Finding useful tools for downloading video from the web can be very confusing.

Check out Liz Gannes’ article on newteevee.com about the different options, their perks and their pitfalls.

Shooting People! Yes Shooting People! We’ve recently added a video component to our website so now members can upload their shorts, reels and trailers and anybody can watch them. Check it out, add your films, and rate other members’ films.

This post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg on TechCrunch has riled up quite a few people who object to the spammy, underhand methods he suggests for making your video truly viral. So much so that Dan contributed a follow-up post. Dan is talking about using viral videos for advertising (and a lot of this stuff does sound very sneaky indeed!) but there are some important lessons here for filmmakers too. If nothing else it’s a good wake up call about what’s happening on the web as advertisers try to reach consumers in new, obtuse ways. As a filmmaker it is good to be aware of things like the power of tags and the importance of tracking but don’t spam people. It’s annoying, often illegal, and it’s going to create ill-will. Use the tools but keep it honest and make sure your distribution strategies match the integrity of your film.

The Participatory Culture Foundation are the forward-thinking people behind Miro (formerly Democracy), a great open-source internet TV platform. In the spirit of openness they have also created a very handy website called makeinternettv.org (does what it says on the tin!). The site covers everything from the equipment you should use to licensing issues to how to promote your work through RSS feeds. It’s not exhaustive but it’s a really good starting point if you’re dipping your feet into the water for the first time. There’s also lots more information on the Make Internet TV wiki page – which you can contribute to if you have resources to share.

There are so many online video platforms around at the moment it can get a little overwhelming for a filmmaker trying to work out where to get their film seen. There’s an interesting article on the MediaRights website by Shira Golding about different online video platforms including: Brightcove, DivX Stage6, Film Fresh, Jaman, Dovetail, Revver, and of course YouTube.

It’s also worth taking a look at Scott Kirsner’s book The Future of Web Video – check out Kirsner’s blog CinemaTech for more good stuff on all things digital and new.

And of course there are lots of great web resources in the latest Shooting People book Get Your Short Film Funded, Made and Seen.