Project 3: Interactive Storytelling – Proposal

Group members: Clemens, Peiwen, Sabrina, Syam

Research

We looked into the causes of social anxiety and decided to concentrate on the more popular cause which is self-consciousness.

Asking our peers who had suffered from social anxiety before, we also come across some situations which they found highly stressful, such as:

  • Eating outside
  • Being in crowds
  • public speaking
  • entering a conversation
  • being alone among strangers

They also shared some of the thoughts that they perceive while having social anxiety

  • Feeling demotivated for fear of being rejected
  • Feeling of always being judged
  • distracting oneself with hobbies
  • prefers isolation to avoid interaction

Reference: https://socialanxietyinstitute.org/top-10-list-feelings-social-anxiety-causes

Concept

Social Anxiety is more prevalent in youths today than before. It can manifest in any form, an insidious thought or self-doubt that triggers overthinking. Our project aims to depict the life of a single person affected by the afflictions of social anxiety and what it takes to overcome it.

This project will revolve around an individual, named Chen May B.  We will show what she experiences, what she sees and what goes on in her mind when she goes through her daily routine of school and in public. We have picked out a few places that we found out affects the most for people with social anxiety:

  • When entering a bus
  • When looking for a seat in the canteen/cafeteria
  • When walking through the crowded corridors

We will try to show what she looks at in her point of view and also try to make viewers hear what goes on in her mind when she goes through these situations.

Once we have the daily lives and established for the viewer to experience, we will then show how May B. will overcome her social anxiety. Everything from then onwards will slowly fade away to change for the better to show how May B. is getting better and on the road to overcoming it.

Execution

The way we plan to execute our project is by having 3 separate screens. These screens will be around the viewer – one in front, one on the left and one on the right. Each of these screens will be showing what happens in the daily life of May B.:

  • The left screen will show her experience when entering the bus
  • The middle screen will show what she experiences when on the looking for a seat in the canteen
  • The right screen will show her experience of walking through a crowded corridor

These screens will take turns to play in this order:

Bus (Left screen) → Canteen (Middle screen) → Corridor (Right screen)

And it will happen 3 times, showcasing 3 different days that she goes through and experience. As the timeline will occur at overlapping timings, there will come a point in time whereby the three screens will be playing together, thus creating a chaotic scene. experiences and will actually show the peak of discomfort.

The screens all go black and only the middle screen will show a scene. This scene will be a continuation of the last scene played and will show the moment of how May B. takes the first steps to overcome her social anxiety.

The extended scene will show a friend coming to keep her company and quail her anxiety.