Today, all was slow on the casting front (a project I'm currently working on as an associate producer/casting director for local and national TV commercials in association with a production company in L.A, and one here in NYC for the client Wal-Mart) so I decided to watch some videos on good 'ole Vimeo to get some inspiration for my own projects I'm currently in pre-production for. I feel like I have writers block...but I'm not writing them...I just needed some visual, artistic, "this is why I want to make films" kind of inspiration. And as usual, Vimeo was a great resource. Here's some of what I watched that I loved today.

Holocene by Bon Iver: Music Video

Great band, great song, beautiful music video. And a great example of a music video that tells a story without it going along exactly to what the lyrics in the song are about (not that you can understand anything lead singer Justin Vernon is saying anyways). I like music videos that think outside of the box like this.

Gulp: World's Largest Stop-Motion Animation short, filmed on a Nokia N8 cell phone

Can't believe this was all shot on a cell-phone!!!

Gulp: The Making Of

Self-explainatory I think, and so cool to see how they did it!! Amazing what talent, an idea, the guts to try to make it happen, and technology can do.

New Romance by Miles Fisher: Music Video

I'm a big fan of Miles Fisher, he is an unconventional artist that always has the most crazy but unique and ballsy music videos for his incredibly catchy songs. How is he not more famous??!!

Hermanos Inglesos feat. MeMe-Wanderland

I remember seeing this video for the first time at Vimeo's first ever Fest + Awards a couple summers ago and just totally loving it. The song is awesome, the animation is great, the story is fantastic and cute and pushes boundaries at the same time as you basically follow a little robin on his acid-like trip after eating a wild berry. It has always stuck in my mind since that first viewing, and I was happy to come across it again today. Still as good as I remembered it. Give it a watch.

Unlocking the Truth: Malcolm Brickhouse and Jarad Dawkins

This is a really great little documentary short about two kids from Brooklyn who are in a rock/metal band together, and I like this video because it showcases the band and their talents, as well as the kids and their personalities, which brings forth larger topics that can relate to a variety of people of all ages/ethnicities etc...so it's a likable film for almost anyone watching it. This was a great inspiration for a little project Graham, my boyfriend and co-collaborator/DP will soon be working on. Stay tuned for that..... :) (P.S: visit Graham's website here for more of his/our work: coolburns.com)

Storytelling the Stillmotion Way: Part 1

Storytelling the Stillmotion Way: Part 2

This is what I was really looking for all day, and where I'll end today's post. This series of videos, in two parts, is a fantastic how-to on pre-production for a film. I've done successful pre-production many times on several different projects of different types (media), lengths, budgets, cast and crew sizes etc...but after I watched this short series it really helped me see how to even better initially organize myself, my thoughts and ideas, and then my team so that we can be even more efficient and make sure that the time we're spending getting things done is on track with what we're looking to accomplish, and nothing is being wasted. This is what I wanted to watch, again, today, this time taking copious notes :) Have a watch for yourself, you filmmakers out there! It will make your workflow so much more streamlined and seem even, dare I say, easy. Or do-able at least. Which starting out on my first feature-length documentary, as I am in the process of doing now, doesn't immediately seem so "do-able". But it is. It will be.

With love and good luck, Noël Day Bishop 07.24.2013