DISC301-26S1 (C) Semester One 2026

Story development

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 16 February 2026
End Date: Sunday, 21 June 2026
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 1 March 2026
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 10 May 2026

Description

Building on what they learned in DISC101 and DISC201, students develop a coherent short story that can be made in a third-year or fourth-year course. Choosing to focus on a story for a film, animation, game, or other form of interactive media, students will conceive and work to design their overarching theme, the story world, visual design, and characters (live-action or digital). An important feature of the course is collaborative groupwork tasks and feedback, whereby students work together to critique and support each other’s projects. This means that students have the opportunity to collaborate in a peer group to deliver a more fully-developed systemic worldbuilding and storytelling process. The course ends with a shooting script or story design for an animation, game, or fiction film or documentary.

Learning Outcomes

  • Story and production skills feeding into the DISC380 project.
  • Producing a story outline/script/treatment as stand-alone work or potential basis for DISC380 project.
  • Advanced professional development. Including cultural competence and confidence.
  • Academic researching skills commensurable to 300 level and leading into post-graduate study (Hons year).
  • DS convergence skills across Majors.

Prerequisites

Timetable 2026

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00 Otakaro 236 L2 Lecture Theatre (18/2-25/3, 22/4-27/5)
Otakaro 201 (18/2-25/3, 22/4-27/5)
Otakaro 117 (18/2-25/3, 22/4-27/5)
16 Feb - 29 Mar
20 Apr - 31 May
Tutorial A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 11:00 - 12:00 Otakaro 236 L2 Lecture Theatre
16 Feb - 29 Mar
20 Apr - 31 May
Workshop A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 12:00 - 14:00 Otakaro 236 L2 Lecture Theatre
16 Feb - 29 Mar
20 Apr - 31 May
02 Wednesday 12:00 - 14:00 Otakaro 146 L1 Lecture Theatre
16 Feb - 29 Mar
20 Apr - 31 May
03 Wednesday 12:00 - 14:00 Otakaro 117
16 Feb - 29 Mar
20 Apr - 31 May
04 Wednesday 12:00 - 14:00 Otakaro 201
16 Feb - 29 Mar
20 Apr - 31 May

Course Coordinators

John Chrisstoffels and Jeremy Bond

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Pitch of idea and Treatment 15% In class ideation
Written Project 35% 7-10 minutes Scrtip/Documentary/Game Dev Treatment, Storyboard lookbook and written proof of concept
Rearch skills deep dive 35% Person, place or historical event. 2000 words
CV revisited 15% with letter to employer

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,058.00

International fee $5,038.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Creative and Digital Arts .

All DISC301 Occurrences

  • DISC301-26S1 (C) Semester One 2026