Profile of Michael Burns on Famous Like Me

This article is about the creator of Red vs Blue. For the actor and professor of history, see Michael Burns, Ph.D..

Michael Burns or Burnie Burns (born 1972) is an independent filmmaker living in Texas. His most notable contributions have been in Machinima, although he has also worked with live-action. In April 2003, Mike, along with several of his friends, created a series called Red vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, filmed using the engine of the Xbox video game Halo. Red vs Blue was quickly acclaimed for its humour and originality, eventually elevating Burns to the status of an "internet celebrity," visibility that allowed him to create one of the few succesful machinima film-houses in the industry, Rooster Teeth Productions. Burns even attracted the attention of video game giant Electronic Arts, who asked him to create a promotional series using their new game, The Sims 2. The result, The Strangerhood, has received mixed reviews. In 2003, Burns joined the staff of a website called "drunkgamers". Hosted by Texans Geoff Fink and Gus Sorola, drunkgamers brought Burns into contact with what would become his future team for Red vs Blue.

Burnie began to add weekly videos of his favourite game, Halo on the Xbox, to the drunkgamers site. It is not known what truly sparked the idea for Red vs. Blue, but Burns has claimed that it mostly drew from analyzing why the vehicles in Halo were called what they were, and that somehow led to an idea that re-vitalized the machinima industry. Burnie also credits the birth of the series to be being "really bored". In early 2003 a trailer of the Blood Gulch Chronicles was made but drunkgamers was shut down shortly thereafter. A few months later, Burns rallied the entire staff of drunkgamers, as well as Hullum and Heyman, and created the first episode of the Blood Gulch Chronicles. The episode began an internet phenomenon that still is continuing today (August, 2005)

On September 27th, 2005, Burnie unveiled a new mini-series for the website known as PANICS or "PEOPLE ACTING NORMAL IN CRAZY-ASS SITUATIONS". The game utilizes the F.E.A.R. game engine for machinma purposes and centers around "Bravo team" for at least the first episode, and a character on Bravo team named "Frank". The five-part mini-series will premiere four episodes online and ship a fifth episode with the F.E.A.R. Preorder Edition.

Rooster Teeth Productions

After the first season of Red vs. Blue, voicing the character of Church, Burns became an instant celebrity in the machinima community. As the director, writer, and lead actor of the series, Burns is sharing the fame of being the star of Red vs. Blue, but also is the driving force behind the series. His series earned many awards at the 2004 Machinima Festival, including best picture and best writing. The series still continues, now in its fourth season, which started August 29, 2005.

Mike regularly attends conventions featuring Red vs. Blue, and has made several appearances on G4TechTV. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and two sons.

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