Transmedia Camp 101

From the site:

“This spring and summer The Factory embarked on an adventure with a few exciting new partners. The Bay Area Video Coalition collaborated with the Mozilla Foundation and ZeroDivide to explore the possibilities of web-native filmmaking: to help the internet find its own storytelling voice. They asked the question, “What would a story made FOR the internet look and sound like? And how would it be told?” After all, the internet is not a television or a movie-theater: it is its own entirely unique creation and a story told on the internet should take advantage of the immersion, immediacy, and non-linearity that the web can offer viewers.

Twelve youth in The Factory beta-tested Mozilla’s “Popcorn Maker”, a kind of web-native filmmaking software devised in Mozilla’s Web Made Movies innovation lab, by integrating the software into the program’s summer-based Community Filmmaking Partnerships (“CFPs”– short films that The Factory makes for/about East Bay non-profits). In doing so, The Factory filmmakers got a taste of cutting edge storytelling technologies, while Mozilla got the best kind of beta testers for their software: limber-minded, net-savvy teenagers.

These are the four web-native videos that The Factory produced in partnership with Mozilla, ZeroDivide, and our Community Filmmaking Partners….”

“…INSPIRE YOURSELF (image above)

INSPIRE USA is an organization that uses media technology to share first-person stories from teenagers who struggled with, and overcame, mental health issues like depression and suicidal impulses. They distribute these stories to other teenagers so young people can benefit from the experiences of others in similar situations and so they can be made aware of the resources and support that are available to them.

Lauren, Fifer and Raymundo, the Factory filmmakers collaborating with Inspire USA, wanted to develop an interface that conveys some of the crucial statistics around teen mental health issues – making evident how common they are – but they also wanted the interface to be interactive and embedded with stories of how other youth have pulled themselves up and become happier. They envisioned a webpage with stick figures representing teens with mental health issues, with each figure being clickable and linking to an uplifting video or written story. Participants would also have an opportunity to post their own stories, which would then be uploaded to the webpage via Tumblr. WATCH NOW >…”