Local vs Global elements
Every element in Popcorn is either local or global. The distinction matters because it controls where you can use the element and whether anyone (including you) can find it later.
Local elements
Section titled “Local elements”A local element belongs to one movie only. It was created on the fly during a movie’s production — usually because Popp needed a character, set, prop, or piece of music for that movie and you didn’t @-mention an existing one.
You’ll see local elements in the right-hand panel of the studio while a movie is in production. They show up with a yellow badge in mention lists.
You don’t have to do anything to “save” a local element — it’s already saved as part of the movie. But it’s not reusable from other movies until you promote it to global.
Global elements
Section titled “Global elements”A global element lives in your library, available across all of your movies. You’ll see them in the sidebar (under Characters, Sets, etc.) and you can @-mention them from any chat. They show up with a green badge in mention lists.
Most things you actively create — through the sidebar + button, from the characters page, or by explicitly saving — start as global.
Promoting an element to global
Section titled “Promoting an element to global”If Popp created a great local character (or set, or voice) on the fly during a movie, you’ll want to promote it so you can reuse it.
Ask Popp directly in the chat:
Make
@Lunaa global character so I can use her in other movies.
Popp will move the element into your global library. From then on it shows up in the sidebar and is @-mentionable from any movie.
Which should you create as global from the start?
Section titled “Which should you create as global from the start?”| Create as global | Create as local |
|---|---|
| Recurring host or presenter | A one-off character for a single movie |
| Your studio / brand set | An incidental background location |
| Your hero product | A throwaway scene prop |
| Your brand voice or cloned spokesperson voice | A scratch voice for an experiment |
| Signature soundtrack family | A one-off score for a single movie |
A good rule of thumb: if you can imagine reusing it within the next month, make it global.
Why not just make everything global?
Section titled “Why not just make everything global?”A library full of one-off elements is hard to navigate. Keeping local elements local — and only promoting the ones that earn it — keeps the sidebar useful.