Island Life

Island Life is a vlogging series airing on AustinAspen Network and YouTube. It had formally aired on YouTube in the past up until December 31, 2020 when it was moved to Dailymotion with Dailymotion taking the uploads from Episode 211 up until Episode 404 when the series returned to YouTube after Dailymotion went on it's ruthless episode blacklisting spree. Outside of it's online presence, it had also gone on Neon Entertainment (until the end of February 2021) and Austin Network (until the end of September 2021). Island Life is a modern 2020 reboot of The Life of TheBrisbaneKid and is primarily filmed at Russell Island (also known as **Canaipa Island**).

From 18 June to 10 July, the YouTube uploads were on hiatus until the NBN was connected to their premises.

After a heated argument between the Actors Sam & John, they both agreed to end recording episodes after October 1 and end broadcasting through to the early hours of October 2. However, the series continued recording and broadcasting past the deadline. Sam continued to record the series for their audience (better known as Islanders).

On July 13, MD Technologies was listed as the sponsor for Island Life starting Episode 40 (MD Technologies also sponsored The Austin Show with Paw Patrol Team from November 8, 2019). That lasted until Episode 211 when it was moved to Dailymotion, because from Episode 212 to Episode 240, MD Technologies did not sponsor Island Life but continued sponsoring from January 30, 2021 (Episode 241). However, the sponsorship was ultimately dropped in August by the decision of the cameraman and afterwards, the cameraman instead seeked sponsorship elsewhere.

## History

Island Life began on June 4, 2020 by Sam Wilkes Sr. and John Wilkes. Episodes have been recorded and uploaded daily. In the first episode, he has said he "ran away" from his family on the mainland. On June 17, 2 weeks after recording and uploading began, Sam Wilkes Sr. had announced that Island Life will be finished in 2021 as John had become psycho again and as a result, Sam had decided to move with his brother because of it. Sam will still work on the series for another six months with a short term contract to soon follow before BroJC moves house in early 2021. Things got much worse when uploading episodes will be on hiatus due to the 2 hour upload time with episode 14. On 10 July, mass produced episodes were uploaded which meant the hiatus came to an end.

Later on in 2020, Sam Wilkes Sr. had listed MD Technologies as a sponsor in the title section of the video. Also, he announced that Island Life is likely to continue until 2022 but will be finding an alternate website to distribute the videos elsewhere before the end of the 2020 deadline. This will mean that episodes recorded after January 1, 2021 will be moved to a new website.

On 29 August 2020, it was announced that Island Life is likely to end soon since one of the actors is likely to pass away in the next few months. On 2 September, it was announced on Episode 91 that Island Life will be reducing its broadcast time from 30 minutes to just 15 minutes from Episode 96 onwards. Also, Sam had stated that Island Life would be ending after September 2020. Unannounced, he made a tricky decision to move out. He later reverted the decision of ending Island Life and decided to serve out more episodes. Island Life had renewed for one more season in October and had also made a new carriage deal with Austin Network. Due to expiring contracts and Sam's willingness to exit YouTube by the end of 2020, the contract for the YouTube platform was not renewed for 2021. The YouTube uploads are to end on 31 December 2020 with the 31 December episode of Island Life to be the last ever episode on the YouTube platform with the farewell video to follow.

Island Life had relaunched on October 2. Much of the fans have said that Island Life have retained the original format though with increased usage of the ultra-wide lens and then made the move to 60fps with the use of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro and then soon after with the Panasonic Camcorder.

However, near the end of October, Sam had decided not to renew for November.

Unless the NBN was reconnected, Island Life will not be renewed for November and/or December.

Despite this setback, Sam renewed Island Life to continue until the end of 2020.

In December 2020, Sam had hinted that Island Life is likely to move to Dailymotion or archive.org. He is likely moving his series to Dailymotion. Hinting about the move to another platform, he confirmed it would have to be Dailymotion. He confirmed around mid-December he is moving to Dailymotion at the end of the month, after Dailymotion won the online hosting rights. This will remain in place until Island Life comes to an end or until the end of 2022, whichever comes first with the option to renew until Island Life comes to an end. With this move, it was announced on 19 December that Island Life would only have 211 episodes on YouTube with episode 212 onwards on Dailymotion. The announcement was made official by December 30, as he confirmed that he will make an Island Life channel on Dailymotion the next day. In the same month, the new logo was revealed showing the same font but Island and Life in a stacked text format with a palm tree in the middle of the two split lines. There is a purple arrow, directing to the Islanders that Island Life is to the right. This particular title sequence would make its move to Dailymotion in January 2021.

Uploads on YouTube ended on the deadline day of December 31, 2020 as there was a cliffhanger episode upload that, near the end of the video, directed viewers (Islanders) to watch the remainder of the series at Dailymotion.

On 17 January 2021, Sam Wilkes Sr. that use of the Panasonic Camcorder is going to be discontinued and in February, the camcorder will be removed from the end credits.

In Episode 234, it was revealed the cameraman had been rushed to hospital after he collapsed in the front yard while clearing bark, sticks, twigs and other tree droppings. He was discharged from hospital the next day and continued filming Island Life.

Coming in to February 2021, many of his viewers had seen that despite Sam's healthy appearance, his health was a whole different story. Even one of his viewers have seen his diet and lifestyle is not very good at all. He defends his story by saying that all this had happened from events that occurred years ago. His fatigue was from 2012, his deteriorating memory loss was from 2020 after putting abuse, stress and strain on it for several years. He had a depressing mood ever since 2001 combined with Autism Spectrum thus explains the easily triggered tantrums. Later on, just days before the NBN disconnection, Sam Wilkes Sr. had announced that Island Life will no longer broadcast on Neon Entertainment after February 28, 2021, which left Austin Network as the only network to broadcast Island Life since its debut.

After another severe thunderstorm knocking out NBN on Russell Island, Sam Wilkes Sr. decided to just pull the plug on Island Life and announced that Island Life will end after March 3, 2021, before later announcing he is willing to continue Island Life if he was reconnected to the NBN by March 5. He later accepted a repair date of March 3, 2021 (the day that Island Life would have ended), which then lead him to make a decision to continue Island Life and scrap plans for its finale. On 9 March, some of his islanders (viewers) had trouble viewing episodes on Dailymotion stating that the platform was too laggy and slow. Sam Wilkes Sr. uploaded on BitChute but because of problems with BitChute, he went back to uploading at Dailymotion instead.

On 15 July 2021, after noticing some of his episodes deleted from Dailymotion, he contacted Austin Network and said to cut ties from Dailymotion (and blacklist Dailymotion's website) and to also remove Island Life from their portfolio. However, due to an existing agreement, Austin Network is still allowed to broadcast Island Life on TV. Island Life then returned to YouTube. The cameraman will find out how long it will last with YouTube until the videos start ending up deleted from history.

Coming in to August, almost no new uploads were made. The cameraman later disclosed that he has been unwell for several days and that uploads were on hiatus.

After an abusive confrontation, the cameraman is pending the decision of relocating away from the house.

In late September, the sun had set for all original networks broadcasting the series since June 2020 when Austin Network had announced they were not renewing their broadcasting contract and AustinAspen Network would have broadcasting rights with AustinAspen Network channel launching on October 1, 2021.

In October, relocating was imminent as the cameraman had announced on October 16 that he is relocating to another property on Russell Island. This was the only time he was forced out but not because of Psycho Dad.

By November, the health of both Sam and John had worsened even further and John had announced that because of his cancer, he had 3-6 months to live. Sam also doesn't see himself living for much longer either as he said "fixing my internal health problems is five years too late". Despite this setback, Sam had announced that he has no intentions to end the series just yet and promises to end the series once he relocates to the mainland. Also, vaccinations were made mandatory by ALL Island Life actors unless they are working remotely (such as Thomas) or are nearing end-of-life (such as John). However, in April 2022, he announced that mandatory vaccination for all actors is no longer required from 14 April 2022.

On 17 December, Sam had announced his EOL to be later in December 2021 or in early 2022 due to facemask mandating back in full force, however in January, he trialed face shield experimental tests and reinstated mainland excursions in mid-January.

It has been reported in April 2023 that AustinAspen Network was pulling funding from the program after the sponsorship expires. In May, the cameraman and AustinAspen Network had confirmed this. Island Life Productions, the production team of Island Life since May 2022 have entered in to talks with another media company to secure a new sponsorship and funding after AustinAspen decided to invest in American programming. Islanders Viewing Partners stepped up to the plate with sponsorship secured in June 2023.

## Theme Song

The theme song to *Island Life* was created by Albis. There have been three different versions of the theme song used throughout the years. The lyrics remained the same since the show's inception, but a number of verses were gradually cut back over time due to time restrictions. The original version was sung by Sam Wilkes Sr, and was used from June 2020 until early-mid December 2020. An updated version debuted in December 2020 and the opening theme was shortened in January 2021; this version remained until April of the same year. From May 2021 to August 2021, the theme song to *Island Life* was performed by Sam Wilkes Sr. and it was in use later once Uncle Thomas (portrayed by Thomas Blazier) was added to Island Life. Sam Wilkes Sr. again recorded a shorter version of the theme song in September 2021. A shorter, 5-second version sung by Wilkes Sr. debuted in February 2022.

### Opening Titles

The *Island Life* opening titles sequence was initially used to introduce the regular characters in the show. The sequences often featured the characters individually, and showed them in familiar settings around Russell Island such as the beach, or around the property. The titles for the show's earlier seasons featured exclusive video footage of the characters, that was not in use otherwise in regular episodes.

## What versions are published/broadcasted?

Censored versions are broadcast on ALL platforms. Some uncensored video clips (particularly the Psycho Dad freakouts) are uploaded on AustinAspen Network 1 & 2.
The Neon Entertainment version has "Lights, Camera, Action, Island Life!" as the theme song up until the run on Neon Entertainment had finished, while the other versions have "Cameras" as the theme song for Island Life.

## Close-called cancellations

There have been several close cancellations.

The first time was on June 17, 2020, after a heated argument which was later fixed. The second time was on July 1, 2020 after a heated argument in the car. This was also resolved. The third time was 29 August 2020, after it was announced that one of the actors will likely pass away in the coming months but this issue was indeed resolved. The fourth announcement came on 18 September 2020, this problem was resolved after some problem solving but Sam Wilkes Sr. is still planning to end Island Life, for what could be his final decision. The end was spelled out for Island Life following another incident while assembling a pedestal fan. Sam announced he did not renew for another month and ultimately said that September episodes is his final season. The next day, another episode was recorded and Sam finally reached a carriage deal to continue Island Life until the end of the year. Island life got renewed for October. The first clip recorded at 6:20am on October 2 is the start of the new Island Life. Much of the Cast staying aboard and retaining the Island Life logo that was in use since July 21. There have been some heated arguments later on but were resolved.

## Logos

When the series first started, the logo was a sunset island design with "Island Life" in IKEA Sans font which remained in use in the series up until July 20 when it was replaced by a better version on July 21. However, the original logo remains in use as a profile picture on all it's other outlets. In the series however, a new logo that was for an upcoming video game of the same name (which has remained abandoned since) was unveiled for Island Life on July 21, 2020 and despite having gone through subtle colour changes over time, it has remained the logo of the show until December 2023. The cameraman has confirmed that an updated logo will debut in January 2024 but will keep it under the blanket covers until then.

This is the original logo of Island Life. It is still in use as a profile picture on the official Island Life accounts online.Official Island Life logo for the program from July 2020 to December 2023.

## Logos/Other

4 June 2020 - 21 July 202021 July 2020 - 1 October 20202 October 2020 - 30 October 20201 November 2020 - 2 January 20213 January 2021 - 30 April 20211 May 2021 - 31 August 20211 September 2021 - 30 November 20211 December 2021 - 31 January 20221 February 2022 - 28 February 2022 (more intro screenshots coming soon!)

### Specials

9/11 20th Anniversary Special (11 September 2021)Psycho Dad's Birthday Special (8 October 2021)