Red vs. Blue

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Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles

Red vs. Blue official promotional image
Game(s) Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo 2
Halo 3 beta
Halo 3
Marathon Trilogy
Genre(s) Comic science fiction
Running time Five minutes per episode (average)
Created by Burnie Burns
Matt Hullum
Geoff Ramsey
Gustavo Sorola
Jason Saldaña
Directed by Burnie Burns
Voices Burnie Burns
Jordan Burns
Yomary Cruz
Joel Heyman
Rebecca Frasier
Dan Godwin
Matt Hullum
Geoff Ramsey
Ed Robertson
Jason Saldaña
Gustavo Sorola
Nathan Zellner
Kathleen Zuelch
Release(s) April 1, 2003 – March 9, 2009
Format(s) DivX, WMV, QuickTime, DVD, Flash
Number of episodes The Blood Gulch Chronicles: 100
Out of Mind: 5
Recovery One: 4
Reconstruction: 19
Relocated: 4
Other special videos
Website
http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/

Red vs. Blue, often abbreviated as RvB, is a set of related machinima comic science fiction video series created by Rooster Teeth Productions and distributed primarily through the Internet and DVD. The story centers on two opposing teams of soldiers fighting a civil war in the middle of a desolate box canyon (Blood Gulch), in a parody of first-person shooter (FPS) games, military life, and science fiction films. Initially intended to be a short series of six to eight episodes, the project quickly and unexpectedly achieved significant popularity following its Internet premiere on April 1, 2003. Rooster Teeth therefore decided to continue the story. The fifth and final season of the original Red: vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles series ended with episode 100, released on June 28, 2007. Three mini-series—Out of Mind, Recovery One, and Relocated—and the full-length Reconstruction series have extended the plot.

Red vs. Blue emerged from Burnie Burns' voice-over-enhanced gameplay videos of Bungie Studios' FPS video game Halo: Combat Evolved. The series is primarily produced using the machinima technique of synchronizing video footage from a game to pre-recorded dialogue and other audio. Footage is mostly from the multiplayer modes of Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels, Halo 2 and Halo 3, on the Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles.

Both within the machinima community and among film critics, Red vs. Blue has been generally well-received. Praised for its originality, the series has won four awards at film festivals held by the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences. It has been credited with bringing new popularity to machinima, helping it to gain more mainstream exposure, and attracting more people to the art form. Graham Leggat, former director of communications for Lincoln Center's film society, described Red vs. Blue as "truly as sophisticated as Samuel Beckett".[1] While special videos continue to be released online, the completed series is also available on DVD, making the series one of the first commercially released and successful machinima products. Rooster Teeth has created videos, some under commission from Microsoft, for special events, and Red vs. Blue content is included with the Legendary Edition of Halo 3.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Setting and overview

Red vs. Blue centers on the Red and Blue Teams, two groups of soldiers engaged in a civil war. Originally, each team occupies a small base in a box canyon known as Blood Gulch. According to Simmons (Gustavo Sorola), one of the Red Team soldiers, each team's base exists only in response to the other team's base. Although both teams generally dislike each other and have standing orders to defeat their opponents and capture their flag, neither team is usually motivated to fight the other. Teammates have an array of eccentric personalities and often create more problems for each other than for their enemies.

The Red vs. Blue storyline spans six full-length seasons and three mini-series. Rooster Teeth periodically releases self-referential public service announcements (PSAs) and holiday-themed videos, which are generally unrelated to the main storyline. In these videos, however, the members of both teams claim to be from Red vs. Blue.

Although the visual background of Red vs. Blue is primarily taken from the Halo series, Rooster Teeth consciously limits connections to the Halo fictional universe. A special video made for E3 2003 portrays Master Chief, the protagonist of the Halo series, as a larger-than-life member of the army, and the Red vs. Blue trailer and first episode establish that the series is set between the events of the two games. Beyond these references, the storyline is independent, a decision that, according to Burns, is intended to increase accessibility to those unfamiliar with the games. For example, even though the season 4 and season 5 casts include characters from the alien Covenant Elite race, Rooster Teeth never portrays those characters in their original Halo context.[2]

A scene from Red vs. Blue. From left to right: Simmons, Grif, Sarge, Donut, Tex's future robot body, Sheila (the tank), Caboose, and Church.

[edit] Plot

Initially, the Red Team consists of Grif (Geoff Ramsey); Simmons; their leader, Sarge (Matt Hullum); and a robot, Lopez (Burnie Burns). The Blue Team consists of Tucker (Jason Saldaña) and the self-appointed leader, Church (Burnie Burns). Intra-team bickering is interrupted by the addition of new characters: Donut (Dan Godwin) to the Red Team, Caboose (Joel Heyman) and an artificially intelligent (AI) tank named Sheila (Yomary Cruz) to the Blue Team. Sent on a fool's errand, Donut manages to capture the Blue Team's flag; shortly after, Caboose and Sheila accidentally kill Church. In response, Blue Command sends a mercenary named Tex (Kathleen Zuelch), who recovers the flag, but is captured shortly after. Although an apparition of Church returns to warn his team that Tex, his former girlfriend, is partially controlled by a psychotic AI, he rescues her. He plans to remove her AI, but, before he can, Donut mortally wounds her. Just before she dies, she informs Church that the AI is gone; meanwhile, Caboose ominously insists that his real name is O'Malley.[3] DuFresne (Matt Hullum), a medic soon nicknamed "Doc", arrives three months later, intending to help both armies because of a lack of resources. However, both teams become annoyed and reject him. Tex returns as a ghost to confirm that her former AI, O'Malley (various),[4] now possesses Caboose. When she and Church enter Caboose's mind to evict O'Malley, the AI flees to control Doc. Later, the Blues capture Donut and force Sarge to build robot bodies for Church and Tex in exchange for his return. During a standoff, Tucker concludes that both teams are secretly controlled by the same Command; they have a common contact named Vic (Burnie Burns). O'Malley suddenly appears, kidnaps Lopez, and escapes through a teleporter. The Red and Blue Teams call a truce and join forces to pursue O'Malley.[3] However, the teleporter malfunctions,[5] and the teams become scattered among various locations outside Blood Gulch.[6]

The Red and Blue Teams regroup and confront O'Malley, but a bomb built into Church's robot body detonates and propels everyone, except Church, into the future; Church, however, is thrown into the past. In the future, the Reds and Blues battle O'Malley at his new fortress and meet a sentient, foul-mouthed time bomb named Andy (Nathan Zellner). In the past, Church waits one thousand years until Gary, a computer that he meets, can teleport him back to Blood Gulch. There, he attempts to rewrite history and prevent problems, but eventually realizes that his own actions cause these issues, and resigns to be blown into the future with everyone else. O'Malley soon lays siege to his captured fortress with an army of robots. Unknown to the Blues, the Reds leave mid-battle and arrive back at Blood Gulch. An unknown being destroys O'Malley's army and then confronts O'Malley himself.[7] As the Red Team re-explores Blood Gulch, the Blue Team learns that the creature, the Alien (Nathan Zellner), is on a sacred quest, which Tucker, Andy, and Caboose are forced to join. During the quest, Wyoming re-appears, however, kills the Alien, and flees.[8] With help from York (Sean Duggan) and his AI, Delta (Mark Bellman), Tex pursues Wyoming to discover O'Malley's current host, but Wyoming escapes through a teleporter built by Gary, his AI.[9] Meanwhile, Church returns to Blood Gulch and accidentally contacts Vic Jr. (Burnie Burns), a distant descendant of Vic who informs Church about past events. After the quest team returns to Blood Gulch, Tucker becomes ill; Church calls Doc, whom O'Malley still controls, for help. Doc diagnoses Tucker with male pregnancy; Andy explains that the Alien had impregnated Tucker,[8] who gives birth to an alien child, Junior (Jason Saldaña),[9] off-screen.[8] O'Malley leaves Doc after Sarge contacts Command for reinforcements, and a ship crashes into the gulch, on top of Donut,[8] who falls into an underground cave.[9]

Grif's sibling, Sister (Rebecca Frasier), emerges from the ship; however, she reveals to Grif and Simmons that she is assigned to the Blue Team. Grif eventually lets her join her intended group. The Reds discover Donut alive in the cavern, and find an underground computer spying on Blood Gulch. Meanwhile, the Blues move Sheila's AI to the crashed ship and deal with Junior. Tex returns, and Vic contacts the Blues, urging them to attack Red Base via the caves; instead, they split up. In the caves, Doc, Junior, and Sister find Lopez, who had returned to the gulch with O'Malley. Meanwhile, Church, Tucker and Tex attack the Red Base, but are ambushed by Wyoming and Gary; the latter now occupies the Blues' tank. Tucker thwarts Wyoming's attack and kills him. It is revealed that Junior is the supposed ruler of the aliens, and that the villains intend to exploit the alien race through him. Realizing an opportunity to win the war by enslaving the aliens, Tex coaxes O'Malley into infecting her, and tries to flee on the ship with Wyoming's helmet and Junior. However, the Reds have placed Andy on board, and an explosion is seen. The survivors return to their bases and repeat dialogue from the first episodes, thus concluding The Blood Gulch Chronicles.[9][10]

After Agent Washington (Shannon McCormick), also known as "Recovery One", retrieves Delta,[11] he encounters twin freelancers, South Dakota and North Dakota. He is ordered to find North Dakota's AI (Theta) and to kill South Dakota. Instead, he spares South to enlist her help in defeating an unknown enemy targeting the remaining freelancers. Delta is implanted in South, who betrays Agent Washington and convinces her attacker to steal his enhancements. Washington's commander instructs South to return to base, but she refuses and leaves. Washington survives and finds Caboose and Church, while a mysterious entity, the Meta, manipulates communications to order the Reds to attack them. Washington, Caboose, and Church find the Meta attacking Agent South. The Meta escapes the battle, and Washington kills South. The group confronts the Meta again at a windmill facility, but are interrupted by the Reds. During the ensuing discussion between the teams, the Meta recovers, attacks, and escapes again. To help Caboose, rendered unconscious off-screen, Church enters his mind and finds a message left by Delta. Interpreting the message, Washington decides that they must visit Command. They are allowed entry, but the Meta sneaks inside with them. Inside, Washington and Church find Washington's former AI partner, Epsilon. Revealing the true nature of Project Freelancer and the AIs, Washington deems Church to be the remnants of the Alpha AI. Abruptly, the base alarm triggers, and Recovery agents attack the team. Washington orders the Reds and Caboose to escape with Epsilon while he and Church remain to detonate an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Initially defiant, Church ultimately stays as a ghost-like apparition, while the others take his body. The Meta pursues and shoots Washington, demanding to see Alpha as promised. Church occupies the Meta long enough for Washington to activate the EMP. Caboose successfully escapes with Epsilon, but Church's fate is left unstated. The Reds are awarded temporary use of an outpost for their role. Narrating the epilogue, the Director of Project Freelancer reveals himself as the real Leonard Church, stating that the Alpha (Private Church) is based on his mind and memories.

After the Reds settle into the new base, Sarge attempts to improve his new Warthog and eventually calls Lopez for help, while Caboose works on a secret project at his own base. Donut arrives at Red base, collapsing from thirst before telling Grif that "he needs help... it's under the sand... find him!"

[edit] Characters

The Red Team, from left to right: Sarge, the Warthog (jeep), Grif (Warthog driver's seat), Simmons (Warthog gunner), and Donut.

Red vs. Blue features characters whose personalities are skewed in different ways and to varying degrees. Character interaction and dialogue, rather than action, drive the story.[12] The series has centered on eight main characters, four per team. Other characters, both team-affiliated and unaffiliated, human and non-human, have played significant roles throughout the story.

[edit] Main characters

Sarge is the staff sergeant[13] and leader of the Blood Gulch Red Team. A military man with a Southern United States accent, he is the only Blood Gulch soldier on either team consistently serious about the Red versus Blue civil war. His sociopathic battle plans often entail unnecessary casualties of his own men, especially Grif. Dexter Grif is habitually lazy and irresponsible. These characteristics earn him the disrespect and ridicule of both Sarge and Dick Simmons, Sarge's sycophantic, insecure, right-hand man. Despite this, Simmons, and Grif are often seen together, either chatting or bickering. Franklin Delano Donut is the eager rookie who joins the team in episode 3. He tends to annoy his teammates with his naïveté, garrulousness, and cheerfulness and becomes more effeminate and childish as the series progresses.

The Blue Team, from left to right: Tucker, Sheila (the tank), Caboose (in Sheila's cockpit), Church, and Tex.

Leonard L. Church is the cynical de facto leader of the Blue Team, and is found to be what is left of the Alpha AI. Often shouldering the responsibility of actually solving the various crises that the Blood Gulch teams encounter, he often ends up taking their brunt, leaving him increasingly disillusioned and antisocial. His serious, reasoned approach conflicts with the personalities of Lavernius Tucker and Michael J. Caboose. The first is snide, averse to work and battle, and obsessed with women; the second, although physically strong, exhibits ever-increasing degrees of stupidity and childishness throughout the series, to a point of a virtual divorce from reality. Tex (Alison), Church's former girlfriend, is hired by Blue Command to join the team as a mercenary in episode 10. Able to eliminate entire teams of soldiers by herself, she is described as "the most lethal soldier in Blood Gulch".[14]

[edit] Significant supporting characters

  • Lopez: A robot built by Sarge that, due to a damaged speech unit, can only speak Spanish. After the explosion that propels the cast into the future, only his head remains, until he is given a new body in Reconstruction.
  • Sheila: The Artificial Intelligence inside the Blue Team's tank for most of the series, until she is transferred into a ship, which crash lands at the start of Reconstruction.
  • Doc: A medic who exhibits extreme pacifism.
  • O'Malley: Also known as Omega, he is an evil, megalomaniacal AI fragment originally implanted in Tex during a military experiment as part of Project Freelancer.
  • Andy: A foul-mouthed bomb originally built by Tex to destroy O'Malley. He is capable of translating the Alien's language and Spanish.
  • Alien: A creature who leads Tucker and Caboose on a "sacred quest".
  • Gary: A computer terminal who explains The Great Prophecy and tells Church about the Great Destroyer. He is later revealed to be Wyoming's partner AI, Gamma.
  • Wyoming: A Freelancer hired by O'Malley to kill Tucker. Wyoming was part of Project Freelancer alongside Tex and was given his own AI fragment. This AI fragment is designated Gamma, but is known as Gary throughout much of the series.
  • Vic: A sardonic, unhelpful communications officer for both Red and Blue armies in Blood Gulch.
  • Junior: Tucker's alien baby, conceived parasitically by the Alien and Tucker.
  • Captain Flowers: The Blue team's former leader, later resurrected from the dead, and killed again shortly after.
  • Sister: Grif's color-blind sister, who was sent to aid the Blues during the events of the Blood Gulch Chronicles, and remains in Blood Gulch during Reconstruction.
  • Washington: A former Freelancer who worked as a Recovery Agent for Project Freelancer. He is tasked with tracking down AIs and later the Meta as well.
  • South: A Freelancer who teamed-up with and later betrayed Washington in Recovery One. She is later killed by him in Reconstruction.
  • The Meta: The former Freelancer Agent Maine, who hunts down other Freelancers and their AI fragments. He is nearly mute except for growls and the voices of the AI fragments he has captured.
  • The Director: The director of Project Freelancer, the organization responsible for the Red vs. Blue combat simulations and the implantation of AI fragments into Freelancer agents.

[edit] Development history

Red vs. Blue series
Series or season Start date End date Episode numbers
The Blood Gulch Chronicles season 1 02003-04-01 April 1, 2003 02003-09-28 September 28, 2003 1–19
The Blood Gulch Chronicles season 2 02004-01-03 January 3, 2004 02004-06-11 June 11, 2004 20–38
The Blood Gulch Chronicles season 3 02004-10-12 October 12, 2004 02005-05-18 May 18, 2005 39–57
The Blood Gulch Chronicles season 4 02005-08-29 August 29, 2005 02006-04-01 April 1, 2006 58–77
Out of Mind 02006-06-16 June 16, 2006 02006-09-04 September 4, 2006 1–5
The Blood Gulch Chronicles season 5 02006-10-02 October 2, 2006 02007-06-28 June 28, 2007 78–100
Recovery One 02007-10-28 October 28, 2007 02007-12-07 December 7, 2007 1–4
Reconstruction 02008-04-05 April 5, 2008 02008-10-30 October 30, 2008 1–19
Relocated 02009-02-09 February 9, 2009 02009-03-09 March 9, 2009 1–4

Red vs. Blue emerged from Burnie Burns's voiceover-enhanced gameplay videos that he created for a website called drunkgamers.com, which was run by Geoff Fink (later Geoff Ramsey) and Gustavo Sorola. Having played Halo: Combat Evolved extensively, the drunkgamers crew discussed one day whether the Warthog, an automobile in the game, looks like a puma. This discussion, re-created in episode 2, was "the spark for the whole series".[15] Seeing potential for a full story, Burns created a trailer for Red vs. Blue, but it was largely ignored, and, for unrelated reasons, drunkgamers soon closed. Four months later, Computer Gaming World contacted Ramsey for permission to include a different drunkgamers video in a CD to be distributed with the magazine. Ramsey granted permission, but he and Burns felt that they needed a website to take advantage of the exposure from Computer Gaming World. They therefore resurrected Red vs. Blue and re-released the trailer to coincide with the Computer Gaming World issue. The first episode proper was released on April 1, 2003.[16]

Rooster Teeth was initially unaware of the broader machinima movement. In 2004, Co-producer Matt Hullum stated in an interview with GameSpy, "When we first started Red vs. Blue we thought we were completely original. We never imagined that there were other people out there using video games to make movies, much less that it was a new art form with a hard to pronounce name and an official organization."[17]

The nature of Red vs. Blue was different from Burns's initial expectation. A partial character introduction released between the original trailer and the first episode featured extensive action and violence, set to Limp Bizkit's song "Break Stuff". However, as work continued, the focus shifted to situation comedy rather than the heavy action initially implied.[18] Although the series parodies video games, Ramsey noted, "We try not to make it too much of an inside joke. And I think we use more bureaucracy and military humor than anything else, which everybody working in an office can identify with."[19] Rooster Teeth has stated that Red vs. Blue was influenced by Homestar Runner,[20] Penny Arcade,[2] and possibly Mystery Science Theater 3000.[19]

Rooster Teeth initially envisioned Red vs. Blue to be short, but the series grew beyond their expectations. Burns and Ramsey had preconceived a list of jokes for which they allocated six to eight episodes. By episode 8, however, they realized that the series had fleshed out more than expected; they had covered only about one third of their original list.[21] Later in season 1, Burns estimated a series of 22 episodes; however, driven by the series' popularity, he realized that there was more potential story than could be covered in that length,[22] and was able to conceive an extension of the season 1 plot. The whole production team eventually quit their jobs and began to work full-time on the series; to generate revenue they created an online store to sell T-shirts.

On June 16, 2006, Burns announced a five-part mini-series, Red vs. Blue: Out of Mind, which chronicles the adventures of the mercenary Tex after her disappearance in season 4. The mini-series premiered exclusively on the Xbox Live Marketplace,[23] but Rooster Teeth later made it available on their official site.[24]

The original series, The Blood Gulch Chronicles, ended on June 28, 2007, with the release of episode 100. On April 4, 2008, Burns announced a new series, Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction,[25] the group's first Halo 3 series. Several voice actors returned in Reconstruction,[26] which ran from April 5 to October 30, 2008. Rooster Teeth announced plans for new Red vs. Blue series, each separated by a few weeks' break. The first mini-series, Relocated, ran from February 9 to March 9, 2009.

[edit] Production

A Red vs. Blue scene filmed using Halo 2.

The writing process for the series has changed over time. Early in season 1, Burns wrote the episode scripts from week to week, with minimal planning in advance;[2] major plot events were conceived shortly before they were filmed.[27] For the second season, Matt Hullum became a main writer.[28] A rough plot outline is now written before a season begins, although the actual content of an individual episode is still decided on a more short-term basis.[29] Because Red vs. Blue is loosely based on the Halo universe, Rooster Teeth encountered some difficulties when trying to synchronize events in the series with the release of Halo 2.[30]

Except for a few scenes created with the Marathon Trilogy and the PC version of Halo, Red vs. Blue is mostly filmed with interconnected Xbox consoles. As the series title suggests, the videos are largely set in the Halo map Blood Gulch and its Halo 2 counterpart, Coagulation. However, some episodes have been filmed on other maps, including Sidewinder and Hang 'Em High from Halo and Zanzibar and Waterworks from Halo 2. One special video used the public Beta of Halo 3 as a special introduction video. Within a multiplayer game session of any of the games used for filming, the people controlling the avatars "puppet" their characters, moving them around, firing weapons, and performing other actions as dictated by the script, and in synchronization with the episode's dialogue, which is recorded ahead of time.[31]

The "cameraman" is simply another player, whose first-person perspective is recorded raw to a computer. To work around in-game limitations, bugs and post-production techniques are exploited to achieve desired visual effects. In particular, Adobe Premiere Pro is used to edit the audio and video together, impose letterboxing to hide the camera player's head-up display, add the titles and fade-to-black screens, and create some visual effects that cannot be accomplished in-game.[32]

Trocadero provides the music for Red vs. Blue, which did not feature any originally. According to a journal entry on the official site, Nico Audy-Rowland, Trocadero's bandleader, was introduced to the series after its premiere and enjoyed it enough to submit a song about it. Burns liked the piece and requested more;[33] he stated in the season 1 DVD audio commentary tracks that the music added a "whole new element to the series".[34] To create other sound effects, Burns used Foley artistry, in some cases to replace cinematically awkward counterparts from the game engine.[35]

[edit] Reception

Red vs. Blue attracted interest immediately; the first episode had 20,000 downloads within a day.[36] Shortly after episode 2, Bungie Studios contacted Rooster Teeth. Although the crew had feared that any contact would be to force an end to the project, Bungie enjoyed the videos and was supportive;[37] one staff member called the production "kind of brilliant".[38] A deal was arranged to ensure that the series could continue to use Bungie's game properties legally,[1] without license fees[38] and without creative guidelines from Microsoft, Bungie's parent company, except for specifically commissioned videos.[39] Red vs. Blue continued to attract more attention, and, by April 2004, Kevin J. Delaney of The Wall Street Journal estimated that weekly viewership was between 650,000 and 1,000,000.[1] In a 2006 interview, Strange Company founder Hugh Hancock called the series probably "the most successful machinima productions [sic]" and estimated that it was generating almost US$200,000 annually.[40] Red vs. Blue content was also included with a premium "Legendary" edition of Halo 3.[41]

Red vs. Blue was widely acclaimed within the machinima industry. The first season won awards for Best Picture, Best Independent Machinima Film, and Best Writing at the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences' 2003 Machinima Film Festival.[42] Two years later, at the 2005 festival, the third season won an award for Best Independent Machinima and was nominated for five others.[43] At the 2006 Machinima Festival, the series was nominated for awards in voice acting and writing, but won neither.[44]

Among film critics, the response was generally positive. Darren Waters of BBC News Online called Red vs. Blue "riotously funny" and "reminiscent of the anarchic energy of South Park".[22] Reviewing the three season DVDs for Cinema Strikes Back, Charlie Prince wrote, "Red vs. Blue is hysterical in large part because all the characters are morons, and so the seemingly intense conflict with the opposing base doesn't exactly work the way you'd think it would."[45] Leggat described the series as "[p]art locker-room humor, part Beckett-like absurdist tragicomedy, part wicked vivisection of game culture and sci-fi action films and games".[46] Ed Halter of The Village Voice dismissed the humor as shallow and described the first season as "Clerks-meets-Star Wars".[47] Leggat defended the humor, arguing, "The literary analog is absurdist drama."[1]

Another common criticism of Red vs. Blue was that its season 3 plot was too far-fetched and out-of-character. Charlie Prince wrote, "By the third season, however, the Red vs. Blue idea seems to be running out of steam.... It's not funny so much as just odd."[45] Writing for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Wilma Jandoc agreed that the first part of "season 3... throws the teams into a ridiculous situation and has limited member interactions, leading to a lack of witty dialogue".[12] In an about.com review of the season 4 DVD, writer Eric Qualls thought that season 3 was "a little too long, and too complicated, and the jokes were a bit too far apart".[48] Nevertheless, both Prince and Jandoc were optimistic that the series would improve, and Qualls stated that the fourth season had "returned to the series' roots" as "some of the funniest stuff you’ll ever see".[48]

Rooster Teeth Productions has created special Red vs. Blue videos for various events. For example, Microsoft has commissioned Red vs. Blue videos for Xbox demo kiosks found in game stores and for a developer conference.[49] Barenaked Ladies has also commissioned videos for their concerts.[1] Other videos have been specifically created for gaming magazines, including Electronic Gaming Monthly and Computer Gaming World; gaming conventions, including E3 and the Penny Arcade Expo; and the Sundance Film Festival.

Red vs. Blue has also received praise from soldiers stationed in the Middle East. An August 2005 blog entry by Kimi Matsuzaki of 1UP.com displays photographs of soldiers holding various weapons, as well as copies of the first and second season Red vs. Blue DVDs.[50] Geoff Ramsey later stated in an interview, "We get a lot of merchandise and DVDs out to Iraq and get a lot of great e-mails back."[19]

The notability and impact of Red vs. Blue extends to video games outside the Halo series. The developers of the Xbox 360 video game Gears of War, Epic Games, made a reference to a Red vs. Blue gag through an in-game achievement called, "Is it a spider?"; the award is earned for tagging opponents with grenades. Another reference to the series appears on Bungie's website. On a player’s Halo 3 profile screen the description of a kill or death with a flag is “Right next to the headlight fluid”.[51]

[edit] Impact on machinima

Red vs. Blue is widely credited with attracting public attention to machinima. Although examples had existed since the 1990s, Clive Thompson credited Red vs. Blue as "the first to break out of the underground".[52] Tavares, Gil, and Roque called it machinima's "first big success",[53] and Paul Marino noted that "the series proved so popular that it not only transcended the typical gamer, it also claimed fans outside the gaming world".[54] In 2005, Thompson wrote that "Microsoft has been so strangely solicitous that when it was developing the sequel to Halo last year, the designers actually inserted a special command—a joystick button that makes a soldier lower his weapon—designed solely to make it easier for Rooster Teeth to do dialogue".[38] The series has inspired other machinima productions, including The Codex.[55]

In machinima, Red vs. Blue has been mentioned as the most successful example of the trend toward serial distribution. According to Hugh Hancock, this format allows for gradual improvement as a result of viewer feedback, and gives viewers a reason to return for future videos. Hancock argues that this model was necessary for Red vs. Blue's success: "Sunday night is Red vs. Blue night, just as (in the UK) Thursday used to be Buffy. Had RvB released their films as single downloads of an hour and a half, they'd have had nowhere near the success they currently enjoy."[56]

[edit] Distribution

Red vs. Blue video resolutions
Public Sponsor
Seasons 1–4
320×240
or
360×240
640×480
or
720×480
Out of Mind and after
320×180 640×360

Videos are typically available in QuickTime (QT) and Windows Media Video (WMV) formats. All released episodes of the latest season are freely available from the official site. A few episodes from the previous seasons are available from a rolling archive; each week, the videos are rotated to the next set. This setup is intended to help to control bandwidth costs;[57] as of September 2005, the official Rooster Teeth website was serving 400 terabytes of data monthly.[58] However, nearly all freely released episodes of Red vs. Blue are also available from websites such as Machinima.com, Archive.org, FilePlanet, and Google Video. From the Xbox Live Marketplace, Out of Mind is available as a free download, and some Red vs. Blue episodes can be purchased for 80 Microsoft Points each.[59]

Members of the official website can gain sponsor status for a fee of US$10 every six months. Sponsors can access videos a few days before the general public release, download higher-resolution versions of the episodes, and access special content released only to sponsors. For example, during season 5, Rooster Teeth began to release directors' commentary to sponsors for download. Additionally, while the public archive is limited to rotating sets of videos, sponsors can access content from previous seasons at any time.[60]

Episodes are released in different resolutions; higher resolutions are reserved for sponsors. Beginning with the Red vs. Blue: Out of Mind mini-series, Rooster Teeth began to film and edit video in 720p high-definition,[61] and to release episodes in widescreen format, instead of hiding the game HUD through the letterboxing seen in full-screen releases. On the January 8, 2007, release of episode 87, Matt Hullum announced that videos would be viewable in Macromedia Flash format. He stated that the change allowed Rooster Teeth to release public videos in a higher resolution "while keeping the file size low", and that the entire video archive would be updated. Code to embed the Flash video on other websites was also distributed.[62] In a site journal entry, Burns clarified that downloadable versions would continue to be released, but after their Flash counterparts.

Although it is distributed serially over the Internet, Red vs. Blue is also one of the first commercially released products made using machinima, as opposed to a product merely containing machinima. DVDs of the five completed seasons are sold through Rooster Teeth's official website, as well as at most EB Games, GameStop and Hot Topic stores in the United States.[63] On April 1, 2008, a box set of all 5 seasons was released at Rooster Teeth's online store. This includes all bonus content from each of the previous DVDs, as well as a new bonus content disk, which has special features such as sponsor only content, and Recovery One. The full package can be either bought for $69.99, or just the bonus disk for $20.00. Each season is released on DVD within two months of that season's final episode. For the DVDs, the episodes of the main storyline are edited together to play continuously as a full-length film. Because the episodes as individually released often contain dialogue that continues into or past the fade to black at the end of the video, Rooster Teeth either removes that dialogue entirely or films extra footage to replace the original fade to black.[64]

A third version of the season is further edited for time for showing at the Lincoln Center and at other film festivals. In a 2005 interview, Burns noted that the first season, normally 75 minutes in length, was cut to 55 minutes for these venues, with an entire episode omitted.[65] Burns also noted in a website news post that the 135-minute season 3 DVD version had to be shortened to "a watchable-in-a-theater runtime of 100 minutes".[66]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Delaney.
  2. ^ a b c Smith.
  3. ^ a b Burns, et al., 2003.
  4. ^ O'Malley is voiced by the actor responsible for whichever character he is possessing at the time.
  5. ^ Burms, et al. 2005, episode 51.
  6. ^ Burns, et al., 2004.
  7. ^ Burns, et al., 2005.
  8. ^ a b c d Burns, et al., 2006.
  9. ^ a b c d Burns, et al., 2007.
  10. ^ Six alternate endings were released on the season 5 DVD; two were available on the website since the release of episode 100
  11. ^ Red vs. Blue: Recovery One Part One commentary.
  12. ^ a b Jandoc.
  13. ^ Burns, et al. 2005, Character profiles, Sarge.
  14. ^ Burns, et al. 2005, Character profiles, Tex.
  15. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 2.
  16. ^ The History of Red vs. Blue; Konow, 2.
  17. ^ Kosak.
  18. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary, introduction.
  19. ^ a b c Konow, 4.
  20. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 16.
  21. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary episode 4.
  22. ^ a b Waters.
  23. ^ Burns, "Out of Sight".
  24. ^ Burns, "Out of Mind on RvB".
  25. ^ Burns, "RVB: Reconstruction".
  26. ^ http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/info/?id=2
  27. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 8.
  28. ^ Burns, et al. 2004, Audio Commentary.
  29. ^ Konow, 3.
  30. ^ Burns, et al., 2005, Audio Commentary, episode 39.
  31. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary; Delaney.
  32. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary; Moltenbrey.
  33. ^ Audy-Rowland.
  34. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 10.
  35. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 11.
  36. ^ Thompson, 1.
  37. ^ Konow, 2.
  38. ^ a b c Thompson 3.
  39. ^ Oliver.
  40. ^ MacGregor.
  41. ^ Halo 3 Details Explosion.
  42. ^ Machinima Awards 2003 Results.
  43. ^ 2005 Award Nominations & Selections; Mackie Winners Announced!.
  44. ^ 2006 Machinima Film Festival: WINNERS & Nominees.
  45. ^ a b Prince.
  46. ^ Leggat.
  47. ^ Halter.
  48. ^ a b Qualls.
  49. ^ Red vs. Blue : The Interview Strikes Back; Delaney.
  50. ^ Matsuzaki.
  51. ^ Hsu, 106.
  52. ^ Thompson, 2.
  53. ^ Tavares, Gil, & Roque, 4.
  54. ^ Marino, 19.
  55. ^ Whitley.
  56. ^ Hancock.
  57. ^ Video FAQ; Red vs Blue FAQ.
  58. ^ Totilo.
  59. ^ Surette, "Red vs. Blue yuks it up on XBL".
  60. ^ Sponsorship FAQ.
  61. ^ Sorola, Out of Mind.
  62. ^ Hullum 2007.
  63. ^ Where To Buy Rooster Teeth Products.
  64. ^ Burns, et al. 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 18.
  65. ^ Marks.
  66. ^ Burns, It's Official.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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