09 Nov Not your father’s popcorn
Mozilla’s Popcorn.js was officially launched last week, but it is already being heralded as “the future of online video.” Popcorn is an web-based HTML5 tool lets documentarians supplement their films with twitter feeds, Flickr albums, web pages, photos, visualizations, audio clips, video footage… and the list goes on.
Last month, Mozilla brought together coders and filmmakers for a 2-day Popcorn hackathon. Storytellers and technicians explored how the platform could be used to create interactive documentaries for the web. The group included big names like Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams, who plans to create an interactive component for his forthcoming Frontline documentary The Interrupters. Several projects from the hackathon will be awarded funding.
Popcorn is just one feature of Mozilla’s “Living Docs” initiative. They’ve teamed up with the Independent Television Service (ITVS) to explore the potential of “browser-based cinema.” According to Mozilla,
When it comes to moving images, the web’s ability to connect people and events, tailor experience to individual viewers, visualize data in real-time, interact within immersive environments, and link together other media is only starting to become apparent… the web opens unique opportunities for storytelling. Stories told using the connected technologies, reach, and audience that can only be found online.
Katerina Cizek used Popcorn to build her latest web-based documentary, One Millionth Tower, unveiled at last week’s Mozilla Festival in London. The tool allowed Cizek to create a dynamic piece of browser-based cinema that, for example, updates itself using real-time weather data from Toronto, where the film is set. The film also uses Popcorn to create an immersive 3-D environment. Brett Gaylor, a project lead at Mozilla, told Wired magazine,
The way One Millionth Tower uses Popcorn is a great example of a use we didn’t anticipate. Back when Kat approached us, we were very much thinking in terms of integrating other web services — like Twitter and Google Maps — into and alongside video. When Mike showed us how he was using it to trigger the camera in a 3-D scene, a light bulb wet off.
The partnership between Mozilla, the team between One Millionth Tower, and the filmmakers who participated in the “Living Docs” hackathon suggests that tech companies are a critical resource for today’s interactive storytellers. Innovative content can push the boundaries of what is possible on existing platforms, making web documentaries an exciting project and research challenge for tech companies.
Posted by Katie Edgerton/MIT