IMMERSIVE VIDEO PRODUCTION PROJECT 4(final)
ZHOU YUTONG / 0378676
TIME:15/6/2026-26/7/2026 (WEEK9-WEEK14）
IMMERSIVE VIDEO PRODUCTION/ Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Project 4
TABLE OF CONTENT
INSTRUCTIONS
LECTURE
PROJECT
FEEDBACK
INSTRUCTIONS
LECTURE
WEEK 9
Our initial idea for the final project was a horror story, like an endless loop: a student witnesses a murder, is chased by the killer, and the cycle repeats indefinitely. Unfortunately, our proposal overlapped with another student's, so we abandoned that idea and ultimately decided to use the theme of school bullying.
WEEK 10
Learn how to use a camera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnjheVFcMq4&list=PLMfJuQCwKsWc62_yii58ZjNtr8czfdJWQ
WEEK 11
The proposal was revised and finalized.
WEEK 12We were filming video, but the equipment malfunctioned and the drone was unusable, so we couldn't use the moving camera angle and had to temporarily revise the script to keep the story going.
WEEK 13
Export the video, then edit it
PROJECT
This psychological thriller 360° first-person video addresses school bullying, aiming to evoke viewers’ fear, panic, anger and helplessness based on the emotion wheel. Core themes include school violence, isolation, rumors and fake kindness.
Core Setup
- Characters: A vulnerable female victim, a group of aggressive girl bullies, and a deceptive fake helper who feigns comfort then betrays the victim.
- Locations: An empty suspenseful school corridor and a dim nighttime classroom.
- Symbols: A black plastic bag stands for the victim’s emotional darkness and isolation; the fake helper embodies false compassion and manipulation.
Four-Scene Narrative
- Corridor Lure: The victim is tricked into entering a classroom under the pretext of retrieving her phone and meeting a teacher, spotting waiting bullies before stepping inside.
- Classroom Attack: A plastic bag covers the camera, cutting off sight. Surrounding spatial audio of jeers, splashing water and circling footsteps delivers immersive intimidation.
- Betrayal of Fake Help: The helper removes the bag to comfort the victim, then steals her wet jacket and leaves, revealing the sham kindness.
- Final Public Humiliation: Bullies block all exits, surround the victim, shine phone flashlights, record videos and mock her; the frame fades to black to highlight inescapable trauma.
Production Design
- Fixed eye-level 360° first-person camera for full immersion.
- Custom floor plan and cross-shaped 360 storyboards map character movement, spatial sound and multi-directional visual cues for each scene.
- Genre: Psychological thriller + social realist school drama, intended to make audiences reflect on long-term invisible psychological harm caused by bullying.
Throughout the project, I was responsible for the camera work during filming, finding actors, exporting the video with Li Fangning, and the final video editing and YouTube upload.
The first scene shows the girl walking up the stairs, while the person who intends to bully her pretends to be nonchalant, preparing to deceive her. This was a last-minute change because the drones weren't working; Martin suggested we do it this way because it added more depth.
The second and third acts supplement the story of the girl being covered with a plastic bag, using multiple camera angles to allow the audience to clearly see the extent of the harm she suffered.
The fourth act connects to the scene where the girl is pushed into the room, surrounded by people laughing and patting her; we've retained the plastic bag element.
The fifth scene shows one of the bullies feigning concern but actually mocking the girl. The bully rips off her clothes, and then the others pull out their phones, flashing their lights, to record the girl's humiliation.
During the production process, I removed some background noise and added sad music to the climax of the fifth act. We also recorded additional audio effects during filming to make it look more natural. We paid special attention to the lighting during filming, and adjusted the exposure in Premiere Pro for areas that were overexposed.
FINAL OUTCOME
FEEDBACK
WEEK 9
Our proposal is too similar to another student's; let's choose a more meaningful topic.WEEK 11
Improve the camera placement.
Refine the story flow and scene transitions.
Strengthen the audience's Point of Interest (POI).
Finalize the filming plan before production.
WEEK 13
Modify high-exposure video clips, add the project name at the beginning, and add video transitions.
REFLECTION
1. Concept & Theme Iteration
At the early development stage in Week 9, our original looping horror murder concept had to be fully discarded due to overlapping ideas with another classmate. This forced me to rethink the core value of immersive 360° video, and we settled on school bullying as our new theme. Looking back, this shift was a valuable turning point. The horror loop only focused on superficial suspense, while school bullying carries strong social realism, letting us use first-person 360 immersion to deliver tangible emotional trauma to audiences. I learned that creative concepts should balance originality and social significance; we must cross-check project ideas at the very start to avoid duplicate work and wasted preliminary planning time.
2. Technical Challenges & On-Set Adaptation
Week 10’s camera tutorial laid the foundation for my camera operation role, yet unexpected technical failure struck in Week 12: our drone broke down, eliminating our planned dynamic moving camera shots. Instead of halting production, our group revised the script on location with Martin’s advice, adding an extra stairwell opening scene to enrich narrative depth and fill the visual gap left by the drone. I took charge of all on-set 360 camera work, actor coordination and casting during filming. This experience taught me critical contingency planning for immersive video production. Technical equipment faults are inevitable, so flexible script adjustment and alternative shot design must be pre-planned to secure narrative completeness.
We expanded the story from 4 to 5 scenes to strengthen the layered bullying experience, utilising multi-angle shots to visualise the victim’s pain more clearly. During post-production, I collaborated with Li Fangning on video export, then completed full editing and YouTube upload independently. To enhance immersion, I cleaned disruptive background noise, recorded supplementary spatial sound effects on location, and matched sombre emotional music to the climax betrayal scene. I also adjusted overexposed lighting segments in Premiere Pro and refined overall exposure, which improved the dark, tense atmosphere of the night classroom scenes. This deepened my grasp of immersive audio-visual tuning: spatial sound and controlled lighting are core to guiding viewers’ emotional responses in 360 footage.
3. Response to Tutor Feedback
Tutor feedback across Week 9, 11 and 13 guided most of our revisions:
- Week 9 feedback pushed us to abandon the generic horror plot and pivot to the socially resonant school bullying theme, which greatly elevated the project’s thematic weight.
- Week 11’s notes highlighted flaws in camera positioning, disjointed scene transitions and weak audience point of interest (POI). We optimised the fixed eye-level 360 camera layout aligned with our floor plan and cross-shaped storyboards, smoothed narrative flow between the corridor lure, plastic bag attack and fake helper betrayal scenes, and designed directional light and sound cues to draw viewers’ attention to key bullying actions. We also locked the full shooting schedule ahead of filming to avoid on-set delays.
- Week 13 feedback led me to add the official project title *Trapped with No Escape* at the opening, insert smooth transition clips between scenes, and reprocess all overexposed classroom shots to maintain consistent dark, oppressive visual tone.
These revisions made me realise that 360 immersive production cannot rely solely on creative intuition; structured feedback is essential to fix invisible issues like disorienting POV and unbalanced visual focus unique to spherical video.
4. Emotional & Thematic Delivery Outcomes
Our core goal was to trigger fear, panic, rage and helplessness in viewers via first-person immersion, supported by Plutchik’s emotion wheel. The black plastic bag sequence with blind spatial audio, the fake helper’s cruel betrayal, and the final flashlight recording humiliation sequence successfully delivered the intended uncomfortable emotions. From a creator’s perspective, I understood that immersive media’s greatest strength is empathy-building: unlike traditional flat-screen films, 360 footage places the audience directly in the victim’s powerless position, making invisible long-term psychological harm of bullying more impactful.
5. Personal Shortcomings & Future Improvements
I identified several gaps in my workflow:
1. Pre-production equipment risk assessment was insufficient. I did not test the drone fully before shooting, which caused last-minute script rewriting. Next time, I will inspect all filming gear 2–3 days in advance and draft backup shot lists for equipment failure scenarios.
2. Early story transitions lacked cohesion. I should map out POI guidance and scene linking logic alongside storyboards in the proposal stage, rather than fixing disjointed flow only after tutor feedback.
3. Spatial audio design could be more layered. While we added ambient sound effects, I could have fine-tuned directional volume to further amplify disorientation during the plastic bag blindfold scene.
6. Overall Learning Takeaway
This immersive 360 video project combined social storytelling, technical camera operation and post-production audio-visual grading, giving me end-to-end production experience as a camera operator and editor. Beyond technical skills, I learned that creative media works gain lasting power when they reflect real social issues. Balancing immersive formal experimentation with thoughtful, empathetic thematic expression will be my core focus for future creative media projects. The entire iterative process from concept scrapping, on-location crisis solving to feedback-driven revision has built my resilience and systematic production thinking for honours-level design work.
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