Cover lesson · Design Technology · Year 10 · Advanced

Creating a video pitch

DCF: Producing → Creating digital content

Name: Class: Date:

Cover teacher — you need no subject knowledge

Print: this sheet, one per pupil. One school tablet or camera between three is plenty; if there is no device at all, pupils complete Parts A to C on paper and rehearse the pitch to their group, which is the assessed part anyway.

Run: 4 min — read the brief and the timing rule · 12 min — Part A, write the script · 14 min — Part B, the storyboard, and check the durations add to 90 seconds before anyone films · 15 min — Part C, film it in the classroom in groups of three · 5 min — watch two back and use Part D to give feedback.

Safeguarding: films stay in the class folder on the school system. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, and nobody films anybody who does not want to be filmed — hands, the product and the drawings are enough. Do not ask pupils to use their own phones or accounts.

Collect: this sheet. The video file stays in the class folder, named with the group number and the date.

The brief

You have 90 seconds to persuade a panel to fund your packaging design for the school enterprise fair. A pitch is not a description: it names the problem, shows the thing, gives real numbers and admits the weakness before somebody else finds it.

The timing rule

A clear speaking pace is about 150 words a minute, which is 2.5 words a second. So:

A 90-second pitch is about 225 words of script. Not 400.
An 8-second shot carries about 20 words. A 15-second shot carries about 38.
Your shot durations must add up to exactly 90 seconds, and your word count for each shot must fit the time you gave it. Part B makes you prove both.

Step by step

4 min — Read the brief and the timing rule. Decide the one sentence you most want the panel to remember.
12 min — Part A: write the script in full sentences and count the words.
14 min — Part B: break it into shots. Fill in framing, duration, dialogue and on-screen text, then total the durations.
15 min — Part C: film it. One take per shot, in order. Do not edit — there is no time.
5 min — Part D: watch another group's pitch back and give them the three pieces of feedback.

Part A — The script

Write what will actually be said. Include at least two real numbers from your design and one honest weakness.

My total word count
Word count ÷ 2.5 = how many seconds that will take
Am I over or under 90 seconds, and what am I cutting?

Part B — The storyboard

Shot	What the camera sees (framing)	Duration	Dialogue	On-screen text
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Total			Total words

Stop here. If your total is not exactly 90 seconds, change the durations now, before you film. Write what you changed:

Part C — Filming checklist

Device in landscape, propped against something solid. No hand-held wobble.
Light behind the camera, not behind the speaker — do not film against the window.
Speaker within a metre of the microphone. Classroom noise ruins more pitches than bad pictures do.
Product and drawings laid out and ready before you press record.
One take per shot, in order, so no editing is needed.
File saved in the class folder as group number, then date. Nothing uploaded anywhere.

Part D — Feedback on another group's pitch

The number or fact I remembered afterwards
The weakness they admitted, and whether admitting it helped
One shot that needed to be longer or shorter, and why

Success criteria

My shot durations add up to exactly 90 seconds, and each shot's word count fits its duration at 2.5 words a second.
My script states the problem, shows the product and includes at least two real numbers from my own design.
I admit one genuine weakness rather than waiting for the panel to find it.
Each shot has a stated framing, so somebody else could film it without asking me what to point the camera at.
The file is named and stored where the class teacher can find it, and nothing has been published outside school.

If you finish early

Cut your pitch to 45 seconds. Which shot goes first, and what have you lost by dropping it?
Write the two questions you would most fear from the panel, and a 20-word answer to each.
Rewrite shot 1 three different ways: one that opens on a number, one that opens on the product, one that opens on the problem. Which would you actually film, and why?