From 2010 to 2014 I ran a small production company in Los Angeles called Team Fish. With just two of us, we focused on short-form documentaries for clients who wanted their stories told in a cinematic and soulful way. We were lucky to work with brands like Nike, Sony, and TED, among others.

Our biggest break came when we were invited into Katalyst Productions for a new division they were developing in partnership with YouTube. This was 2010, right after Google’s acquisition, when YouTube first began reaching out to companies to create original work for the platform. I still remember sitting in a room at Katalyst when the word “content” was first used. I thought to myself: what the hell is content? It felt like we were there at the very birth of the word as we know it now.

That meeting became the start of Thrash Labs, a production company built specifically to create content for YouTube. Team Fish was brought in as one of the creative teams tasked with developing and executing new ideas. Together we came up with The Subculture Club and Profiles, both aimed at diving deep into people, communities, and obsessions. The goal was always to make something more meaningful than background video—to get to the heart of the stories. We covered everything from craft beer to pedicab drivers in New York to beard championships.

One of the best pieces we ever created, produced on our own to pitch back to Katalyst, was a documentary on the people living in the Las Vegas tunnels. While in town shooting another project, we met Mike, a nomad who introduced us to a hidden world of stories beneath the city. We spent days in the tunnels meeting and interviewing people, witnessing lives unfold in front of us. It felt like the story revealed itself to us, rather than us chasing it. It remains one of the most powerful things I’ve ever filmed.

Katalyst ultimately turned it down. They said it was “too much.” My partner at the time agreed, and the footage was shelved. That moment marked the end of my run making branded “content,” though my love for documentary filmmaking still runs deep.

Years later, Katalyst sold all of the Thrash Labs library to a Chinese airline company for in-flight entertainment. Because of that, I’m no longer legally able to host the work online. What you see here are just a few clips, stills, and links that remain.