University Star

Austin Humphreys, Photo Editor

Mass Communication Week began Monday afternoon with a pioneer who utilized the Internet to broadcast personal media.

Texas State welcomed Burnie Burns, writer, filmmaker and co-creator of the viral Web series Red Vs. Blue, to an open interview Monday.

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication organizes and creates the annual event. The week-long series gives students an opportunity to listen to individuals speak about topics in the field, such as current trends, issues and information for future careers.

Cindy Royal, associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, accompanied Burns on stage to pose questions and topics for discussion.

Burns studied computer science at the University of Texas, where his first bouts in filmmaking began. Burns said one day he wandered over to the Texas Student Television Station, where he met his future filmmaking partner, Matt Hullum.

“I figured instead of studying film on top of my computer science studies, why not just go out and make a film,” Burns said.

Burns said he and Hullum made their first 16-millimeter film together in 1998 on a tight college student budget. He said they tried to spread their work through presentations in film festivals, but discovered the ease of display to mass audiences through the use of the Internet.

Royal said Burns is a pioneer for utilizing the Internet to broadcast personal media at such an early stage of its existence.

In 2003, Burns and Hullum founded Rooster Teeth, a production company focusing on the creation of machinima and live-action films.

Burns said machinima is best described as the use of real-time rendering engines, or video games, as animation for a cinematic production. Sound effects and dialogue are added later, and these productions are generally dialogue-driven. This style of production is utilized in the company’s production, Red Vs. Blue.

Red Vs. Blue follows a serial story line using actual characters and settings from the video game series Halo, while adding on original comedic dialogue.

“In early production, we were exclusively using machinima,” Burns said. “We haven’t gone full animation, but we now incorporate other styles of production.”

Burns said the thought of legal issues came on early, as they were using other companies’ material to produce their own product.

Burns said he received a call from Bungie Studios, the production company that developed the Halo game series, and Microsoft, creator of the game platform Xbox on which Halo is played. He said instead of bringing up copyright issues, the companies said the series was innovative and funny, and would like to continue to see where it will go.

“I don’t think anyone believed that was the story we’d be telling now,” Burns said.

Burns expressed his worry about the originality of content being a factor of success as a result of our increasingly rapid technological world.

“It’s not really about being original anymore,” Burns said. “It’s just the luck of being discovered.”

The interview then switched to open forum, where students could individually ask Burns questions.

Spencer McAdams, mass communication sophomore, asked about the sudden change of style in the production of Red vs. Blue from season to season, and where Burns found the inspiration to change the style.

“Five years in, none of us thought that we would be five years in,” Burns said. “We just needed a change of pace, to stick with what we like.”

Burns said he is an avid gamer, and is currently playing titles such as Gears of War 3 and Burnout.
“Playing games is what you’ll find us doing when we are not making films about games,” Burns said.