Jenny Mann discusses the differences between her preliminary film project and her full film project. For her preliminary project, she had to recreate a scene from Pulp Fiction but took the dialogue in a cleaner direction which affected the tense atmosphere. She did basic planning procedures. For her main project, she conducted more in-depth research by watching other films and TV shows in the crime drama genre to understand conventions and the production process. She planned her main project in more detail, choosing locations to create the right atmosphere and completing additional planning documents. She improved on issues from her preliminary project like jump cuts and lighting adjustments.

1. Looking back at your preliminary
task, what did you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to
the full product?
And now, introducing… the one and only, Jenny Mann!

2. HP: Well now Jenny, can I call you Jen? Jen, my girl, can you explain this genius idea
behind your new film?
JM: Sure, but let me tell you it was no picnic, hmm… I guess it started when I got set a
task from my teacher at school, he told me I had to create a preliminary project in order
to get used to the ins and outs of directing and producing a film.
HP: What kind of things did you have to do?
JM: Well, i set about working with my film crew to arrange actors, location and costume
(basically mise-en-scene) and I had to organise days which were convenient for us all to
film on which involved looking at each member’s timetable and assembling a shooting
schedule for everyone to stick to.
HP: Then you did your main project after?
JM: Yes, and I think I found my main task more challenging because the brief required
more planning and research, organisation and independence. The brief stated that we
must ‘develop a new feature film concept’ and so we had to have originality with ideas.

3. HP: Wait, so how exactly did you research for your preliminary project?
JM: Well, since we were assigned a scene to recreate (Pulp Fiction), I watched the
scene a couple of times looking closely for tiny details such as facial expressions and
body language which could’ve helped us to recreate that same tense atmosphere. The
dialogue in the clip was quite strong and so we wanted (well told)to take a different
direction and keep it clean. However, this sort of affected the tense atmosphere we
were going for.
HP: Oh no, that’s not good, how did you plan for it?
JM: For my preliminary task I did the set procedures; blocked plan, storyboard, risk
assessment and shooting schedule.
HP: Why was your main task research more enhanced?
JM: You know, I think it’s because this time round I knew what the standard was and
so I looked at not only Crime Drama film, but TV too so I could make comparisons. I
noticed that there was a set narrative structure and a production process to follow. I
also watched other films for inspiration and noted down the conventions spotted e.g.
tense music during scenes with the murderer. I looked at who may distribute my film
and the jobs titles of people I, the director, would be working with.

4. HP: Ah, I see, so this time it was more thorough and why do you think your main task
planning is better?
JM: I think it’s better because I planned in more detail. I wanted to break the pattern
of using the same shooting locations and so I was careful to choose the right places in
order to create the right atmosphere. I also paid close attention to mise-en-scene.
Again I followed the same procedures of blocked plan, storyboard, risk assessment
and shooting schedule and I also made a shot list, character sketches, font analysis
and title brainstorm.
HP: What were your improvements on the preliminary project?
JM: The advice I received was to choose some exterior locations (which I did for my
main task). I also needed to solve the continuity of my film as there were some jump
cuts (I was new to this okay!). I do need to work on subtly adjusting contrast settings
as there was a scene which went from stark light to dark.

5. HP: How did you make main task video better?
JM: I saw to it that those previous problems didn’t occur in this piece and I
went for more advanced effects and um, I actually made sure to include titles
unlike my first edit (oops)
Well, I think we all learnt a lot today… for one thing, Jenny Mann does not suit as an
editor.
Thanks for watching and goodnight! :)