— DAY 7 —

Badlands, south dakota

DAY 7, in which we discover our limits.

Our Lack of rest FINALLY outpaces our limits.

4AM, we race to our location— the sun rises, our hopes set.

THE REALIZATION SETS IN THAT WE MISSed A DAY; EVen worse, We're about to let our backers down. — IT'S HEARTBREAKING.

We spend a few moments in silence. Mike sits calmly on the curb by the car, while Craig slowly paces around mindlessly taking photos of the surrounding (and absolutely stunning) pastel-drenched sunrise landscape.

— the previous 24 hrs —

We woke up feeling an incredible high coming off of day 6.

We got to sleep at about 4:30am the night before, which was par for all five previous nights leading up to it, but waking up DAY 7, we gave ourselves a little break. We felt accomplished.

We woke up, left a note for our new friend who let us crash on their floor, and went for breakfast at a solid diner downtown which we saw the neon of the night before. 

We had 7 hours of driving ahead of us, so we reflected on what went really well the night before. Start to finish, we've been averaging 4 hours each installation, from concept to filming complete— our hangup was deciding on content & location.

Plus an hour for Craig to edit the video and share with backers, which he was determined to "share before we sleep" for it to count as the same day.

This was unfeasible by DAY 2, yet he pressed on.

If we could plan DAY 7 during the drive, get to Badlands at sundown, find our spot by 7pm, we could be done by midnight.

Easy.

after sucking on some omaha library wifi,
we hit the long, flat, BUGGY, road.

The Corn Palace was an interesting stop, though our weird imaginations were a little underwhelmed after it was told "It's a building made of corn!" which should be rightfully corrected to "it's building covered with corn!" 

That said, Corn Palace was amidst construction on their latest boopie–steeples which we opportunistically snuck inside of.

Nearing the Badlands as you drive west, the landscape changes in wild ways— then quite suddenly, you're on a different planet entirely.

We instantly got chills. 

There was a vast, unseen landscape of pointy silhouettes all around us. Were we sleep deprived & hallucinating?

We pulled into a large parking lot where a few dozen of these creepy dark figures turned out to be photographers learning about long-exposure.

We killed our headlights, got out to look around, and recorded this audio log, PART 1 for the story of our eventful night.

There are some audio blips and eerie interferences in the recording, which could be aliens, or our cellphones.

we were going to camp, but decided a motel would do us good. So we made some coffee, and got to work.

...at least for a little while.

There's no better way to share this moment, than to just share this moment. 

here's audio log PART 2 where we ideate for 22 minutes.

It starts as a storyboard session for DAY 7, but a mere two minutes in, we pump the brakes and take a huge step back to reassess our entire project. 

We reflect on why we moved, pouring out thoughts, feelings, fears— to manifest as themes we're passionate enough to want to touch on at some point during this project.

By the end, we even lay down an ambitious narrative goal to have multiple overlapping 'trilogies' weaving throughout Projecting West...

we turn off the recording, chat private, then record more.

We're really excited about our concept, but ambition blinds us of time— it's 12am.

We work until 1:00am, then agree we need to take a nap for 30 minutes.

CRAIG + MIKE BOTH SLEEP.

Craig wakes up, unsatisfied
with the amount of "rest" he got.

 Mike is unable to wake, so Craig lets him sleep.

Craig works on some visuals, that
turn out to be kinda useless.

At 2:30AM, Craig hears a bird, sending
a stress chill down his spine.

Mike is shaken awake by Craig.

Mike jumps alert to life, gets to work.

5 minutes later, Mike is a head-bobbing vegetable.

3am — when those Birds start chirping

Craig suddenly realizes it's 3:30am,
and whatever we have to show— 
it's time to go.
Right now.

Hey backers, 

So, for a multitude of reasons, I'm sad to inform that we don't have a video to share with you today. A crazy combination of overly ambitious driving lengths, and an unsafe lack of sleep has hit us hard and we're taking an extra day in The Badlands.

The good news is, we're taking an extra day in the Badlands, and have a specific plan set to catch up with two videos tomorrow. 

Plus, we're honestly really blown away by the Badlands and wanted to do it justice. 

For now, I'll be breaking the daily posting for sake of a solid recharge, and looking forward to the shorter drive days moving forward through Montana.

Thanks for understanding,

— Craig & Mike

We actually do have a video for today... but we're very unhappy with it.
Maybe it'll surface when this is all over

Our day ended, or rather— day 8 began, with an idiotic scramble to save our asses with a "daytime projection"... 

we officially hit an all-time low.

We knew we could get out of it, but we just needed sleep first.

🌲