This is a two camera high def (HDV) shoot of the impressive "Crude Awakening" burn at Burning Man 07.

As described in a recent Wired blog:
blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/08/crude-awakening.html

"It's the brainchild of Bay Area artists Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito. Its collaborative execution brings together eight different artists who have previously received art grants from Burning Man, and involved the help of 180 different people.

The centerpiece is a 99-foot-tall wooden oil derrick that was receiving final touch-ups Wednesday afternoon, including the completion of the steps inside that allow attendees to climb to the top.

To the left of the derrick stand eight metal sculptured human figures, most of whose surfaces are made of connected metal rings, each designed with their own different participant-activated fire effects via propane tubing. The statues are 540 percent of the size of a normal human. Some are standing, hands waved in supplication; many prostrate in various ways. All of them, Das Mann says, emulate the prayer posture of some religious tradition.

The piece is meant to dramatize the worshipful relationship and dependence modern man has toward oil.

At its climax, after an amazing fireworks display, four different containers at each corner of the tower will shoot a total of 900 gallons of jet fuel (given away by NASA as unusable for its purposes, Das Mann says) to engulf the top of the structure in a huge mushroom-shaped fireball.

Seconds later up the center of the derrick, 2,000 gallons of liquid propane in a pipeline stretching out to the derrick's right will shoot out at once through a remote-control 5-inch pneumatic ball valve. The piece's creators figure this should create a 1,000-foot-high column of flame.

The detonation of the piece created 2.4 gigawatts of energy, which Das Mann and Cusolito say is enough to "power the entire Bay Area for one minute."