designing and producing moving-image media content across two interconnected platforms for IA2

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.