The first week of this project involved brainstorming ideas, creating a script, choosing the visual techniques we were planning on using, casting, and filming.
 
Creating the script was one of the most difficult parts of the pre-production.  My group had a tough time figuring out how to blend belts and romance together.  We had a variety of ideas, ranging from the characters getting in a fight over belts at a store to having the actual belts be in a romantic relationship.  We went with the classic romance idea of a first date.
 
The two actors in the film were our good friends, which made the entire process very easy.  They were willing to do whatever we needed them to do for the film, and they were very understanding with scheduling and the time commitment.  We all had a lot of fun with the filming process.
 
We filmed at the Tenley Metro stop, inside the metro, in the streets of Dupont Circle, in a restaurant, and in the residence hall.  Filming outside of the dorms was difficult for audio because there was a lot of background noise and we did not have any microphones.  It was also difficult because we had to take into consideration the lighting and setting at each of the locations.
 
Week two was focused solely on editing.  We spent many hours in the New Media Center working on putting together the footage, finding music, improving the audio, adding transitions, and editing some of the footage, as we did with the split screen.  The most challenging part about the editing process was using the editing software at times.  It could be very particular and difficult to work with at times, and some of the effects we wanted to use were confusing to figure out.  Eventually we got the hang of it, but it was a struggle.
 
The most frustrating part about week two was trying to work around everyone’s busy schedules.  There was a lot of work that had to be put into the post-production, but it was not always a priority for each of the group members.  Even with these complications, the final product turned out exactly what we wanted it to be.
 
One of the lessons I learned throughout this project was how to make working in groups a little easier.  At times there was a lot of tension within my group, whether that was because of the fear of running out of time on the entire project, or if someone wasn’t pulling their weight in one aspect of the project at the time, or even if one of us was just having a bad day.  I noticed that there was a lot of tension during the editing process one day, but it vastly improved once we started getting really excited about how the film was turning out.  It was like a complete 360 with how we were all feeling.
 
This can be translated into other projects, even if the work that is being done doesn’t bring about these feelings.  If some of the group members maintain positivity, it will reflect throughout the rest of the group.
 
Another lesson that I learned with this project is that it is essential to plan way in advance for projects of this magnitude.  My group was smart in that we got all of our filming done in the first week and had plenty of time to edit.  Other groups did not plan ahead and had a ton of work to do the night before it was all due.  My group was not stressed out in the last few days of working because we knew it would all get done the way we wanted it to.
 
Overall this was a really fun and interesting project, and I am pleased with how my group’s film, and the other groups’ films, turned out.  The one thing I would change would be more time to complete the project.  With that said, I think the time constraint added to the result of the project because it forced us to work quickly and efficiently.  It also required us to make decisions right away in order to make progress with the project.