The Godfather of Branded Web Series Reveals His Secrets

The Godfather of Branded Web Series Reveals His Secrets

Before Chipotle’s “Farmed and Dangerous” and IKEA’s “Easy To Assemble,” there was “The Temp Life,” the web’s first-ever branded series, which was launched in 2006 by professional actor and producer Wilson Cleveland.

VideoInk: BlackBoxTV Season Premiere Showcases YouTube's Dark Side

VideoInk: BlackBoxTV Season Premiere Showcases YouTube's Dark Side

The episode, which came from a Twitter pitch by Cleveland and was shot with a tiny, intimate crew in the Joshua Tree desert, is an effort to capture what it’s like to not be a YouTube success story, and instead be one of the creators struggling to make it on a daily basis with only a few thousand subscribers.