You have practised editing images, audio, video and animation, and you know how to find material you are allowed to reuse. Next you will use these skills to make a digital montage, which is a short piece made of pictures, sounds or clips shown one after another. Today you will plan your montage and test whether the order of your plan works. You will build it in later lessons, so you will not need any editing apps today.

Your montage is made of separate moments called beats. In the next step you will decide these four things and write them down:

1. Interest: choose a topic you care about.
2. Viewer takeaway: decide the main idea your viewer should understand by the end.
3. Formats: choose whether image, audio, video or animation works best for each beat.
4. Order: decide what comes first, next and last.

A finished example. This montage about learning to surf lasts about 30 seconds and was made in Snip Studio. Watch it with the sound on. Then look at its storyboard below it: the topic and the takeaway are at the top, and the four beats follow in order, each with its format.

Ask one question about it: does the order lead the viewer to the takeaway?

In the montage: photos of a surf class at Famara beach, Lanzarote, by carvajalphotos; a video of a surfer on a big wave in the Algarve, Portugal, by Wowa84; and the music Calm Background Music, by MondaMusic. All are from Pixabay and free to reuse, and the credits are on the end card too.

Type your plan in Enter Your Work under this step: the box already has a heading for each task. Press Save as you go. Your plan then follows you through the montage lessons: it is on screen when you collect your material and when you build. When you finish, press Send to Teacher to give your teacher a copy. If your class works on paper, copy the same headings into your copybook. Do tasks 1 and 2 before you plan your beats.

Interest and takeaway

• 1. Write your topic in a few words, like the examples in the box.
• 2. Write one sentence that begins with the starter in the box, and make sure it says who your viewer is.

Your beats

• 3. Plan four beats in order. For each one, write what the viewer sees or hears and which format carries it (image, audio, video or animation). If you are not sure how to start, you can use these four beats: open, explain, show and close. Add a fifth or sixth beat if you have time.

Before you save

• 4. On one beat, add a few words saying why you chose its format, like the format example.
• 5. Mark the formats you have written, and check that you have at least two different ones.
• 6. Write down one thing you still need to find, such as an image, a sound or a clip, and where you could find one you are allowed to reuse. Then write one thing you will make yourself.

A plan only works if the order of its beats leads the viewer to its takeaway.

For each of the two plans in the activity below, your teacher will ask the class to agree on one decision: keep the order, swap two beats, or rewrite the takeaway so it matches the order. You will spend about 4 minutes on Plan A and 90 seconds on Plan B.

Then take 60 seconds on your own plan and check whether your order does the job your takeaway says. If it does not, circle one beat you would move, or rewrite your takeaway so it matches your order. When you are done, press Save on your plan in Enter Your Work.