Mozilla Introduces Popcorn Maker, Interactive Web Video Remix Application Open to All

Well, it took a year after we first mentioned it, but Mozilla's Popcorn is now open to everyone.  Popcorn Maker 1.0 is a web app that allows video makers to make interactive video, and you can go to this page to download it and/or take a tutorial.  In this age of emerging educational video, an interactive framework can go a long way into immersing users into a comprehensive study.  But it can work for non-educational videos as well.  We saw it in action with the People's Choice Awards, and there was even a point where the Popcorn creators were surprised to see how it was being used.  Now, it's available to all.

Mozilla's Popcorn Maker - Interactive Web Native Video Remixing

Here's a video of the history of Popcorn, using some of its interactive capabilities:

This is how Director of Popcorn, Brett Gaylor, sees it (from the Mozilla Blog):

Until now, video on the web has been stuck inside a little black box.  Popcorn Maker changes that, making video work like the rest of the web: hackable, linkable, remixable, and connected to the world around it.

This application has been available mainly to developers, but now we can all use it.  Back when they first introduced Popcorn, the vision was to make this as common as Final Cut Pro.  And taking a look at the interface, it looks like they've made that kind of program, complete with timelines, drags, and drops.

With a Popcorn video, people can actually take the original and "remix" it into their own thing.  This is where the educational possibilities are really opened up, because you might really like a video but want to add or subtract to it and tailor it to your own needs. On the player above, there is a handy "remix" button you can click that takes you straight to the editor, and you can do whatever you want with it.

Now that this application is open to everyone, we'll start seeing some really wild, different uses that should be exciting to see.