Mozilla is very proud to have collaborated with the Bay Area Video Coalition’s Factory program for youth media makers. This past March, we began working with this group of talented filmmakers to imagine how the documentaries they were creating about Bay Area non profit groups could translate into “web native” cinema. We blogged about our initial meetings here.

These meetings formed the basis of the feedback we needed to create Popcorn Maker, our graphical user interface for Popcorn. Over the summer, the students of Seneca College’s Center for Development of Open Technology worked with Mozilla’s Bobby Richter and filmmaker/developer Brian Chirls on an alpha version of Popcorn Maker. We blogged about this process here.

These worlds came together in August at BAVC’s offices in San Francisco, where we embarked on a four-day sprint to create not only the web documentaries of the students, but a usable version of Popcorn Maker.

This achievement is even more remarkable considering that prior to this partnership, none of the Factory students had any experiencing in authoring web pages. The realization that the web is not simply a medium of consumption, but one of participation, is key to Mozilla’s mission – and underscores our commitment to helping a generation of “web makers” use the web as their canvas. Mozilla’s Executive Director Mark Surman summed up our efforts in this direction in this blog post.

We invite you to explore the work that these talented individuals created, and to share them with your networks! Note: these projects all require modern a modern browser such Firefox 4 or Chrome and a fast computer and connection.

History In These Streets
http://www.bavc.org/historyinthesestreets
This web documentary about the Huey P Newton Foundation uses A Google Street View location for each stop on the Black Panthers legacy tour, narrated by David Hilliard. Each location also features a collection of archival photos.

Creative Growth
http://www.bavc.org/creativegrowth
Using “dynamic content injection”, B-Roll is drawn from flickr images in this documentary about an art rehabilitation center. Based on answers that users give to the filmmakers questions (ie “what inspires you?”), the film will change with each viewing.

Cultivating Community (documenting CIty Slicker Farms)
http://www.bavc.org/cultivatingcommunity
A full screen video which becomes transparent as Google Maps “pins” are dropped at the site of each farm. When the video is completed, users can explore each site in detail with a video for that specific site.

Inspire Yourself
http://www.bavc.org/inspireyourself
In partnership with InspireUSA, this group chose to build a site that featured inspirational stories from others living with mental illness. The site features four video vignettes, as well as several written stories collected by the team. These written stories can be updated based on submissions collected on the site.

Popcorn Maker Alpha
A work in progress version of our app can be found at http://www.popcornjs.org/popcornmaker, but be warned that the app is experiencing heavy development