360_video_production v1.0.0

name: "360_video_production" description: "Shoot, stitch, and reframe 360-degree video. Use when someone asks about 360 cameras, stitching dual-fisheye footage, keyframing a 360 clip into a flat 16:9 or 9:16 cut, pulling a flat view out of equirectangular footage, or uploading 360 video to YouTube."

360 Video Production

Purpose

Take 360-degree footage from capture to delivery. Cover the full run: shooting so the stitch holds, stitching multi-lens captures into equirectangular masters, reframing spherical footage into flat cuts with camera movement, and delivering either as immersive 360 or as standard flat video.

Workflow

1. Decide the delivery first. Immersive 360 (viewer looks around on YouTube/VR) or flat reframe (standard 16:9 or 9:16 cut)? The choice drives every step. A flat reframe is a crop of the sphere, so resolution math matters: see Operating Rules.
2. Shoot for the stitch. Details in references/shooting.md. Short version: keep subjects off the stitch lines, keep the action at a safe distance from the camera, lock the horizon, and shoot one resolution tier above your flat target (a 1080p flat crop needs at least a 5.7K 360 source).
3. Stitch. Consumer cameras (Insta360, GoPro MAX) stitch in their free companion apps (Insta360 Studio, GoPro Player/Quik). Prosumer rigs stitch in Mistika VR or PTGui. Export the stitched master as equirectangular 2:1 MP4. Never reframe before stitching.
4. Reframe for flat delivery. Pick one route:

• Insta360 Studio / Quik app: keyframe the virtual camera (pan, tilt, zoom), export flat at your aspect ratio. In Studio, keyframes only apply when exporting as flat "Video", never on 360 exports.
• NLE plugin: GoPro FX Reframe (free, Premiere Pro / After Effects, works with any 360 footage) or GoPro's DaVinci Resolve Reframe plugin. Keyframe pan/tilt/rotate/zoom on the timeline.
• Scripted: bin/reframe.py wraps ffmpeg's v360 filter for a single locked-off flat view (yaw, pitch, FOV, output size). Good for automation, batch pulls, and agents that need the math done for them. See references/reframing.md for recipes and the v360 parameter map.

1. Deliver. Flat exports go anywhere. For true 360 on YouTube, the file must be equirectangular 2:1 with spatial media metadata injected or YouTube plays it as a distorted flat video. See references/delivery.md.

Output Contract

• Flat reframe: a standard MP4 at the requested aspect and resolution, with the camera moves the user asked for, verified by spot-checking frames (subject in frame, no stitch seam in view, horizon level).
• 360 master: equirectangular 2:1 MP4, H.264/AAC, spatial metadata present, spot-checked in a 360 player before upload.
• Every run reports: source resolution, FOV used, output resolution, and whether the resolution math holds (warn if the crop is upscaling).

Operating Rules

1. Resolution math is not optional. A flat reframe is a crop. From an 8K equirectangular source (7680 wide), a 90-degree horizontal crop covers about 1920 source pixels, so a 1080p output is honest. From a 4K source (3840 wide), the same crop covers about 960 pixels, so 1080p output is an upscale. Warn the user; never silently upscale.
2. Stitch before you touch anything. Reframing, grading, and effects all happen on the stitched equirectangular master. Raw dual-fisheye files (.insv, .360) are not editable footage.
3. Hide the seams. Stitch lines run along the sides of most dual-lens cameras. Frame key moments away from them, and check the seam zones before export. Optical flow stitching can ghost moving subjects that cross seams.
4. Horizon first. A tilted horizon in 360 makes viewers seasick. Level the horizon in the stitch/reframe step before any creative keyframing.
5. No fabricated specs. Camera capabilities change fast. When a camera model matters (max resolution, frame rate, stitch software), verify the current spec from the manufacturer's page instead of quoting memory.
6. YouTube 360 needs the metadata. Equirectangular 2:1 alone is not enough; inject spatial media metadata (Google's Spatial Media Metadata Injector, or a camera/exporter that writes it) or the upload plays flat.