ABC In An Instant - Buried By Bonfire

9,016 Views | 24 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by CharlieBrown17
DuncanAg
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AG
For those that might be home tonight watching ABC's 20/20 In An Instant, at the end you will see a preview for next weeks season finale - Buried By Bonfire.

You will hear a lot more about it this week, but next Saturday at 8pm CT they will air the Bonfire episode. I had the absolute privilege and honor to be apart of this program and actually shot an interview last July. None of us who have participated have seen our episode or even a preview, but based on all the research I did prior to and since leads me to believe they will do nothing but honor the people who were involved. This isn't about what caused the 1999 Bonfire to collapse, or who's to blame, rather how the collapse changed lives forever and captures the human story from victims, victims families, rescue workers, and former A&M administration.

More than anything my true hope is that this continues to keep the memory alive of the 12 we lost.

Gig'em and God Bless
davis02
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While there's no way we could've captured all we wanted to, I'm excited to see how it turns out!
p-wonk01
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AG
Still glad to know you BD
S.A. Aggie
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I saw the previews. I will be watching next week.
MooreTrucker
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AG
I will probably record it, but I doubt I will ever be able to actually watch it.....
Gigemchicken90
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AG
This is so hard to watch. HERE
fasthorse05
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I didn't expect to have these emotions. This is absolutely gut wrenching
Hehateme1
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.
AGS749901
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HERE
Pooh Ah
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AG
Difficult topic but I thought it was well done.

I am class of '93 so I know my bonfires but I was not on stack in '99.

It was good for me to hear those who were there or whose children were there tell their stories.
Hagen95
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AG
That was very difficult to watch.
Burdizzo
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AG
I didn't know this was going to be on. I came in about halfway. This was hard to watch, but glad I watched. It is hard to believe all those students involved are now in their late-30's. It still seems like just yesterday.
Fleen
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On Demand only has 59 min.? Didn't get the last 20+ Minutes...
commando2004
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AG
Current students



isitjustme
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Wife and I caught the last hour also. Echoing above sentiments - very tough to watch, huge emotions, and glad we watched. Also happy that the tradition has been kept alive by students even if it is off campus.
ChipFTAC01
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AG
I missed the first half hour or so, but one of the things that I found most interesting was what I guess was a CGI stack that showed people on it. It sure didn't look CGI, but surely it was, right?

I guess I'm glad they did that, but I didn't really enjoy watching it.
commando2004
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AG
Upon closer inspection of the video, I have come to two conclusions:

(1) The zoomed-out shots are (at least partially) CGI

I say this mainly because the logs look so uniformly smooth and straight, "too good" to be actual trees.

OTOH, this could be an artifact of the low quality of the YouTube video hiding imperfections.

(2) The close-up shots are of Student Bonfire's Stack.

I base this on the following pieces of evidence:


  • As seen above (by the Legett and Krueger people with class years 18 and 19 conspicuously written on their pots), they did film some Cut scenes at SB. Why would they not take advantage of a pre-existing "re-enactment" crew for Stack scenes too?
  • In contrast to the perfectly vertical logs of the "CGI" stack, these logs have a noticeable inward lean.
  • Although we see people slamming logs at ground level, and wiring logs on multiple tiers, there is no shot where we see someone stacking a log on top of other logs. This is consistent with SB's design, where all logs touch the ground (with the "wedding cake" shape obtained by using logs of decreasing length).
  • At 18:14 in the video, there is one log that's noticeably lighter-colored and less-angled-in than the others. This seems to be a Windle Stick.

I assume that Dion could confirm or deny. Where is he?
davis02
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I know I speak for a few of us who participated in these interviews -

We participated because we wanted to honor the lives and memories of the 12 fallen Aggies, and share our stories with the world, especially past, present, and future Aggies!

http://abc.go.com/shows/in-an-instant/episode-guide/season-02/6-072416-in-an-instant-buried-by-bonfire
TX AG 88
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I was hesitant to watch it, but did so because my wife was interested, and only knows of Bonfire from the occasional stories me and my buddies tell. (We married in 2004)

I was glad to see John Comstock and hear more about Miranda Adams. The stories of the rescuers were a new perspective I had never heard.

Seeing Tim's mom was very nice. I only ever knew her from "Tim's Parents" posts on this forum, back in the day.

I wish there had been more about the others who were killed. I'm sure it was family or lawsuit settlement driven, but it really would have been nice if it had been a true tribute to the 12. The descriptions/reenactments of cut and stack were a little disappointing (for example, the only time everyone sat around watching one person cut was on Dorm Log weekend... normally groups of 2 or 3 would all be killing trees at the same time), and although they never would have expressed it adequately, they could have spent a little more time on what a leadership and bonding experience it was. Bill choked up or just couldn't find the words, but they should have given others the chance. Bonfire was such an integral part of the Aggie experience (for those that participated). I'm not meaning to be too harsh or critical - hope it doesn't come off that way. It was a good show, and I'm thankful for it. My wife and I both shed tears over it. These were just a few things I wish had been done even better so Bonfire could maybe be understood a little better by those who never experienced it first-hand.
Sea Gull
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I agree with the others. I wish they would have spent more time honoring all of the fallen.

And I really didn't care to hear from that media relations lady, would've preferred to hear more from actual rescuers and the football team.

Overall, I thought it was well done.
JSKolache
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AG
Good show, lots of new perspective. I wish I could watch 10 more hours with 20 more individual stories. Never forget.
CharlieBrown17
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So I watched through bits and pieces of it just now.

As a whole the video just didn't quite hit me like some of the other coverage or documentaries have. It just seemed...fake.... I think it would've gone a long way to have some old ags( or current) record some of the audio. Everyone talking at "cut" or calling logs just isn't right.

Some of the cut footage is SB, but none of the stack looks like stack to me. Maybe I'm wrong but I spent quite a few nights at stack last fall and it just doesn't look like stack to me in the video.
91AggieLawyer
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I watched it. I was wondering -- of the 25-30 or so that were injured but not killed, only 3-4 (correct that if wrong) gave interviews as I remember. Did the rest decline to participate? Or were they not found or not invited?
DuncanAg
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quote:
I watched it. I was wondering -- of the 25-30 or so that were injured but not killed, only 3-4 (correct that if wrong) gave interviews as I remember. Did the rest decline to participate? Or were they not found or not invited?
AggieLawyer...3 of the injured were interviewed and shown. I am not 100% sure on who they did or didn't contact, but I do know they had to limit the people they interviewed due to story/time constraints. They wanted to focus on Bill and John because they are the only 2 survivors who were entrapped for an extended period of time, as well as Tim Kerlee, Jr, and the rescue workers (who helped tell the story from the perspective of what they witnessed).
DuncanAg
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quote:
So I watched through bits and pieces of it just now.

As a whole the video just didn't quite hit me like some of the other coverage or documentaries have. It just seemed...fake.... I think it would've gone a long way to have some old ags( or current) record some of the audio. Everyone talking at "cut" or calling logs just isn't right.

Some of the cut footage is SB, but none of the stack looks like stack to me. Maybe I'm wrong but I spent quite a few nights at stack last fall and it just doesn't look like stack to me in the video.
CharlieBrown...from someone who was there that night I can tell you that the collapsed bonfire scene looks extremely close to accurate.

As for the lead up to the collapse, they used footage of both the SB cut and a recreation of stack.
CharlieBrown17
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To be honest, I didn't make it that far.

I was talking about the scenes that were cut and stack reenactments.

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