A New Year A New Plan

In many respects, 2020 has been a lost year for a lot of people with the world changing dramatically. For us, it has opened up doors to a whole host of new potential avenues and given us a chance to reevaluate what we have been doing and look at how we can fit ourselves into the market long-term. To do this we have broken our work into key areas that will be public and those which will be kept private to the inhouse team.

In the public sense, we have two key areas we will be focusing on in the first quarter of the year:

Editorial and print: we have been putting this on the backburner in some respect taking time to look at locations, edit work already shot, slowly build up a series of images and work that will be released over the early part of 2021 with additional planned small shoots that will be a combination of artistic and commercial. *This will include product placement in behind the scenes imaging and video with brands such as Lord and Berry, Mykitco, and Brushwork Cosmetics to start. We are open to new potential brand partners for projects contact the team to discuss.

Film and TV: something that we have been doing since the start of Lost Creatives is supporting a range of festivals including Micromania and The Nepal Cultural and Film Centers' own festival. We do have plans to partner with a European festival and will reveal details on that soon.

Our initial goal is to work on 3 projects that will be shorts, designed specifically to go to festivals and as an opening gambit for our planned digital TV shoots in the horror/thriller market (for Which we have already spoken to several distributors and have options in place including the HOD TV route which is our number 1 choice).

In the coming months, our projects will be smaller in nature to help push forward and test the waters of the market and expand out. Our ties to South Asia (Including Nepal Film Production and our key actor contacts in India), will play a heavy part in our work as we are questioning how we will be able to work in Scotland and the UK in general.

Each of the current websites: JamesC mua. Lost Project and of course Lost Creatives will be receiving overhauls and updated images across the galleries, and the welcome pages, additional sites are being planned for our film/TV work to keep the Creatives solely about marketing and the background elements we have built.

Further updates will be released over the course of the month. We are really excited about our plans for 2021 and look forward to pushing the boundaries of our work.

Festive Thoughts From The Lost Creatives

Featured brand Lord and Berry (UK)

A slight departure from our normal scheduling but we wanted to get this post out before Christmas day and say a big thank you to all our supporters, the brands, and of course our readers as we share our final thoughts for 2020. From here we will be focusing heavily on the future and what will be happening for the team in the new year. We have been busy over the last few weeks setting in motion concepts, finalizing and in some cases reediting images for the various websites we run, there will also be a run of work that is designed specifically for editorial (we have some really fantastic magazines we have shot work for). We do want to look at the festival circuit, there will be an announcement of a new film festival media partnership in the new year, the goal of this will be to boost our video content and bring a little attention to talent. Naturally, these projects will be small crews/cast to keep the costs down and very much in the kitchen sink drama territory which will develop into other areas and our ultimate goal of tackling the horror/thriller market for TV, scripts are already earmarked for this.

One of our biggest supporters and our favorite writer, has offered us a development contract that will expand our portfolio to include video games for a variety of platforms which is an exciting prospect.

Our creative Director; JamesC, is working around different ideas and is editing, shooting, and managing our background work such as the brand placement and of course stock levels.

We will of course keep you all in the loop of changes and updates through the website and till then we want to, again, thank you for the support and wish you a Merry Christmas.

The collective Push of The Lost Team

In the last few months, we have been able to build some interesting relationships with brands and companies, taking steps toward our ultimate goals and aspirations slowly in light of the market changes that are underway to the film and TV market in particular which have opened our eyes to other potential avenues that The Lost can explore and has given us a collective push to work around boundaries. There are some interesting updates that even we are waiting for updates on as contracts (with non-disclosures) are being drawn up to affirm a new and exciting partnership.

Over time we intend to build a host of new creative images incorporating some of our favorite makeup and brushes that will be used on our creative director JamesC’s website as well as our own, with our magazine work coming to a close on the written side to focus on the massive backlog of shoots to be edited and curated across our multiple sites and blogs. Editing processes have been slowed down but are still happening and by mid-December, we will have new additions to the galleries and a new fashion/editorial specific gallery for the JamesC Website.

Nepal as many will be aware plays a large part in our work and we are very proud of that with the NCIFF (Nepal Culture and Film Festival) alongside our partners Nepal Film Production, it is interesting to see the work coming together so cleanly.

The Lost Creatives shoots are going well and while not yet public (magazine deadlines and release scheduling outwith our control) we will be working on the much more comprehensive Lost Boys/Girls concept which we are going to shoot exclusively in North Ayrshire and have already picked out some significant spots that fit our brief. As much an intellectual exercise as it is a photo project it will be the focus of our energies and a chance to clear some cobwebs.

2nd Nepal Cultural International Film Festival-2020

With the festival team working hard and the brand support being announced next week, The Nepal Culture and Film Centers International Film Festival is shaping up to be a huge online affair with over 40 films, 24 countries, and an array of speakers in place it is set to be a landmark in the cultural and cinematic calendar.

• The 1st of December will be the grand opening ceremony through virtual media which Ncfc team members, Chief guest, selected filmmakers, jury members, actors, film industrialists, and the VIP guest will be invited to attend the virtual festival.

• From the 3rd to 18th December selected films will be screened. Each day 5 films from different categories and countries will be screened virtually and will incorporate Q&A Session with the filmmakers after the screening of the film.

• The final award distribution ceremony will be held on 29th December.

Filmmakers can register their attendance for the festival free of charge, forms can also be filled out worldwide through the website of the organization: www.2ndnciff.ncfc.org.np.

Nepal Culture and Film Center Media Partnership

We are immensely proud of our connections to the South Asian market, having lived and worked in India our creative director JamesC has kept close ties to filmmakers and his friends there. In the last few years, there has been an increase in work with Nepal in particular the team at Nepal Film Production and now we are happy to announce our collaboration with the Nepal Culture and Film Center.

One of the most beautiful countries in the world, truly the jewel in the crown of South Asia, Nepal has become a go-to destination for tourism, film, and documentary makers for decades.

The Nepal Culture and Film Center is a major part of this and alongside companies like Nepal Film Production, they have become a destination that holds a mystique and beauty with leading professionals across genres traveling there to learn, film, and be a part of a vibrant film and TV scene.

Designed to facilitate talent development the Nepal Culture and Film Center hosts film festivals and seminars, supporting the creative talent of the country and keeping them in the public eye.

To be associated with such a prestigious group is an honor worthy of note and we will be working closely with them and of course, our longstanding friends at Nepal film production, the future of The Lost is looking bright and we cannot be happier.

To learn more about The Nepal Culture and Film Center see:

Nepal Culture and Film Center Website.

Nepal Culture and Film Center Facebook.

Nepal Culture and Film Center Youtube.

As Summer Ends We Are Starting New Public Projects

As we close out the summer and move into autumn, the change in weather is also a good time for the team to really push through with some new editorials and change up the digital portfolios, look at online training, and add to our marketing strategies with carefully chosen platforms and later this month release the new websites we have been planning in the background.

We are truly honored to have been working with Lord and Berry, who have agreed to support our upcoming work and we will be sharing images and other stories with the team soon. What really pushed this for us was the fact they are a sustainable brand and cruelty-free which for us was an important aspect especially in the current climate, the wood pencils (an absolute must in our view both eye and lip) are worth checking out if you are in the market for high quality, fashion-led cosmetics, **we really do recommend you look at the pressed powders in transparent, peach and banana.

Add in some of the amazing brushes from Mykitco our creative director JamesC, has recently purchased with a view to restyling his working kit to suit the upcoming very public projects we have planned we wanted to share two of the brushes we think people need to consider as an “artist must-have” in your kit:

My Ultra Multi

My Cream Shadow

Something we will be adding very soon for both hygiene reasons and the practicality of it is the My Clear Palette, which is designed to allow you to custom blend color, foundation check, and is a convenient size to add to a working kit (with a spatula for decanting).

We have been watching the magazine world really closely and thankfully the ones we are looking to shoot content for have open submissions at the moment and we will be able to gain some covers and tears in a relatively short amount of time that we will be using for marketing, supported by our media partner Nepal Film Production, who have come up with a fantastic offer for filmmakers that have projects that are ready to be sold (contact us for further details).

The last few months have felt really strange as we have been unable to release some of the work due to client terms and contracts, so now that we have more support and a little flexibility to what we do and how we release it, we are going to spend time focusing heavily on what will be the beginning of a much more focused and driven period in terms of video and still output.

***We are looking at online courses for production and expanding on the creative direction side for our team to ensure that they are up to date on technique, we have already started this with added health and safety training.

For The Lost Creatives, the days have been busy and we are excited about what the future holds as a team we have and will continue to work with a commercial eye to the creative world.

Sideshow IPA Palettes by The AFX Company

The Allied FX company is widely known for their professional-grade IPA (Isopropyl alcohol activated) palettes under the name Bluebird FX and their latest addition to the family: Sideshow, an affordable, quirky, high-grade palette that since its launch in February has in short order become a go-to for makeup artists across the spectrum of the creative fields.

“With a clever mix of old favorites and brand new colors, the sideshow palettes are stealing the show for their cost-effective quirkiness. “

Currently, a range consisting of 7 palettes (with other elements being added soon) each with its own unique color set and vintage style cover image, the palettes are designed carefully to suit a particular requirement and has the savvy of a team who are working artists themselves looking to make not just their jobs a little simpler but also a little more fun, beyond the quirks you can see what is a genius move for the Allied FX Company, opening the door to a whole host of new clients from students to professionals the Festival range is perfect for those working in the low to mid-range budgets of film and TV (with the increasing use of internet services such as HOD TV, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Streamlette, this will be a welcome addition to a makeup kit) and carries over the larger, high scale budget productions, a professional palette that transcends its price range of $59.10 in Australia (in the UK £36) and puts a whole new slant on character work and development.

• Body art: designed for body art and tattoo creation.

• Bruiser: a unique and carefully structured palette suited to its name, bruising.

• Dark Ride: a series of day glow shades that come to life under blue light.

• Dead-Alive: Perfect for zombies and illness, the death pallor look of haunted houses and Halloween.

• Gore: for the creation of scratches, cuts, and wound filling a box of tricks that is worthy of note.

• Gothic: aethereal and suited to those deeper, more cool tones looks (think vampire).

• Rouge: designed for breaking down and creating crusty characters and drunks.

For us at the lost creatives, yes we can see a use for the whole set but standing tall in this are 2 in particular that we are adding to our working kit via creative director and head of makeup JamesC, to match the work and styles of shoots we have planned for TV and print: Bruiser and Gore, which will be perfect additions to our work and will see multiple uses with the possibilities of this range being endless and others coming into play with projects in development (early stages of scripting).

In what is a market-led move, the Allied FX Lab are tackling and offering up quality products at a lower price point without compromise, the AFX company are amongst an elite of the profession and are pushing the boundaries of the makeup world giving us what we need to create the most realistic (and surreal when required) and putting the prosumer at the heart of their thinking.

The Festival range fits perfectly with a wide array of requirements and situations including:

• Students.

• Film and TV production professionals.

• Haunted House.

• Halloween artists.

• Cosplay.

To learn more about the range or to purchase see:

The Allied FX company website.

The Allied FX company Instagram.

The Allied FX company Facebook.

Upcoming Changes to The Lost Plan

With the new rules and mandates in place for England coming soon and those in Scotland already started, we are disappointed that it has meant we are going to have to make massive changes to the way we work now and how we will continue forward. In the coming weeks, we will be updating the websites and blogs to reflect changes to the business and our goals.

The Lost Stories will continue as it stands with the support of our various PR contacts and the JamesC website along with the Lost Creatives will be looking at how we can work within the rules and regulations outlined and taking the time over the next 14 days to talk with our remote teams in Nepal and India to discuss options. Our ultimate goals will not change and we will continue to work diligently and professionally in the capacity of media with new websites and extension to our business being set up including the registration of our production company that will be solely aimed at the Horror and Thriller market along with the fantastic team at HOD TV.

By 2021 we will be a completely different company within the media realms and pushing toward what is an old school method of working which we will reveal soon. While we put these changes in place we do have projects that we will be working on alongside our normal business and look forward to what the future has to offer.

It is time to start with a new way of looking at the business we are in and thinking differently to move into the future. Additional training is being looked at alongside the certification our creative director has taken for safe sets and makeup safety with Dermalogica., we are looking at production training short courses for the longterm benefit of the team.

Internet TV and The Future of The Lost Creatives

We have been making calls again today to discuss a range of different business matters with our partners at Nepal Film Production, one of the subjects that got covered extensively was the future plans of The Lost Team. Naturally, we have talked in detail about the editorials for marketing and the video plans but it was the option of Internet TV that really captured the focus of our energy and where we are looking at for the future of our company. There has been a lot of research done into this and we feel that for us, TV (series based concepts) is the best route for us to go and we have been looking at keeping it genre-based. Obviously, Horror and Thriller are the two primary categories we are really looking at as we feel this is without question where we can make the most impact hence our teaming with HOD TV as a partner.

The biggest advantage we see in focusing our talents, efforts, and energies in this area is really about more than just sales avenues but how people are now viewing content ranging from streaming to TV in your home or directly to a tablet/smartphone you use on the move. In our research (and more than a little experience of traveling for business), we found that train and bus journeys, in particular, could be tedious and worked out a time frame along with our writers, that would suit this: taking a 40 to 45-minute journey to work you can potentially view a full TV series over the course of a working week of 5 days, it’s possible to watch a 25-minute episode at each end of the journey to and from work will not only kill time but gives you the space to find a seat, get settled and have the program ready to roll.

For ourselves, this is a method we feel works best and there will be extended features and standalone projects over time but our primary concern is to be TV projects.

If your are interested in learning more about HOD TV as a consumer click here or if you have a film/TV project you would like to sell check the HOD TV link on our partner’s page.

The Micromania Catalogue is Live

While many have put their careers on temporary hold and are now focusing on marketing or planning for a new slate of projects, the team behind the Micromania Film Festival have taken steps to support indie film and have opened up their back catalog of work (all films under 5 minutes) through their Vimeo channel, giving talent a new home and a chance to be seen. Which is a huge plus and opens the door to new and exciting names in the industry. A technical route that is often overlooked there is something incredible about the short that film should be appreciated and valued, a story can be as simple as a single image and Micromania is a shining example of showcasing talent, giving a voice and a platform to films under 5 minutes and talent off the charts.

The doors are open for 2020 and submissions can be made through Filmfreeway allowing you to open new doors and get your films seen.

Building a story and creating a cohesive look in a small format can be a big challenge that does not get the same reverence in the global scheme so its important to support not just the films but the talent behind and The Lost Creatives are fully behind the Micromania Film Festival.

To learn more about the Micromania Film Festival or to submit your project see:

Micromania Film Festival Website.

Micromania Film Festival Film Freeway.

Micromania Film Festival Facebook.

Micromania Film Festival Twitter.

Micromania Film Festival Instagram.