Today I’m at the Future of Film Summit and I caught up with Joe Pantoliano AKA “Joey Pants” and got to hear his spin on the future Independent Film and his non-profit “No Kidding, Me Too!”

No Kidding Me Too! is an organization whose purpose is to remove the stigma attached to mental illness through education and the breaking down of social barriers. Their goal is to empower those with mental illness to admit their illness, seek treatment and become even greater members of society.

At the NewTeeVee Live ‘09 conference I ran into Kevin Lynch Adobe’s CTO and he told me that Adobe was working hard on Flash Player 10.1 and bringing full Flash to smartphones. From Android to Windows Mobile to Nokia to Palm Pre Adobe is bringing http streaming to smartphones which is very important for the online video community and it’s not just progressive downloads. Kevin’s team is also working on P2P support, content protection and high value content management.

Adobe is also working hard to understand how people are using web video so that they can optimize the interactive video viewing experience and the online video advertising and content around the video. Adobe is working with Web Analytics and Online Business Optimization company Omniture to develope this new interactive advertising platform.

Sounds like they are working on video advertising that is more engaging and immersive than pre-rolls and post-rolls. It sure would be nice if they hooked up with Tubemogul so that online video producers that are already producing on a daily basis can have access to all the Flash 10.1 bells and whistles.

Ryan Higa, a young college student has held the number 2 most subscribed channel position on YouTube for around 2 years. This year with over 1.6 million subscribers Ryan made the leap to become the #1 most subscribed channel on YouTube and that makes him an Online Video Leader.

In this video Ryan talks about what it took to get there and what he likes about YouTube.

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At the NewTeeVee Live 09 event I ran into Brian Walsh CEO and Founder Castfire and ask him about his audio and video publishing and syndication platform and what it can do for web video series producers to help them with their video advertising.

One of the coolest things about Castfire is that it allows content producers to deliver dynamic ad insertion into Video RSS (Video Podcasts) as well as serve cross promos and branding in Quicktime. And it works on all other flavors of online video including Flash, Windows Media Player and ever other video file format.

From interactive agencies to sports teams like the Red Skins to PBS’s KCRW to individual online video content creators Castfire has a great service for episodic branded content.

Who gave you permission to post on the Internet? Who will you need to get permission from in the future? How much money will you have to pay to post or serve video in the future? Who do you want telling you what you can and can’t see on the Internet? Why should you be able to share your thoughts with other people on the Internet? Why should there be net neutrality?

Why should you have an open Internet?

If this is something you care about join others who are fighting to keep the Internet Open at Open Entertainment.org .

More and more I will run into Independent Filmmakers that are taking their scripts, breaking them up into segments and turning them into web series. I think this is great but I warn against repurposing one media to another. Remember they did take radio programs and put them on TV.

That said, Frank Krueger has been playing around in web video for many years and has a new web series called The Darkness Descending launching soon. I caught up with Frank at a poolside cocktail party at Digital Hollywood in Santa Monica this week and got the scoop on what he’s trying to do.

(Side Note: I wanted to test out the iPhone 3GS video exposure so I let things get a little crazy with the sun on Frank’s face.)

One of my favorite online video web series is Chad Vader. But what I like more than the series is that the Chad Vader guys Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan have turned their fan art into a business and are making a full time living producing online videos for themselves and for others.

I caught up with Aaron and Matt in Vegas during Blogworld and got a quick interview with them on my iPhone G3S Video Camera and they told me how Lucas hired Matt to do the voice of Darth Vader.

(Side Note: The mic works the opposite of the Flip camera so I’m really loud and Aaron and Matt are quiet. – Sorry)

What’s old is new again with social media. This last week Amp Energy drink launched the Before You Score iPhone application to appeal to guys looking to pick up the ladies. The App is pure sophomoric fun in true bad taste and feels like a Saturday Night Live sketch come to life as an iPhone App but it has created a storm of anger in the social media community causing parent brand Pepsi to apologize for the App.

Controversy builds interest and in this case it has got the app a lot more attention than it would have if the haters had not said a word but this is nothing new.

Several years back religious groups use to get upset and protest Hollywood movies that didn’t go along with their beliefs. By protesting a film they raised awareness and drove more paying ticket buyers to the theaters. Eventually these groups learned that their efforts to publicly denounce a film that didn’t fit their beliefs only benefited the movies they disagreed with so they stopped drawing attention to the flicks they hatted.

At several cocktail parties at Blogworld this week I heard both men and women talking about the B4 U Score AMP iPhone App. That never would have happened had the haters not been so vocal.

Pay close attention to your paying customers. Give them what they want and engage them in your conversation but keep in mind there are people out there that will never like your product. They will never recommend your product and more importantly they will never buy your product. But if you can polarize your audience and get the very people that hate you to publicize your product and bring it to the attention of people who may like or even love your product, then you need to love the haters.

AMP, Energy Drink, AMPUP, B4 You Score, iPhone app

Tim Kring, creator of “Heroes” on NBC, talks about crafting stories that transcend a single medium, spreading across television, books, games, and online graphic novels. Interviewed by Scott Kirsner, editor of CinemaTech and author of “Fans, Friends & Followers.”

Kring will be part of the Boston Book Festival on Oct 24th, 2009. http://www.bostonbookfest.org

Paid or Advertising Supported? What kind of iPhone App should you develop?

Greg Yardley of Pinchmedia explains the determining factors in deciding whether or not you should develop a paid iPhone App or an Ad Supported iPhone App.