Burnie Burns

Burnie Burns is the founder of Rooster Teeth Productions. He spoke to Texas State students about machinima and his web video series Red Vs. Blue. Machinima is created by taking animation from video games and putting a voice track over it. In other words, Burnie Burns makes shows for video games. Burns takes concepts from video games and creates stories that are as real life as possible. He makes shows that he would want to watch and use.

Red Vs. Blue is a hybrid model machinima animation. The artists that worked on Red Vs. Blue were people that they found online doing things for fun or as their hobby. Burnie Burns plays as an actor in most of his michinima productions by doing the voices for some of his game characters. Other actors also contribute to the voices, making the productions a team effort. Burns writes the scripts for all his games and takes suggestions from the rest of his team as well.

The Red Vs. Blue script is very serial because you know all the characters and what is going on. The stories are told over a period of time and has seasons just like shows such as Gossip Girl. Burns interacts with the audience to see what they are liking and not liking. He plans to make 10 seasons of these animated shows and has had 1 billion hits so far. He is now a licensed partner with microsoft.

He also told us that there are 728 million views on youtube and that there are 36 hours of video uploaded to youtube every hour. My favorite part of his interview was when he showed us the youtube video of "crackdown 2 orbs." He found a polish man on youtube who recorded his voice while playing this video game. The youtube video consisted of the man cursing while playing the video game. It was hilarious so he hired him and paid him to keep making these videos.

Burns said he hires people that are good artists, animators, and people with experience in web video production. When asked where he sees web video going he said mobile. The advise he gave to students was to put your work out there on the Internet because you never know what people are going to like and how many hits your going to get. You have to make something great and at the same time get attention for it by marketing through facebook, twitter and other social media.

Burnie Burns, Creator of Red Vs. Blue, Speaking at Texas State Mass Comm Week

On Monday, October 17^th, 2011 Burnie Burns, founder of Rooster Teeth Productions and the creator of the web video series, Red Vs. Blue, spoke at Texas State during Mass Comm Week to a packed room of students. He talked about how he contributed to what is called machinima, a relatively knew type of animation that is based on capturing, or recording, the visuals from a video game and putting a voice track over the footage, how he started Red Vs Blue, and gave advice on how to become successful.

Red Vs Blue has been viewed over one billion times and the company has over 1.37 million subscribers, according to Burns. The show is going into it's tenth season and Burns has been offered several opportunities to have it aired on T.V., but he has declined all offers so far.

Red Vs Blue uses captured video from the Halo video games series owned by Microsoft, and when Burns' show started to attract larger online audiences, Microsoft took notice and contacted Burns.

“After two hours Microsoft called up and decided to just see were this will go, and now we're partners,” Burns said about the phone call he got shortly after his shows began to go viral on the internet. He was very surprised and pleased with the Mircosoft's decision to not try to stop future makings of Red Vs. Blue.

Burns said that when it comes to pitching new ideas and deciding which ones to go with, “someone will champion [an idea], they'll take it and run with it.” He said that sometimes it's a “gut-feeling” when deciding on an idea.

“We don't put the first episode of anything out until we have 6 in the bag,” Burns explained when asked about starting up a web video show. “You need to have something to follow up with,” he continued and explained that you don't want to have fans but no material to keep their attention.

“It really is a competitive environment...the overall competition is from the overall amount of video out there – 36hrs of video uploaded to YouTube every hour,” Burns explained when asked who or what is his biggest competition.

He also said that web video is going in the direction of “all mobile” and that “people have these [smart phones and web devices] wherever they go.”

For students and others looking for employment at Rooster Teeth Production they look for “artists mainly, but right now we're looking for primarily animators and those with experience with web.”

He told the story of a person who was hired after making a video that went viral on YouTube. He showed the video that was a recording of the person playing a video game while speaking in the background about how "hard" and "stupid" the video game is using very vulgar language – the auditorium was full of laughter during this part of the interview.

During the question and answer period of the interview students were given a chance to ask Burns questions. A P.R. student expressed his deep gratitude and respect he has for Burns, and afterward was the first to talk with Burns - The student must have either been a huge fan or trying to get a job, or maybe both.

And finally Burns' expressed his concern over net neutrality, especially when coming to bandwidth restrictions, as this would be hardship for small companies and individuals, but give corporations an unfair advantage.

For more information on Rooster Teeth Productions and Red Vs. Blue visit RoosterTeeth.com.

Project 3: Food Trailer Site

I really love food and going to food trailers around town. They are a great alternative to opening an actual stone and mortar restaraunt. My friends and I are thinking about opening one of our own and calling it VBQ (instead of BBQ, silly, I know). It would be a place with meatless, BBQ-inspired items that would satisfy vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. On the website I will provide a little background information on VBQ as well as a menu and contact info.

Project III: Movies, books, and a little bit of both.

For project three I want to create a website where I review books, movies, and book adaptations.

My two loves are movies and books. Sometimes I love movies that were books first, but sometimes I hate them.

I've always wanted to be a book/movie/adaptation critic so why not use this opportunity to get started?

PROJECT III: Vote for Peace, Vote for Liberty, Vote for Ron Paul 2012!

Yo, my new website will be a website devoted to the actions of the Austin Ron Paul Activists. We are the ones who were out on the street protesting before Occupy made it cool.

We understand that it's the free market that births prosperity and freedom, and that it is corporatism, not capitalism, that is what makes the 99% poor and the 1% rich (although it's really more like the elite .00001%).

We also understand that the Federal Reserve (which is not Federal and has no reserves) is the heart of the demon that oppresses the people, and as a central bank, is what Thomas Jefferson warned us about when he said, and I paraphrase, "...that if the people ever give the power to issue its currency to a central bank their children will make up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered...," and that is exactly what is happening. Ben Frank also notes that the reason for the Revolution was not just taxes but the central bank of England was forcing the Colonists to use its money.

Anyways Ron Paul 2012 is the answer to 1984, and if not that then the answer is 1776.

Check out our current website AustinRonPaul.com and join the fight for Liberty!

Project 3

The site that I want to create would be about musicians that have impacted Rock and Roll. I'm going to use the concept of "the shoulders of giants" to convey a commonality with the influence of musicians on one another. There of course will be a section for the most influential musicians that died at an early age and use the idea of "the mighty have fallen" or something close. I will also have a links page that will access the musician's music and info through Youtube, Facebook and possibly Wikipedia.

Project 3 Website Idea: Jewelry Crafting

The hobby I would like to design my website around is jewelry crafting. I have been making jewelry since I was 15-years-old and thoroughly enjoy this hobby. I experience such as sense of freedom by being able to create my own pieces to wear to events instead of having to solely rely on stores for my jewelry needs. The picture I have shown is not my design, but I feel it illustrates the uniqueness of hand-made jewelry. A great website to purchase jewelry from is Etsy. I also like to look at the jewelry pieces on this site to get new ideas.

Project 3: Hank Cunningham's Band Website

For my third project, I'd like to make an artist website for one of my best friends, Hank Cunningham. Hank is a Texas country artist in San Marcos, but more importantly, Hank is one of the best people I know.

This weekend, I took over 60 pictures of Hank for the site (the above picture is definitely not one of them). I want to create pages for "Home," "Bio," "Upcoming Shows," "Music," "Photos" and "Contact."

I'll be choosing and combining my favorite aspects from country artist sites like Turnpike Troubadours, Josh Abbott, Cory Morrow, Randy Rogers and more.

Hopefully, Hank will like the site and want to use it when he releases his first LP later this year.

Project #3

For this project I will do my project on Standard Poodles. I own a two-year-old female Standard Poodle named Benson or "Bumblebee." A little known fact about Standards is that they do not shed and are the second smartest breed of dog.

Project 3-- Hobby Page

For my page I plan on doing it over my main hobby, music. I've played the drums for awhile and a few buddies and I are close to getting things going to where we can finally play full shows with original music. I've had experience playing live shows with other bands and there is no better feeling than performing in front of a crowd. Also, I will include some influences like Sublime and Motley Crue

Project 3

I've decided to focus my next project on one of my favorite shows Modern Family. This show has won so many Emmys for a reason-it's hysterical. The characters and family situations are very relatable as well. I plan on posting information about the show as well as personal stories from my own crazy family and how they relate to the show. I love Modern Family

Project 3: DIY website

I love do-it-yourself projects and I spend a lot of my time working on crafts. As a result, I plan to make a website about my DIY projects for the next project in class. On the website I plan to include photos (like the one above) of things that I have made, website recommendations and descriptions of my current projects that might include instructions

Project 3: Better than the rest!

For project 3 I would love to build my website around my love of concerts. This website would be dedicated to shows I attend, artists I love and creating personal branding. Some of the bands/artists that will most likely be featured on the website are Jason Mraz, John Mayer and Turnpike Troubadours to name a few!

Project 3

I've been told my baked good are awesome and I should consider opening a bakery. With that said, I'm going to do my next website on things I bake and new recipes I try out. I'd like to include stories of recipes I've ruined and writing about how I've progressed with some recipes. I plan to post pictures and recipes of things I've actually made and have people contact me for advice. Who knows it may land me a job!

Amanda

Project 3

For Project 3, I would like to do a page over the show LOST. The show uses many different resources that apply to each episode. Of the specific topics within the show I plan to cover, I have decided on the philosophy/literature/religion aspect they draw themes and characters from. It's a huge part of why I was so attracted to the show in the first place.

Project 3 Topic

My topic for project 3 will be the Delta Zeta Sorority. I have been in Delta Zeta since my freshman year of college and plan to be an active member until I graduate this spring. I will create pages for our philanthropy, history and upcoming events. For the philanthropy page I will include information about our service to the speech and hearing impaired and the Painted Turtle Camp, for terminally children. I will include pictures from the camp and the speech and hearing institutions that we support. In the history section I will provide facts about our founders and when and how Delta Zeta was established. I will also include images of our founders. For the last page I will discuss upcoming events that raise money for our philanthropy, along with pictures from previous events. For more information about Delta Zeta visit http://www.deltazeta.org/.

Oops

So I totally forgot to upload a post about the second half of the video... I'll post a picture now and then I'll update this later.

The Internet Video: Taking the Internet for Granted

Like many others in our class the technological lingo in the video confused me. What caught my attention was when the video addressed the old version of the Internet and how it functioned. It made me think about how I used to use the Internet in middle school. I forgot how slow the Internet used to be until I watched the video. I remember having to use dial-up connection and waiting forever for it to finally connect to the Internet. I visited AOL right away and mostly used the Internet for chatting on AIM. When I wanted to go to other sites it would take much longer to access the webpage than it would today. The video said that in 1992 only 50 webpages existed on the Internet. Today I visit many of the billions of webpages offered that didn't exist in 1992 or even nine years ago.


I feel like I take the Internet for granted sometimes because I don't really stop to think about how advanced the Internet has become. I no longer have to stare at the computer screen for 20 minutes, waiting on the page to load or have my mom yell at me to for blocking the phone line while using the Internet. Now I can simply click Internet Explorer, visit any site I want, have unlimited access to information and talk on the house phone all at the same time (if I still actually had a house phone). For the most part I quickly find all the answers to my questions and when I don't I get really frustrated. Now after thinking about it, I appreciate the modern Internet much more and next time I think about throwing my laptop across the room, I will stop and tell myself, "Anything is better than dial up."


Click the follwing links to help you remember dial up connection:


http://www.edmundyeo.com/2011/05/remember-dial-up-internet.html

http://www.tech-faq.com/dial-up-connection.html

The Beginning of the Internet

After watching both parts of the film on how the inter webs came to be, I realized that we really take for granted the easy access of various communication mediums we have. I'm not going to lie, the first half of the video was a little hard to follow, but the process was still pretty interesting. I guess I never really stopped to realize how much trial and error had to go into the whole process. I was a little surprised that the people running the communications companies at the time weren't more supportive of the idea that the universities had come up with, but I'm sure they were simply afraid of change within their world of existing telecommunications.

The second half of the video was all stuff that I was pretty familiar with such as the commercialization, e-mail, etc. I wonder how many of the early pioneers actually still profit off of their contributions to the world wide web.

Mainly, I am just thankful that it is becoming more readily available to use and hope that I can keep up with its constant evolution.

Hope you all have a great labor day weekend, but in the meantime here are some interesting facts about the internet.

The Internet from Start to Censorship

The most interesting thing that I found was how the internet grew so fast, and that growth was partly to do with the freedom and decentralized foundation that it is based off of. There has been little to no government regulation, almost no taxes, or licenses, not central hub that controls every aspect of the web. Just like an unfettered free market system in society, an unfettered and unregulated internet system is the most friendly environment for innovation and prosperity. This freedom has allowed for people from all over the world, from all walks of life, rich and poor, PhD's and Dropouts and everyone in between, to contribute to the evolution of the internet. In just the past 10 years we have gone from downloading a song on the internet in an hour to downloading a song in five seconds, literally. Since the internet was created about 50 years ago, it has improved in leaps and bounds, as with computers, more so than any other industry.

Of course this has also allowed for free speech to finally be able to breath again since the newspapers and television shows were taken over by the corporate media and government controls. The internet has leaked information from corrupt governments, has allowed for protestors to take down oppressive governments and made it possible for people to spread the truth around the world in a second and gain their freedom from tyranny. Maybe why this is why the governments of the world are trying to censor and regulate the internet with kill switches and licenses(yes it's a Fox News link, but just deal with!) . Apparently internet censorship can make you a zombie.