Tech is getting a lot of attention in Hollywood, so talking about online video is a key area for the independent filmmakers who are here this year.

Topics on the panel were wide-ranging, including: social networking, politics, the writers’ strike and the need for more broadband.

Better yet, here’s the description of the panel:

“The writing is on the wall–the industry must adapt to new media or face extinction. Today’s studios and independents are finally embracing the challenge of porting content and revenue to new distribution strategies. Join Hollywood power brokers and new media superstars to discuss their strategies for the Web.”

The panelists included Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Dmitry Shapiro (founder and CEO of Veoh.com), Dan Glickman (MPAA), Jason Kilar (CEO of Hulu.com), Mike Volpi (CEO of Joost.com), Erik Flanagan (EVP Digital Media MTV Networks/Comedy Central/South Park Studios) and tech strategy adviser Phil Lelyveld.

In other words, me and seven guys, which is about par for the course in Silicon Valley!

Here’s the video:

And here is my video touring the festival.

I just got to Park City, Utah, for my annual visit (well, this will be my third year here) to the famous film festival that takes place in this lovely mountain resort.

While I like a good movie as much as the next person, I am no film aficionado, nor do I have a screenplay stuffed in a drawer, nor do I hope someday to direct. I do like celebrity sightings, of course.

I am here because the Sundance Film Festival has understood early and often that technology is becoming increasingly important to the future of the film industry.

Because of that, they’ve been expanding additional offerings in the digital arena with panels throughout the festival.

The panel I will moderate is a great one about online video, called “Webolution!–Hollywood Adapts to the Web.” It will take place tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at the New Frontier on Main here.

Here’s the description:

“The writing is on the wall–the industry must adapt to new media or face extinction. Today’s studios and independents are finally embracing the challenge of porting content and revenue to new distribution strategies. Join Hollywood power brokers and new media superstars to discuss their strategies for the Web.”

The panelists include Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Dmitry Shapiro (founder and CEO of Veoh.com), Dan Glickman (MPAA), Jason Kilar (CEO of Hulu.com), Mike Volpi (CEO of Joost.com), Erik Flanagan (EVP Digital Media MTV Networks/Comedy Central/South Park Studios) and tech strategy adviser Phil Lelyveld.

Videos, of course, to come, along with visits with various tech players here, who are increasing in number annually. And, maybe, a Hollywood celeb or two.

What’s not to love about more “shaming videos,” as New York Times columnist Virginia Heffernan calls them in her “Screens” blog, which is a regular feature on the New York Times Web site. This week, she points to a video of former “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff in a drunken stupor, which was shot by–wait for it–his daughter. It’s an embarrassing moment for Hasselhoff, a recovering alcoholic, but such fare is now pretty inevitable with the ubiquity of Web videos, as the astute Heffernan writes:

With all this child-parent surveillance–and the straight-to-online capacity to go very public whenever one records the Hoff or, say, Alec Baldwin mouthing off–will celebrity children no longer have to write “Mommie Dearest”-style memoirs, as their tales of woe will now be meted out to the world in leaked voicemails and uploaded videos? Will, moreover, camera phones and other recording-and-publishing devices put to rest thorny questions about the accuracy of memories of childhood abuse, including sexual abuse?”

It’s a shame that the blog by Heffernan, who also writes for the print edition, is buried so deeply in the New York Times online stew. It is always interesting to see what her eclectic mind will choose for the online column, which focuses on “here-goes-nothing online” Internet video, from Hoff hijinks to funny Norwegian videos to sappy clips from “Gilmore Girls.”

Says the author in her mission statement: “‘Screens’ will find, review and make sense of all those senseless new images: Web video, viral video, user-driven video, custom interactive video, embedded video ads, Web-based VOD, broadband television, diavlogs, vcasts, vlogs, video podcasts, mobisodes, Webisodes, mashups and more.” Not so senseless to me.

Also, a nice succinct essay by Matt Marshall of VentureBeat on the the implications of the Digg revolt and how such an event is likely to occur more often. He writes (and is right, too):

If there’s one lesson learned, it’s that the Web tends toward radical openness, and that aggressive censorship is futile.”

And, one of the more insightful writers on one of my favorite sites, Mike Masnick of Techdirt, has a good question he asks of the Motion Picture Association of America. Masnick asserts in the piece that the powerful lobbying group makes up film-piracy numbers, this time specifically about Canada and its role in camcording piracy. More important, writes Masnick:

Insiders will still leak copies (that are much better in quality than camcorded ones) and they’ll still be available on the Internet. Instead of focusing on pointless legal solutions, the industry would have been better off making the movie-going experience better so that people actually want to go out to the movies. In the meantime, though, why doesn’t anyone ask the movie industry to actually back up the numbers they put forth?”

That’s the kind of challenge former MPAA head Jack Valenti would have taken up and run with. The spitfire lobbyist, whose personal style and zest for a good political fight were legendary, died last month after decades of passionately defending the movie industry. While many did not agree with his aggressive, defend-the-fort-at-all-costs manner, he was also always willing to mix it up and, in fact, was onstage at our very first D conference in May 2003.

He delivered (with his patented sly smile, of course) one of my favorite moments when he told Excite and also JotSpot Co-Founder Joe Kraus that he was essentially a thief and perhaps even a communist for compiling a personal video for his newborn that contained a lot of very short movie clips. Kraus had created it to show just how stringent the laws were, and it was, if truth be told, a shameless attempt to get Valenti riled up.

It worked in a great way that resulted in an insightful debate on the important issue. And, more important, thinking back on it, it makes one realize what a shame it is not to have Valenti around anymore in these even more interesting times.