making task of Unit 3 and combines production design with a short piece of production. This dot point is about the whole task: the treatment, the platform choices, the storyboard and the pilot sequence.
The answer
What the multi-platform project is
The IA2 asks you to develop a single story idea that lives across two platforms, designing how the audience moves between them and participates. It is drawn from Unit 3 (Participation), so audience involvement is central. The task blends planning (production design) with a short demonstration of production (a pilot), and is commonly weighted heavily among the internal assessments. Confirm the exact components and weighting against your current syllabus version.
The treatment
The treatment is the written core of the project. In it you set out the concept, the intended audience, the two platforms, and crucially how your technical and symbolic codes will engage and involve the audience across both. A strong treatment names specific codes and connects each to an audience effect or a participatory action. It justifies why these two platforms, not any two, suit the story and audience.
Choosing two interconnected platforms
The two platforms must be interconnected: they should complement or expand the story, not duplicate it. An original example: a story called "Reef Keepers" about young volunteer marine carers might run as a short documentary series on one platform and a participatory map where viewers log their own clean-up sites on another. The documentary builds emotional investment; the map turns viewers into participants. Each platform does a job the other cannot, and a viewer who experiences both gets a richer story.
The storyboard
You produce a storyboard (commonly in the range of a dozen to two dozen shots) that communicates the narrative idea visually: framing, angle, movement and transitions. The storyboard should already express your codes and your participatory intent, not be a generic shot map. It is the bridge between the treatment and the pilot.
The pilot sequence
You produce a short pilot sequence (a brief production, commonly under a few minutes) that demonstrates the idea in moving image. The pilot proves your codes work in practice and that the participation you described in the treatment is achievable. Most of the footage should be your own; confirm the exact footage requirement against your syllabus version.
Designing participation across platforms
Because this is Unit 3, the participation must be designed in. Plan how the audience acts on each platform and how the platforms hand the audience to each other: a prompt at the end of the documentary that sends viewers to the map, a contribution on the map that feeds back into later episodes. Participation that flows between platforms is what distinguishes a true multi-platform project from two separate products.
How the key concepts inform the project
- Audiences the project is built around what the audience will do on each platform.
- Technologies the platforms and their affordances shape what participation is possible.
- Institutions distribution context and platform conventions shape format and tone.
- Representations the story constructs representations through your code choices.
- Languages technical and symbolic codes carry both meaning and the invitation to participate.
Making and responding
The IA2 is a making task, but it rests on responding: the critique of existing multi-platform and participatory products gives you the models and the justifications. Study how successful projects link platforms before you design your own.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of QCAA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
2023 QCAAHow effectively does the Mission Impeccable campaign encourage audience participation and sustained engagement with the brand? Justify your viewpoint by analysing and appraising the stimulus, also considering the contexts of production and use.Show worked answer →
The external assessment is one 800 to 1000 word extended response marked against criteria out of 35 marks (Explaining, Analysing, Appraising, written literacy), so there is no per-question mark. Studying a successful multi-platform campaign as a responder gives you the models you draw on when making your own IA2.
Thesis: argue how effectively the campaign uses interconnected platforms to drive participation.
Analyse how the story extends across platforms and whether each adds something distinct.
Analyse interrelationships: how interactivity and rewards hand the audience between platforms and keep them returning.
Explain the contexts of production (a retail institution) and use (online and social audiences).
Appraise effectiveness, distinguishing genuine interconnection from repetition, with evidence.
2025 QCAAQUESTION 3: Audiences. How effectively does the stimulus position its audience to engage across platforms? Justify your viewpoint by analysing the stimulus and explaining the contexts of production and use, including the target audience.Show worked answer →
A single 800 to 1000 word extended response marked against criteria out of 35 marks, so no per-question mark applies. The principle that interconnected platforms must each do a distinct job, central to a strong IA2, is also what you appraise here.
Thesis: argue how effectively the product positions its audience to engage across platforms.
Analyse whether each platform adds a distinct contribution and how the product moves the audience between them.
Analyse interrelationships between the platforms and the target audience.
Explain the contexts of production and use, including the target audience.
Appraise effectiveness with evidence, rewarding platforms that complement rather than duplicate.