Jesse Warren and Mark Gantt the Executive Producers of the hot, new, hip, Hit Web series / Feature Film The Bannen Way talk about product placement, brand integration and how to sell a web series to a Hollywood studio. They also share some great advice for Independent Filmmakers.

The most important viral videos of 2009 were few and far between but I did mange to pick 5 videos that for one reason or another brought real value to the independent production and distribution of web video.

5th – Do You Want to Date My Avatar

This year the brilliant and talented Felicia Day (Creator / Star of The Guild and Stream Award Winner) proved that you could give away 6 Million views of an independent music video for free and still sell electronic downloads of the video and the song as well as market and promote your web video series and DVDs.

4th – JK Wedding Entrance Dance

This viral video wasn’t important because it got over 35 Million views this year. It was significant because it didn’t make any money for the content creators to begin with but it did prompt YouTube to change policy and then it became a boon to YouTube’s “click to buy ads” program.

Social Media Site Mashable said the JK Wedding Entrance Dance was the, “antithesis of the Susan Boyle video explosion, where YouTube and ITV were unable to work out any sort of deal, and hundreds of millions of video views went unmonetized.”

3rd – The Bannen Way Trailer

Actor, co-writer and executive producer, Mark Gantt teamed up with writer, director and executive producer, Jesse Warren to create The Bannen Way (Launching Jan 6th, 2010 on Sony’s Crackle) but before they sold their idea to Sony they created a online trailer and “Pitch Site” that created buzz, got them a fancy Hollywood agent at ICM, helped then sell their show idea to Sony and they got to act, write and direct their project. The studio didn’t take Mark and Jesse’s football away from them and give it to someone else, Sony let them play quarterback and wide receiver. It has been fantasy filmmaking at it’s best and if The Bannen Way does well next month when they launch the first episode (on the same day that you can buy the feature length film on iTunes via electronic sell through) which I think it will, there will be a new working business model for web video and those of us who have been pushing this online video rock up the hill for so long will be jumping for joy.

Now I know the Original trailer for The Bannen Way came out on Saturday August 23th 2008 but I’m excited for these webisodes to become an online web series hit that will become a household name that sends mainstream America to the web to watch video they way they started texting after Ryan Seacrest told people to text in their votes on American Idol.

2nd – Ataque de Pánico! (Panic Attack!) 2009

More than any other video this year this online video goes to show you the power of web video for independent filmmakers.

Federico “Fede” Alvarez made a short film of robots invading the capital city of Uruguay for $300. He now has a CAA agent and a multi-million dollar movie deal with A-list Hollywood “Spider-Man” director Sam Raimi.

According to Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times, “After seeing his short film, which depicts an invasion of Montevideo by a battalion of giant robots, Mandate Pictures agreed to bankroll a $30-million upcoming film for Alvarez, with the filmmaker getting a cool $1 million director’s fee.”

1st – Iran, Tehran: wounded girl dying in front of camera, Her name was Neda

Neda Agha Soltan was shot to death on 20.06.2009 by security forces during a protest (against Iranian Presidential Election 2009) in IRAN. Her name quickly became a rallying cry for the opposition who protested against Islamic Dictatorship.

This video stands to remind us that without the freedom of speech to show videos that are real news and not fluff or propaganda we will be in the same boat as Iran. We need to make sure that the Internet remains open and gets even more open for people who don’t yet have access to the democracy of online video.

If you are interested in keeping the Internet Video and Entertainment open please visit the Open Entertainment Alliance

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)

Indie Filmmaker Matt Koval talks about giving up on Independent Film to make money in Online Video with The Fuplers.

Co-Founder Dina Kaplin talks about all the new partnerships that online video site Blip.TV has announced and how Distribution and Analytics company TubeMogul is important for tracking Product Placement views.

At a NewTeeVee MeetUp in Hollywood at the Cat and the Fiddle I had a chance to speak with Aimee Carlson of Dailymotion about their new original series from Hayden Black.

Grandpa is more than happy to let his Grandson drink his denture cleaning solution after it has cleaned his false teeth. It sure makes for a great viral video but is it going to sell more dental cleansing products? Maybe in other parts of the world but I don’t think it will in the US.

Just because you can make a video doesn’t mean you should.

Video Producer / Actor / Editor /Casey McKinnon talks about her online video projects and the return of her online video series A Comicbook Orange. I hope we get to see her July 23-26 at Comic-con 09

I like the new Microsoft (MSFT) online video for their new decision engine “BING” and I like that they have posted it on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube to market it even more. This is a great example of online video marketing where a complicated new service can be explained by using a simple video. In this case it’s how searching online can generate an overwhelming amount of results and that Microsoft’s Bing gives fast, intuitively organized information that helps users make decisions faster and with more confidence.

Nice work.

At the All Things Digital conference Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher interview Mark Cuban about web video and how Google (GOOG) has messed if up for you by subsidizing bandwidth and not monetizing YouTube.

Cuban says that Hulu may very well set the standard for online video monetization.

What do you think?

Is Google the reason you are not making money with your online video business or is it something else?

If you are making money and YouTube were to start charging for bandwidth would you be out of business?