Taking Notes

The last month has really flown in with more than a few meetings by phone and the various emails that fly back and forward concerning the blog and planning out PR pieces for clients or just the general research we have to do for our in house work that we thought it would be good to talk about some of it on the creatives site.

Over the next few weeks we will be doing more pieces promoting stage shows such as Smoke Not Included (Headless acting) as they go to the Edinburgh Fringe and talking to actors and most interesting for us, an increased amount of work with the Sons of Adonis brand expanding their marketing and other elements that we are closely involved in. *Stay tuned to our Facebook page for updated guest blogs by JamesC on the Adonis website.

We are really excited about the work that we have lined up and will of course, be sharing as much as possible across the blog and our social networks.

Timeline Updates

While the blog and other elements have been very quiet of late, we do apologize for this, it does not mean we have been idle. In fact it is the opposite with so much in the works we have had to set deadlines for projects and new launches before time really ran away and we lost track of what is being done.

Some of the domains we own are now due for renewal and we are using that as the baseline for soft launching websites and taking down some of the older work to make things as clean as possible.

With a wedding under our belt, in what will be a two-part package, there is some really beautiful images coming from that which will showcase our creative director and founder working as well as our beautiful bride.

Lost Creatives is going to be changed dramatically as well with new galleries being worked out to match the upcoming Lost Project Media site that will be the home of our video and print work, a mix of editorial and commercial campaigns, more on this later.

James will be launching a fresh new site which as a makeup artist he wanted to be a whole set of new work all tailored to the lost identity and brand and completely different from his previous site with a focus on the commercial.

In the next week we will be doing a very interesting set of blogs piece about indie brands that popped up on our radar and will be playing a part in the working kit of our house artist. Both of which are interesting and will offer very different perspectives on a makeup kit as well as product usage and placement.

With an end goal of updating not just the websites but our other networking sites such as Vshowcards, by August we will be well on our way to the whole new look and entirely different brand identity than when we started and it is truly exciting to see how things have developed from where we began.

Time For a Change

The last few weeks have been really hard, a combination of ill health and just general contract negotiations have meant that we really haven’t had the time to update the website. However, this has been a positive overall and allowed us to really prioritize the future of the Lost as a concept.

One of the biggest things to come out of this has been our creative director JamesC has made the decision to close his current portfolio website, we have maintained control of the domain name, and will be starting from scratch with a new fresh work in conjunction with a select number of very good photographers hand picked from a list of contacts and sources, the images from which will be submitted to publications.

We are also looking at reshuffling all the domains we own and bringing a more mixed media focus to our work with films of varying lengths and commercial status being worked on to change the very restricted state we are in.

Over the next month there will be more updates and galleries showcasing fresh work and taking the whole Lost concept back to basics and putting the energy where we want it to be as a whole with a focused print/digital fashion portfolio and a slate of smaller video projects that have been carefully researched and plotted around our requirements for festivals.

More updates will be released soon.

Building Your Team Featuring Vshowcards

Something I have seen quite a lot of when on social media is the individualist aspect of marketing, by that I mean promotion of just one aspect of what you do as a creative, forgetting that when it comes to a shoot be it film, TV, or photographic it is a team affair.

One of the biggest reasons we say this is because our own creative director JamesC has reached out to the team behind vshowcards and will be working with them to assess a proposal for upcoming projects.

Networking, promotion and just old fashioned relationship building over time can be a difference maker in the world of film and TV, we rely on each other to make a shoot run smoothly and efficiently so having good relationships with the team make a huge difference.

With Vshowcards you have access to the a huge number of professionals within industry that will support your moves and if you reach out are willing to help and support, you just need to ask.

From an industry standpoint there is so much more than just your skillset to consider, you are a part of a team, the machine works because we do and supporting each other is the way to move forward and building your team is a lot easier when you have all your information at your fingertips and know you can reach out to others with questions.

To learn more about the Vshowcards set up or to join see:

Vshowcards Website.

Vshowcards Facebook.

Vshowcards Twitter.

Vshowcards Instagram.

Vshowcards YouTube.

Reaching Out in 2023

As we are in the first week of a new year, the lost creatives team has been making really positive moves and reaching out to not just new people but spending time talking to old friends in the realm of photography to discuss potential studio and location shoots.

With our first official telephone meeting of the year now done, we are very excited by the potential of what is being proposed and can start really taking stock with a view to moving our own brand forward.

New in the mix is creative director Jamesc, who wants to do not just horror based shoots but go back to freestyle painting (inspired by the amazing makeup artist Linda Mason) for editorial and showcase once again, his creative talents.

Over the coming weeks we will be releasing more news and updates including interviews with actors, producers and other creative talent.

Welcome to 2023, lets make it a good one!

The Lost Creatives Christmas

In the last few weeks of 2022 (where has the time gone!!??) The Lost Creatives has gone from strength to strength, don’t get me wrong there have been pitfalls, but overall we have been able to create a network of people that is amazing, offer PR and other forms of support to fellow creatives that was after all the goal of the site.

Christmas for us, will be a time of relaxation with a heavy focus on what will be done in the new year, with commercial work and PR for clients having been the heaviest part of our workload, our creative director JamesC, will be returning to work as a makeup artist on a more open basis and taking on smaller projects to bolster the public side of his work and spending time on some personal projects that will be featured not just here on the Lost Creative but his own site and our partner site The Lost Agency who will be taking a heavier hand in our own marketing and internal affairs. *This means we will be returning to Instagram soon!

We have had some disappointments lately, with meetings and reaching out to potential collaborators falling through mainly due to scheduling issues which as you can imagine as a freelancer, has been a pain, however that will not stop us from pushing forward and with our ties to HOD TV, we will be focusing on that for the future and tackling things in a much more hard-line manner.

Our passion for the arts is not waning, far from it, we have collated magazines, festivals and other information that we intend to make full use of for ourselves, up until now we have put a vast amount of time into clients and not been able to put the lost concept at the forefront but, we are incredibly proud of the fact people have trusted the team.

In the next few weeks we will be releasing our goals and a schedule for this through the site along with a few snippets of art projects to test the waters.

For the moment we are going to allow ourselves a little breathing space for the festive season and release more information soon and options to get involved.

Revamping The Lost Sites

We are going to be working on the Lost sites over the next two weeks allowing us to decide what is and isn’t working, change out images, and update affiliate links and partnerships, we are incredibly lucky to have some amazing brands supporting us already and we have projects that have been completed (but shelved due to other aspects of work underway) that will be used to update the sites.

From a professional stance, in particular to the makeup side, our creative director and head of makeup JamesC’s website has already been reworked to make it cleaner and simpler to navigate, he has chosen several brands to work with including Mykitco (check out the pro discount program for eligibility), Illamasqua Pro will become a featured brand soon, and of course Sons of Adonis (JamesC personally consulted with the owner of the range and the brush).

Two small projects for the festival circuit are being written and developed with a view to expanding into a full-scale TV series, an idea we have wanted to really push forward with for a long time, with the festival path we can tailor our choices to suit garnering awards for the team including the makeup, actors, and director to help with promotion.

*This means we will add to the roster very soon to help with the creation of projects, and a new TV production site will be a part of this planning.

We are really pleased that our main site, The Lost Project, is gathering attention (organically) and continues to be a source of information on the consumer side, the book reviews and makeup stories are proving to be popular which is something we are incredibly proud of.

More changes are coming and it is truly exciting to be working on the lost group expansion. Stay tuned for more updates and news.

Touching Base With Our Friends in Nepal

Something we are incredibly proud of is our association with the Nepal Film Production team, and with a potential project being discussed at the moment it is good to be talking business again with the founder Digbijaya Bharati is a genuine pleasure and will open up doors again to work in the jewel of South Asia that is Nepal.

With their main work being documentary, Nepal Film Production works with filmmakers across the world we love that we can be a part of that remotely at the moment, talk about new avenues and bring the Lost Creative’s methods and projects to them where we know that they will be tackled with professionalism.

Now that things are moving again we can open up old projects we put to the side during the upheaval of the last two years and tackle ideas that we have been eager to get back to. South Asia is to us, the most beautiful place, having spent two years in India, our creative director JamesC, is very happy about the prospect of this and looking forward to talking film, TV, and other things with our friends and associates in Kathamandu.

Finding Solutions

Finding solutions is a big part of the work we do, from our creative consultation work with the Sons of Adonis brand to blogging about shows, The Lost Creatives was built around that concept and we are truly grateful to the people around us, in the last few days our dear friend Keziah Nyam-jim who has been bringing her immense talents in the business world to the table and supporting our changes with some advice, gentle nudges, and more than a few laughs in the process, she has been talking us through options that we would otherwise have missed.

What this means, is we have a much clearer end goal and thanks to Keziah, a timetable to work to, and someone outside of the creative world we live in who is going to give us a critical eye that is much needed looking over the work and plans. Something that we highly recommend.

There are also updates we know are coming to the vshowcards site which will make a huge impact on how we work, and open up doors to projects for many people in the arts and media that will be a gamechanger. Our creative director JamesC, will be amending and changing his own profile with vshowcards and adding the link directly to the website to make promotion a little easier overall.

More updates will be available soon so stay tuned.

Travel and Meeting Contacts Featuring vShowcards

We are really pleased when people reach out, especially when our contacts who have taken time off, come to us to talk about working on something fresh which has been happening a lot recently especially with photographers and a few actors who feel that the time is right to start working on smaller projects to stretch their muscles a little after the uncertainty of the last two years.

Naturally, this has given us the impetus to think a little more deeply about concepts and start stockpiling items that may seem strange but will in the long term be of advantage to us, such as the mix of ready-made prosthetics, butterflies, and other items that would on the surface seem strange.

In addition to this, we are planning a trip to London, part buyers trip and part meet up with friends, although the timing for this has been a little tricky due to family commitments, there are advantages to this that aside from being able to shop, we can discuss plans with the team at vShowcards gaining further insight their upcoming changes (which look to be amazing), our creative director JamesC is already a member which is another reason we want to sit with them and work out some details and add to his profile with strategic work.

What we are planning for is trips to the major makeup retailers, meeting with clients/friends, then returning to Scotland to work on additions to the sites across the board. There is something to be said for this plan that goes beyond the obvious networking, it really is about finding new sources of inspiration on route.

The scope and potential of this trip should be interesting and be a welcome break from the background work we have been doing.

To learn more about JamesC or the vShowcards site see:

JamesC vShowcards.

vShwocards official site.

Adding To Your Pro Kit For Makeup Artists Featuring Mykitco

In our last blog, we talked about the books we are adding to our working library which included two fantastic makeup books and one on filmmaking which we thought would be beneficial not only to the team but to our readers.

Now we want to talk to the makeup artists out there and remind you that your kit is important, more so now than ever with changes happening on a regular basis and guidance altering how we work collectively, this admittedly varies by company and by budget, none the less it is a good time to invest in solid kit staples that will ensure you are working smart in the new year from fashion and print through to film and TV.

Mykitco is one of the brands that does feature heavily in our creative directors working kit and with a plan in motion to split the kit into 2 parts (more so the tools) a sale is always a good time to buy up brushes and other accessories especially when they are pro-grade and high quality.

What this means for JamesC, is that rather than a full array of kit items brought in and cleaned in stages, he and the rest of the team will focus on small projects that will allow space to clean and in terms of space reduce the need for a larger table so limiting things to 6 f each brush and careful planning for the looks to ensure that we are working smart, and in a time-efficient manner across commercial projects and our festival plans.

*It is worth taking the time to apply for the pro discount available from Mykitco as this will allow you the flexibility to add to your kit over time and add new items as and when you need them.

For further information on the Mykitco range or to follow them across social media see:

Mykitco Website.

Mykitco Instagram.

Mykitco Facebook.

Adding To Our Book Collection

With the Christmas and New Years’ break in midflow, we wanted to take some time to add to our collection of books for work both in filmmaking and of course in makeup artistry (at the behest of our creative director JamesC). Naturally, with Boxing day sales, and gift cards in our pocket it was a really good time to add to the collection and give us time to read up on new techniques and look at some other perspectives.

Of course, we wanted to share the top 3 books that have made our list and give a brief overview of why we bought them starting with:

Don't F*ck Up Your No Budget Movie!: Inexpensive Filmmaking In This Content-Hungry Age by Ivan Peric, aside from the title (which immediately grabs attention) this was one that from the chapter list alone spoke to the team because it does talk in terms we are thinking and puts the emphasis on the commercial aspect of filmmaking, so we did purchase the book in hardback for our collection. We will be going into more detail on this book for the blog soon with the support of the Author, so stay tuned.

Don't F*ck Up Your No Budget Movie! Amazon UK.

Don't F*ck Up Your No Budget Movie! Amazon USA.

A Complete Guide to Special Effects Makeup 3 by the Tokyo SFX makeup workshop, was a real plus as it will add dimension to the collection and be in line with our second makeup-oriented book, which is one that will be bought in again as a backup. Focusing on cuts, scars, and wounds, this book offers up a different perspective on techniques that we are really interested in and want to integrate into our work next year.

A Complete Guide to Special Effects Makeup 3 Amazon UK.

A Complete Guide to Special Effects Makeup 3 Amazon USA.

Special Effects Guide Of Real Human Wounds and Injuries By Mr. Benito Garcia iii, a must for anyone interested in film and TV makeup, this is a truly graphic and comprehensive book that covers different aspects of bodily injury and shows you in real terms what they should look like making it entirely possible to replicate this with special effects.

Special Effects Guide Of Real Human Wounds and Injuries Amazon UK.

Special Effects Guide Of Real Human Wounds and Injuries Amazon USA.

We have other books coming and within the collection but these were real standouts and worth sharing as we move forward with our own plans and goals.

Christmas Consultations and Other Business

The Christmas season (and by extension New Year) is always interesting for the Lost Creatives team. Our creative director JamesC has been working with a few regular faces pre-show in a private capacity to plan out makeup for the stellar talent Alex Robertson, currently appearing as Dame at the Falkirk Town Hall, alongside his usual work with brands.

As an old friend of the company Alex Robertson has been a supporter and a real boost to our morale, and to have him come to JamesC for advice was a genuine pleasure, he is not only an exceptional talent on stage but a respected character actor for a wide range of TV shows, indie films, and much more, so to be able to support him was a real pleasure and in truth a running laugh as he is a comical person to be around with self-deprecating humor that always makes us laugh out loud. For further information on the show, Beauty and the Beast, click here.

On top of this, we have been doing other types of consult work from PR advice to script work breaking down the financials (in basic form) to help a few indie projects that were stuck with a few minor details. We are incredibly proud of the work we do and appreciate that people see us as a viable source of information and of course promotion for their projects.

In the New Year, we are going to be taking some calculated risks and going public with our work which till now has been for clients and we have had to sign waivers preventing us from showcasing the work, frustrating but nonetheless important for our growth as a team and a company.

While we finish off some of the background work we have before we close for a few days of well-earned rest, we wish all our followers and everyone in the media industry a Merry Christmas, we look forward to coming back in the New Year with more news and updates.

Hitting Deadlines

Working from home and doing multiple blogs, consulting with production companies, and doing costings for projects has been fantastic, it has allowed us to be a part of the creative field and opened up conversations with potential collaborators for the next year. What it also means is we have been able to set deadlines for work and give ourselves flexibility on the stock we have with a view to curating and adding what is needed for the near future.

As you can imagine we are now close to one of the deadlines for an in-house project, small, but nonetheless important. So within the next 10 days, we have to complete a minimum of 3 shoots that will be submitted for a competition we have had our collective eye on for a while now.

It also has been a good time to work on a marketing plan for the new year, which is scarily close and our creative director and head of makeup JamesC has now got a profile with the fantastic vshowcards which is in need of some small updates but is officially live!

Something we have discussed at length is websites, JamesC will revert to his old website soon with some much-needed changes as we have a huge amount of his work saved on the old site, we felt it made more sense just to edit and relaunch versus a rebuild.

Another option we are reviewing and giving serious thought to is an electronic notebook to reduce our paper use or at least a tablet with a good note keeper app, with so much in the market changing we are working to keep on top of this and be as practical about our work as possible.

Stay tuned for updates and further information.

Creating a Story and Building the Brand

When Lost Creatives was first started it was about a journey and finding a path, in that time we have covered a wide range of people’s stories and given a voice to some amazing filmmakers who have helped bring our creative narrative as well as their own, to the public domain.

Over the next few months we plan to add to the stories in a more visual sense, with so much of our work having to be held due to publication terms, it will be fun to finally be able to showcase the work that has been done in the background by our creative director and head of makeup JamesC. Some new portfolio pieces are being finalized with the JamesC portfolio site (frustratingly) taken longer than planned we will be reverting back and reworking the current site with the new content and bringing in a much more cohesive workflow across the sites we already have with the additions of showcasing his work as a photographer into the bargain.

When it comes to production, there is some light at the end of a long tunnel, we have chosen two TV shows to produce along with two short films that we will use as entry back into the market, and with our work with some Amazingly talented filmmakers when it comes to cost, we have been able to work the angles and find additional avenues of marketing, sales, and of course open up our team to different potential projects outside of horror and thriller.

Naturally, we will be working with vshowcards who have been fantastic and are rapidly gaining ground in the production realm and have even got Bollywood on their side which is an amazing coup for the team.

In the next few weeks, we will be making a return to social media with the Lost Creatives and Lost Agency Instagram being updated with new work and some experimental shots we have been playing around with as part of a planned concept.

More news and updates on The Lost coming soon.

Lost Beauty in Derelict Spaces

As summer is in full bloom, The Lost Team is restocking, rethinking, and getting our camera gear prepped to shoot specifically for ourselves over the next two weeks. Our goal will be to create content for the various existing lost sites and the upcoming photography site, showcasing Lost Beauty in Derelict Spaces.

With an aesthetic goal in mind that will fit with future TV project plans, we are looking at simple clean beauty for our Lost Girls and Lost Boys. Thankfully we have the Sons of Adonis brush (and soon concealer) to help with this and with our pro accounts all up to date, we can create something fresh and test run products before we go for the really big projects that will focus on darker elements and more chills than beauty.

Our plan is to bring some new talent into the mix and open the door to creative opportunities as we progress lead by our creative director JamesC, we are going to be announcing further collaborations and partnerships officially as we finetune the scripts and ideas fully.

Stay tuned for more news and updates.

Strategically Lost

As we come closer to the final launch of our additional sites, Lost Agency, and Lost Stills, which will be used to manage and market the team with our commercial-based projects both stills and print, being organized around the Lost Concept.

Staying within the film and TV project base we will also be working on some more fashion-oriented images with possible fashion films into the bargain, *focusing on the behind-the-scenes elements of our creative shoots which in turn will give us some footage to be used as showreel material and marketing fodder.

We will also be continuing our Q and A blogs in support of the indie scene and looking at different elements of filmmaking and giving voice to campaigns, fundraisers, and individual talents.

Over the next few weeks, we will be finalizing and putting out the new work with a full and comprehensive business plan being polished to meet the new standards within the industry.

Stay tuned for more updates from the lost team.

Updates From The Creative Sphere

Over at the Lost Creatives home office, we have been plugging away at our work and will have some project announcements and cast/crew requirements going live very soon. While this is being worked out, we have some announcements that as a team we are really excited about and wanted to share.

As creative director and head of makeup, JamesC, has been instrumental in the development of his new site and working on a consultation basis, for Sons of Adonis makeup (it will be added to his working kit), as part o this a limited edition brush was created featuring his logo and the brand: available from the Sons of Adonis site.

In terms of production and editorial, we have decided to add to our site holdings and will be launching a separate photography site that will feature the work of JamesC both his commercial work and the behind-the-scenes stills on film and TV shoots. The reasoning for this is to allow an expanded sense of his creative work and offer a different perspective on the work of a makeup artist.

Lost Agency is being formed and set around the needs of the main business and will handle the overall marketing, banking, and other elements of our work as an umbrella creating an in-house and full-spectrum setup that is own, controlled, and managed for the needs of the Lost team.

Over the next few weeks, we will be releasing additional details on what is happening and casting/crew opportunities for smaller festival entry projects.

Short and Micro Films

We have been extremely lucky with our contacts across the board and privy to a variety of amazing short/microfilms that have been either experimental or designed to augment actors’ showreels. Each that we have seen (both the public and password protected) had a common thread: they make you think.

Taking this further we have been discussing with the very talented, Alistair Smith, his own scene work as potentially a festival project. *We were lucky to be given access through a password-protected link, but can honestly say that he has got us thinking about micro/short projects as a tool to promote.

We are supporters of using short and microfilms as promotional tools and understand that the concepts can vary from a 30-second commercial to a 20-minute film, the key to this for us, is the story must work and make the watcher think. You should want to see more or ask questions about the backstory, this for us is successful.

Someone else who appreciates this idea is the team behind Micromania Film Festival, focused specifically on films under 5 minutes, there is a real challenge to the process of filmmaking in general but the potential of a film of 5 minutes or less is to us, something we want to explore in more depth as a combination of marketing tool and experimental process with films that will challenge us a team.

We are going to be reviewing options and looking at scripts that will give us that room to experiment, showcase the talents of both those in front and behind the cameras with the added element of documentary footage, and potentially showreel material for certain members of the team.

Stay tuned for updates.

Tackling The JamesC Website

We have been talking (via Twitter) about taking down our creative director JamesC’s website and completely overhauling it with a mix of his work from previous shoots, and of course new editorials mixed with additional TV/character-based concepts. That is now in motion and for the next two weeks, we will be doing the wrap-up work with a view to having a profile with vShowcards that will be central to his marketing as a makeup artist.

Taking this step has been really scary, as you can imagine, but it was a necessary move that we felt was long overdue, and with so many changes in motion to the market overall, we did this with a view to the long-term goals of the Lost Creatives and it will give a more focused and cohesive look to his work. With this in mind, we are debating adding a further 3 sites to the Lost portfolio making the overall theme of our work more cohesive and taking much of our business internally which will give us a stronger control over the imaging, marketing, and projects we tackle.

For those interested in keeping up with the news and updates JamesC will continue writing for our blogs and is still on Twitter. The new site is mostly complete and will be focused solely on his artistry work, while The Lost Creatives expands with him at the helm we will be working on the development of TV projects, short films for festival entry, and photo projects, to name but a few of our plans.