Updated Tuesday 4th August 1998
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Images Copyright 1998 Colin Andrews
BBC BUBBLE BATH
This pattern was probably created by "Team Satan," the infamous crew that made the NBC formation in New Zealand. (A few investigators believe that it is in fact genuine, and only claimed by the hoaxers.) In any case, the 150 footer is below Milk Hill at Stanton St. Bernard, Wiltshire, for all to inspect. Because it is "self-similar" on different scales, it is a fractal. The BBC "Country File" program will air in January.
© 1998 Peter R. Sørensen
BBC COMMISSIONED FORMATIONS FOR FORTHCOMING PROGRAMME. CREATED ON SUNDAY 26TH JULY 1998
Field Report
The BBC on the weekend of the 25/26th of July, entered the world of Crop Circling, probably not knowing really what to expect, and what reactions they would receive from the Crop Circle Community. As many of our Connector readers are now aware, a commissioned set of formations were created for their forthcoming Country file programme, due to be aired on British Television in January 1999.
The group of individuals who created these formations included the following:
Doug Bower
John Lundberg
Will Mann.
Rod Dickenson
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Some of our
readers will recognise these names, probably the most well known of the four would The programme is intended to be a light hearted look at the lives of the human CircleMakers, and their attempt at producing two different styles of formations overnight. Well, I use the word Overnight carefully, as the team only started to produce these designs at around 3 o'clock in the morning on Sunday 26th July. Their plans were delayed for a 12-1am start due to high speed car chases around the Avebury area from people like ourselves, who were at that time convinced that the BBC were involved in a debunking covert operation to ridicule the Crop Circle Researchers. Thankfully their intentions were slightly more honest as I found out on that hot afternoon on the Sunday 26th. |
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The Farmer of the field in question obviously received a sum of money ( we are unsure how much at this stage) to have two formations created in his field. As you can see from the pictures below, he was interviewed by the BBC Film Crew, and was obviously a willing participant for the programme. (person in the checked shirt is the Farmer). From overhearing some of the interview, it would seem that he believes it is a man-made phenomenon, and that their demonstration was successful in producing an impressive set of formations.
The afternoon gave myself an opportunity to speak with these individuals, and to ask them what techniques they used to create the larger of the two designs. The whole event probably came at the right time for the BBC, as the majority of the researchers were still at the Glastonbury Symposium which is a major three day Crop Circle Conference held in the isle of Avalon, which resulted in a quiet afternoon, with literally no confrontation from the researchers that were there. Indeed the whole afternoon was quite pleasant, and that is the way everyone wanted it, and the way it was meant to be. It gave people the chance to speak with John, and his team, and discuss their whole feeling on the phenomenon.
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As you can see from the photographs above, the BBC used huge a Mobile Boom Crane to film them creating these designs, using Infrared Cameras, although we have news that John's team had to help out with Doug's Circle because it was getting light. The photographs show the whole team waiting for the Film Crew to stop filming, so that we could enter the formations at "Judge for Ourselves" as the presenter shouted at the Camera! Everyone was very patient, which gave me a chance to speak with John Lundberg, and ask him what sort of angle the BBC were taking with this programme? He told me that it will be a light-hearted look at the phenomenon, focusing mainly on Doug Bower himself, but when I asked him about the possible ridicule of the Crop Circle Researchers, he stated "That it was not down to them to have the final say on the programme" That was fair enough, but it made me feel a little uneasy about the BBC intentions, but at the same time, not surprising one.
TEAM SATAN'S FORMATION
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The most impressive of the two designs created for the BBC was "Team Satan's" , when I arrived at the site on the Sunday afternoon, the UFO researcher, and Editor of the Truthseekers Magazine Matthew Williams, showed me some pictures of the formation itself and the single circle. "Team Satan's" formation was the circular design with the surrounding diminishing circles, while Doug Boer's was the single circle. From the Boom Crane it was highly impressive I thought (See Pictures at the top of the report) as well as Doug's attempt for the four directional circle created further down the field, HOWEVER it was a different story as we entered the formation!
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On entering the larger of the two designs, many of us immediately noticed that quite a number of the top layer of stems were scattered across the circles completely broken, with stems that were . Although the spirals of the individuals circles were quite impressive, the mechanical feel to the formation was very noticeable, and the YELL WEBSITE logo which they created as their centre design was certainly no coincidence. An underlying pathway was also noticeable on the second outer perimeter circles from their Yell Logo, which connected all of them together. This is what they needed to produce for their inner core design, so that the rest of the outer circles could be produced freehand, (in their own words).
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A rather nasty piece of detail was noticed within the "U" shapes for the inner Yell Logo, as they produced an eddy splayed spiral suspended on top of already flattened crop, this was extremely messy, and uncharacteristic of the genuine phenomenon, this type of detail would not be seen in a genuine formation. In fact many of the circles had an appearance that hundreds of people had already been into visit this formation, but we were apparently one of the first to see it? One particular plus point was the flow of the crop around the three sections of the central design, that I have seen before within the Avebury formations, but the overall floor construction was very poor I felt, and I am confident that this will be reiterated across the Crop Circle Community.
The Yell Website design company slogan is "Pinnacle of Achievement". sorry guys, I'm afraid this does not extend to your creation.
DOUG BOWER'S SINGLE CIRCLE
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Doug Bowers single circle was located some 50 yards further down the field, with three accompanying Grapeshot circles. The circle itself contained four directional flows, with a small central spiral. Each of the four directions of crop were separated by a avenue of crop that stretched from the middle to the circles outer edge (similar design to the Swastika at Winterbourne Stoke in 1989). Again, from the Boom Crane, and my Pole Images, one can see that the circle is very clean cut, but the floor construction was quite appalling! I would have to say, it was the worse of the two designs, as many bunches of crop were found either snapped half way down the stems, or found completely broken off. There was no flow to the lay, with again a noticeable top layer of stems scattered across the surface.
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Not much more can be reported, it was a good attempt, but they have not produced the floor construction that we have been frequently witnessing within the formations, but nevertheless a worthy attempt at making a large formation, and I do praise "Team Satan" for their initial design. Doug Bowers circle was very poor, and I'm afraid the "Core Community" involved in researching this phenomenon will not be impressed with their efforts overall. I do believe however, that this exercise was important in establishing the features we have to look out for within formations, if were to proceed with our research.
Report by Stuart Dike
All images Copyright Stuart Dike
Field Report
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© 1998 Matthew Williams
These two man-made formations were commissioned by the BBC for a 'light-hearted' TV documentary on crop circle hoaxing centred around the life story of Doug Bower. They were made with the permission of the farmer who was paid an unspecified sum of money for the loss of his crop. The formations are barely visible from the road, but can be reached by the farm track opposite the turning to Stanton St Bernard on the main road going west from Alton Barnes towards Devizes. Map reference is approximately SU095629.
The larger formation (top) was created by the
'CircleMakers' (John Lundberg, Rod Dickinson and Wil Russell). It is about 190' in
diameter and contains over 100 circles. The second formation was made by Doug Bower with
help from the CircleMakers and the BBC TV presenter, and is a single circle about 100' in
diameter with quartered floor lay similar to the 1989 Winterbourne Stoke circle (see
Circular Evidence).
The CircleMakers had made it known earlier in the season that they would be doing a
demonstration to be filmed by the BBC and rumours have abounded in the last few weeks that
this was imminent. On the night of Saturday 25th July the news circulated at the Barge
that the BBC were filming at West Overton. A mass exodus after closing time converged upon
the area to find much activity and bright lights on top of West Overton hill which turned
out to be the BBC crew recording an interview with Doug Bower. The BBC people admitted
that it was planned to make a formation that night for the cameras, but refused to divulge
where this would be. The Police also arrived to investigate and in the ensuing confusion
the circlemaking team was able to make their escape and evade attempts to follow them (for
full report on Saturday night's events, see Rob Speight's report).
In the end only Matthew and Neil of the Truthseekers were able to reach the 'secret
location' in time to watch the formations being made and take the photos above.
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© 1998 Matthew Williams
Due to the preceding car chase the team was not able to reach the site and start constructing the formations until about 3.00am. The CircleMakers' formation took them about 3 hours to make, after which they helped Doug make his circle. This meant that a large part of the construction took place in virtual daylight. However there was a heavy mist over the field which would probably have prevented anything from being seen from a distance. There were apparently some people skywatching on Milk Hill but it is not known whether they were aware of what was going on in the field. The construction of the formations was filmed from ground level by the BBC using infrared cameras, the BBC presenter also taking part in the construction of Doug's circle.
Driving around early on Sunday morning I noticed that cars were parked up the track at the side of the field and several aircraft were circling overhead. Later in the morning a 'cherry picker' crane arrived and reversed up the track. From Adam's Grave it was evident that there was some kind of marking in the field near where this activity was taking place. Returning later in the afternoon I found the crane erected to film the formations from above and the BBC crew recording footage for their programme and interviews with John, Rod, Wil and Doug. They also filmed some additional grapeshot circles being made.
An additional small circle was spotted from the crane on the other side of the field which had not been there the day before. Both the CircleMakers and Doug were adamant that they had not made it. However some people in a car had been spotted in that area early in the morning and it was thought that they may have had something to do with it....
Various other people arrived during the afternoon
including Peter Sorensen, ilyes, Andreas Muller, Michael Yudowitz, and Janet and
Bert, most of whom had just returned from the Glastonbury conference. The BBC crew were
most helpful in allowing us to watch the filming and take photos and video, and even
offered to take my camera up on the crane to to take some overhead photos. Late in the
afternoon after the filming had finished we were allowed into the field to inspect the two
formations.
Initial impressions were that, while looking good from the crane, when viewed from ground
level both formations had noticeably rough and irregular floor lay and gave the impression
of being hurriedly done with little care and attention being paid to achieving a neat and
tidy finish. When this was put to John and Rod their response was that they always use the
same construction technique, and any variation in the quality of the finished result is
probably down to the characteristics of the crop they are working with. Several
people remarked that the appearance close up was similar to the disappointing Silbury Hill
formation which appeared a few days before. The geometric layout of the larger formation
was well done, but it had blatant underlying pathways and the centres of many of the
circles, especially the small ones, were extremely messy. Both formations had many
standing stalks throughout, as a result of which Peter is now considering rethinking his
'magical standing stalks' theory!
All in all an enjoyable day's entertainment and a useful exercise which gives us a verified man-made formation which can be used as a benchmark against which others can be judged in the future. I will leave it to others to comment in more depth on the finer details, as I was more concerned with taking pole shots than making a really close examination, but I think they will have to do better than this to prove that they can make something on a par with, say, Windmill Hill '96. Sorry chaps!
On-the-spot report brought to you by AJ Samuels
Crop Formations and the
Secrets of Deception
This is an article by Chad Deetken about Team Satan's controversial formation they
made for TV in New Zealand.
