Product Placement and Behind The Scenes

While we have been slow in going public with much of what we are doing, we are always working. Not just on the blog aspect but other elements and it has really started paying off for us in terms of a photo project and 2 short films with other aspects still in negotiation or set to be discussed soon.

In terms of the photo project, it has been split into different elements and lengthy calls and meetings have been held over the actual content in terms of how it will be shot, managed and promoted across the varying networks we have open to us and this took us down the path of product placement (which we are working through already and have a provisional interest for the editorial side from a designer in London).

Our creative director JamesC, has found a series of deals and offers with his preferred format of online magazines that will give us tear sheets and covers that will be promoted across the board, with a view to utilizing our resources in the designer realm and with our other contacts across South Asia at a later date, allow us to shoot editorials and submit with a higher percentage chance of publication with some careful structuring and planning at the creative director level.

Brushwork cosmetics code JamesC 10% discount

Something we are going to push is the “behind the scenes” element, capturing the team at work, focusing on the creative aspect because our talks are taking us down the line of makeup with options and avenues that we are keen to pursue heavily.

In the coming months, we will open this to allow for smaller packages and individual project support giving placement in the behind the scenes, in the projects themselves (for film and TV) and looking closely at building our own magazine.

The Lost Concept has been building slowly and we are really proud of what we have achieved and will be showcasing this in more detail soon with a series of new sites and public projects.

*featured image example of product placement is for Brushwork Cosmetics (promo code JamesC 10% off).

Phone Calls, Planning and Pushing Boundaries

In the last few months, we have been working on something a little different that will change how we approach business longterm. While the goals are still the same it is the actions that will be redefined with a new corporate name and the closure of our books, we will not be taking in new staff long term but focusing on short term contracts and freelancers to create opportunities that will be agency (management based) giving us a more structured sense of control on the artistic and fiscal aspects of the work we undertake.

The overall feel of the Lost Concept is what we are planning to focus on and our South Asian contacts including Nepal film Production and a select number of artists in the acting field to create a stable of talent that will be at the heart of the business. HOD TV will be a major part of our future plans along with actor and model Raj Srivastava who has been a big supporter of the work.

Structuring a full-scale marketing plan built around different media elements such as editorial, short film, and TV with some cover images being created just for this project to showcase what we are and what we do.

New sites and business development projects/strategies that we will be announced soon are going to be leading the charge on how The Lost Concept is showcased and offering a different slant on how the creative art world works. While there is more to be done, we are really happy with the progress we have made and the support we have received so far to the prospect of our goals and proposals.

It is worth note that much of the work (and support) has been dependent on scheduling phonecalls via Whatsapp and Facebook messenger due to time differences etc.

George Westmore Establishing an Industry the Legacy of Makeup Artistry

George Westmore an on Set Moment

In the early days of cinema, it was common for actors to do their own makeup and wigs, a craft that found its roots in theatre and vaudeville and carried over to the beginnings of the film industry and changed dramatically thanks to the savvy and artistic vision of George Westmore.

George Westmore, whose vision brought him from the Isle of Wight in the UK where he had established himself as a hairdresser and wigmaker, going onto become a leading light in the film industry working his way from Canada to the USA as a wigmaker with his family and taking risks along the way that led to a career and legacy that is still talked about today. 

With an inauspicious entry into cinema: offering his services for hair and makeup to the Selig Polyscope Company at a starting rate of $25 per week to later and by chance, it was Perc Westmore (son) offering support to Adolphe Menjou who had accidentally shaved off part of his mustache, which so impressed the legendary Douglas Fairbanks (senior) that the Westmore’s were hired to create all the wigs and take care of the hairdressing needs thanks to the professionalism of Perc Westmore and his father George Westmore (father of the clan and founder of the makeup artist industry we all know). 

With a client list that reads like the who's who of cinema throughout the years, from the Talmage family, Theda Barr, Douglas Fairbanks to name but a few, it is no surprise that the ethics and work started in early cinema with the Westmore clan have carried on throughout the cinema age into TV and beyond keeping alive a family legacy of excellence and defining a now multi-million-dollar industry.

To learn more about the Westmore family and its legacy see:

The Westmore’s of Hollywood Website

*With Special thanks to the Westmore family for supporting this blog series.

Digital Magazine Research

In the grand scheme of editorial, it is a great tool for marketing when you handle it correctly and put a little effort into the background work of creating and then the marketing after the image(s) are published. Over the last week, we have been really carefully planning around this idea and thanks to certain websites, we have pulled together a list of potential magazines we will shoot Marketing content for.

We are putting together a budget for this, as its a marketing tool, we will be spending a little extra time and money to make this work the best for us as a team.

looking at this as part and parcel of running a business, we decided that alongside our social accounts, website and film plans (a separate blog will come soon on this), editorials are a great tool for putting out your information and showcasing the work we do and what we are planning for 2020.

Each of our planned shoots will be built around themes that suit the magazines we are targetting and interestingly there is an option that will give us front cover style images that can be showcased across the board on our social media accounts.

An option we are looking at which a few of the magazines do look for is behind the scenes stills and video to be included in the submission, which admittedly is a great concept and allows a greater degree of marketing to the images and opens up an interesting dialogue about shoots that we do love.

As creative director and head of makeup this also allows flexibility in changing up the products used, JamesC is looking to downsize some elements of his kit and bring in new products including the My Beauty Brand range for one shoot, in particular, offering an overall experimental feel to the shoots we have planned.

More updates will be coming soon on the forward momentum of The Lost Creatives.

Brushwork Cosmetics Customisation a Professional Take

As the creative director and senior makeup artist of the Lost Project and Lost Creatives, I do work in different areas from film and TV through to fashion and editorial. My working kit is something I am constantly working on editing it by adding or changing up the kit but one thing I am really big on is an investment in key components such as makeup brushes. With this in mind when I saw the news that Brushwork Cosmetics was offering customization throughout January, I knew I had to talk about it from a professional stance.

While I appreciate this is a limited offer (for the month of January) it is really savvy for artists in makeup such as bridal and salon, fashion, film, and TV, to take advantage of this deal and here’s my reasoning why:

• Customized brushes with your name on the handle are easy to keep track of when you're on a job or with a client.

• It adds an extra dimension, think of it, clients will see this and know that you have taken time and care over what you have in your working kit and shows you have invested in your business.

• This also allows you to add your brand to the brush and it becomes a subliminal part of your marketing when you post images on social media. People will be aware of your name and associate it with professional brushes.

As someone who is a brush aficionado, I do support and endorse the range and this added dimension of “tagging” is for me a fantastic option that as stated above allows you to keep track of your kit. Brushwork Cosmetics as a whole offers Japanese Heritage brushes and cosmetics that are beyond compare and offer a premium range of well-curated brushes and cosmetics that sit beautifully in a working kit with or without the customization.

To learn more about the range or to purchase see:

Brushwork Cosmetics Website.

Brushwork Cosmetics Instagram.

Brushwork Cosmetics Facebook.

The Lost Creatives in 2020

In a short space of time, The Lost Creatives has become a major part f the Lost Narrative and we are really proud of what we have achieved to date. In 2020 we are looking forward to what will be a clean slate opportunity and taking the more strides toward achieving our creative goals.

We will be working on new and exciting projects with our affiliates and partners across the globe and making a concentrated effort to increase our marketing, expand on the narrative of professionals in the media sector. Our creative director is reopening his website as a portfolio only site and will continue in his capacity as the resident beauty blogger for The Lost Project and as our primary blogger as well as.

Expansion of the Lost Narrative is being worked on and we will be looking at bringing online (over the course of the year) an additional site that will become our home for film and TV, management services are also being addressed for the new year which will allow us a higher degree of control over how and where we are pushed as a brand.

Part of the expansion will include an increased and focused drive to work closely with our partners Nepal film production and of course HOD TV.

Both of whom we are really proud to be associated with on the film and TV side of our business. It is also worthy of note that World Fashion Media News will see more of our work in print and have exclusive access to the creative team for profiles etc.

In the coming year, The Lost Creatives will be pushed heavily and we will continue to work The Lost Narrative to showcase not just our creative team but the creativity and ingenuity of the media sector as a commercial entity.

Research and Planning

research and planning

We are just days away from the New Year (2020 is going to be huge) and our work has already started with blogs being prewritten and scheduled, stay tuned for a huge announcement, and we are now working on the next phase of our plans with a meeting lined up with one of our favorite indie film directors; Jim Manclark to discuss project development in TV and of course some new editorial behind the scenes and of course portfolio pieces for our creative directors new portfolio site.

Something we are really keen to get done is some projects designed specifically for the festival circuit and editorial submission as promotional material to help push the lost concept and of course, to promote our team as a whole.

Part of this will be a selection of small meetings and then a full-scale push through January to do the work. We are being selective about the work we do with planning and research being put in motion now. We are starting to add to the makeup artist library we have with new FX and character makeup books being added and a definite must-have that will be coming soon to our collection will be the book on out of the box FX.

From a purely creative stance, our plans are more commercial than artistic which ultimately what the business is all about.

Adding to the overall theme of change will be the addition of news sites and management services for the Lost concept already in the works allowing us to have a wider and more comprehensive business model and umbrella formation around the Lost Concept.

Over the next year, our goals are to create, commercialize and push a narrative of the media as a commercial art form.

Flexible Planning Strategies

We are as a team pushing forward with the creative plans to update all our websites and with the upcoming relaunch of the JamesC site, it is going to be interesting to move into 2020. With so many new and exciting options being brought into play, not just with our UK clients but our partners and affiliates in South Asia (particularly Kathmandu and Mumbai).

It is our intention to start working on new, flexible strategies for the new year, something we have always maintained from the beginning has been we need to be flexible and open to new options and look at the possibilities, hence the revamping and reopening of our creative directors artist site and plans to bring in a set of new projects that will be used as showcase work for the team.

At the moment we have a digital marketing specialist looking at our sites and will be working on a strategic marketing campaign that will push the Lost Concept harder than our current organically built following.

Our lightbulb moment and planning come in place thanks to our friends and supporters including the fantastic owner of World Fashion media news and of course the author and scriptwriter Susan Ronnie Marshall, who have both been instrumental in the promotion of our latest articles.

Naturally, we will be working to set briefs for our initial commercial projects in line with the partnership with HOD TV (submission details and parameters on request).

We intend to continue down the path we are on and look forward to all this brings.

Planning and Development with a PR agency

Image Courtesy of Pexels

In what is a short amount of time, we have secured a great deal of support both in our (current) home base and with outside parties (Nepal Film Production) to a point where we have had early morning video calls back and forth, planning strategies via email, WhatsApp and occasional phone calls.

While this may seem a little strange for a creative team to be doing less of the creation and more of the management it is the nature of the work and we are happy with the progress and deals being pushed which include negotiations with distributors, PR support for the beauty blog side of the business (The Lost Stories) all of this leading to what will be a multi-faceted and diverse company.

This for us means we are making the right choices and dealing with the right people which is a positive step forward and will later, give us the flexibility to be creative as there will be a multinational team rather than just a local base, handling the work. Such an amazing opportunity for us to take risks and put in motion projects that have been on the backburner for a while.

With so much in the works and a clear set of short and longterm goals being placed in motion, it is really an exciting time to be a Lost creative.

How We Plan To Move Forward Creatively

There have been some really interesting changes and updates in the background of our work that from a creative perspective have been good and bad. Our creative journey is really getting interesting and as we have a very definitive idea of what we want we have had to put somethings on the back burner to allow us the space to focus on the grander scheme.

We were approached by a New York agency that wanted to take our creative director on their books for development, a huge compliment, but not really a fit for what is planned for the Lost Project and Lost Creatives at the moment but we will look at this in the future.

From this, it becomes clear to us how we want to move forward and we are planning accordingly. As we have outlined previously there is to be a studio shoot, some location work and we are waiting for feedback from a film festival about working together as a form of a PR support network which is fantastic.

Our goals have been getting worked on for a few years and now we have started the ball rolling toward what will be a long term plan with some smaller short term projects in between to bolster the narrative. The dream won’t come true unless we work for it.

With some longstanding inspiration behind our plan (we will be revealing details in the new year), and careful research and experience backing our goals it is really about creating the narrative that we want to see in motion.

It is worth noting we are giving serious consideration to relocating the business as well, we can see from demographics across our sites where the support is coming from and who is conspicuously absent and will adjust our plans accordingly so watch this space.