Creator/Dir
This Spartan Life
Director Chris Burke graduated from NYU Film School and went on to work on-set with directors such Robert Altman and Lucio Fulci. Working as a composer, he has scored six independent feature films and had three CDs and several digital releases of original music. In the 1990s, Chris started Bong + Dern, Inc., creating interactive audio projects for Bjork, MTV and others. In late 2004 Chris created This Spartan Life. A talk show in “game space”, This Spartan Life uses Xbox Live and the videogame Halo as its backdrop and has been lauded for its brilliant combination of traditional filmmaking with the creative, interactive possibilities of videogame technology. Guests have included Malcolm McLaren, McKenzie Wark, game designer Katie Salen, the rock band OK Go, Kurt Andersen and many others. This Spartan Life has attracted the attention of countless mainstream media outlets, including Wired Magazine, who likened it to "a mash-up of The Charlie Rose Show and Doom," The BBC, Reuters, Stuff Magazine, and BusinessWeek, and won Best Machinima Series at the 2005 and 2008 Machinima Festivals. This Spartan Life has also created exclusive online content for Spike TV’s Videogame Awards, and as well as a spin-off series for Halo Waypoint on XBox Live.