Red vs. Blue
Produced by Burnie Burns; directed by Burnie Burns and Matt Hullum
Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles is a machinima comic science fiction video series created by Rooster Teeth Productions and distributed primarily through the Internet and DVD. The series chronicles the story of 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 extend the series; the fifth and final season of the original series ended with episode 100, released on June 28, 2007. Two mini-series have since been spun off resulting in a new full length series.
Red vs. Blue attracted interest immediately; the first episode had 20,000 downloads within a day. By April 2004, Kevin J. Delaney of The Wall Street Journal estimated that weekly viewership was between 650,000 and 1,000,000. In a 2006 interview, Strange Company founder Hugh Hancock called the series probably "the most successful machinima production ever" and estimated that it was generating almost US$ 200,000 annually.
Following are sample episodes and an interview with the creators.
Red vs. Blue, Episode 1 (3 minutes)
Red vs. Blue Financial Crisis PSA: Rock Bottom (3 minutes)
Red vs. Blue on Unscrewed, Interview with Burnie Burns and Geoff Fink (6 minutes)
