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.

Wolfskin London Mens Grooming Kit for Makeup Artists

As the makeup industry landscape changes to meet new standards and we see the need for new techniques and methods, especially for TV presenters, Wolfskin London offers a simple solution that allows men to look smart, well-groomed, and professional in any setting.

Increasingly people are required to work from home using software setups for digital meetings and the full HD screens are opening up our faces to closer scrutiny and the need for a clean, fresh, groomed look as we work from home is becoming a must and in a media format, this can also mean that for male presenters who are often used to having a makeup artist on set, they will now need to do their own makeup which is where Wolfskin London becomes integral to the media business.

For the Lost team, the reason we are looking to Wolfskin London is fairly straight forward, it is designed to suit men and is simple enough that it is suitable for most situations and we can (if required) teach our male talent to do their own makeup with minimal fuss and will be something we reach for when we cover events such as fashion shows.

Pushing forward in the make-up realm having a range that is designed for men both professionally and personally will be something we work with more in line with not only the projects we have in development but for the future of the company overall.

To learn more about the Wolfskin London range or to purchase see:

Wolfskin London Shop.

Wolfskin London Instagram.

Wolfskin London Facebook.

Wolfskin London Twitter.

Starting The Ball rolling

The last few months have been a creative dead end for many in the arts and now we are starting to see a relaxing of the rules and feel that we can open up a little more our core UK team has begun putting together small shoots and will continue building up a whole new portfolio including videos for an upcoming new site and as a part of the current slate of Lost Media work, all headed up by creative director JamesC. At the moment we do have a small amount of work that is being edited (inhouse) being prepped for submission to a very specific selection of magazines and we are looking closely at the options for creating our own logo and branding around the Lost Concept that will expand our reach further into the future.

Naturally, we are still working with our South Asian contacts especially Nepal Film Production who has been instrumental in the most recent changes to what we are doing and helping us with details like our web presence which we are extremely grateful for.

Keeping the flow of work going has been difficult but thanks to a combination of social media like Instagram, Facebook messenger and of course Whatsapp, we have been able to continue working and the Lost Project, in particular, has been really gathering attention and support thanks to our resources and contacts in New York at the Sarah Gargano Agency, who are a fantastically professional team to work with.

Overall, the ideas that we had to set up our own small studio and continue have been shelved instead we are going to focus our energies on a more mobile version of this with our main work being done on the computer anyway from the running of the various sites and social accounts we have to the editing work for our shoots it has become more about practicality as we think of ways to minimize our footprint and give us the freedom to travel, move quickly and of course provide a service.

Choosing our Editorial Path

Editorial is often used as a means to test new styles, try new techniques and work with new people but if you are smart it can also be a way to create new business and a smart proactive tool that will draw attention to your business and bring new clients to the table. Which for us is the primary reason we are being selective about the magazines we are choosing and calculating our approach carefully and strategically to ensure we get the maximum from the work. When we look at a magazine we have certain criteria that we are looking for and markers that will put them higher on our list:

• Branded tears.

• Covers.

• Minimal costume requirements.

• Minimal image requirements.

• Cost of submission.

Starting with these factors we then spend time pouring over their content and style as part of phase two, of our plans, we prefer simplistic and clean looks with priority going to men’s magazines at a ratio of two shoots for our male models to one for our females. *The reasoning for this is simple, we have core team members who are actors and models and they are our priority in marketing as this will have a knock-on effect in the spread of our work over time with social media advertising. Our preference is for digital magazine first but we will (for certain clients) be working toward print at a later stage. The reason we prefer online is fairly straightforward: reach. A print magazine can have an overall reach of 20,000 in terms of people buying the magazine whereas digital can move into the millions of views between social feeds and website stats, which for us makes it a more profitable and farreaching prospect.

At this point we have it broken down to a total of 2 magazines that are being marked as priority for us and will be used to promote the business overall building to what will be a series of shoots with our remote team headed up by creative director JamesC.

Choosing our editorial path is in truth is 1 part art and 2 parts commercial with our team plotting out how we can maximize the potential of the work undertaken.

Marketing and the Lost Concept

While we have been a little quiet over the last few days it has not stopped the work thanks in part to Facebook and Whatsapp we were able to continue meetings and even showcase some of our past work in line with our creative director and founder JamesC. The crux of much of this has been discussing marketing strategies. Many people are unaware of the pages and sites involved in our marketing just for the Lost Concept and our core team and we are now in a place where we feel that the sites and pages (in most cases) are sufficiently “liked” enough that we are collating all the backlog of work into a folio of work and with certain magazines offering open submissions of single images (we are going for exclusive but this is not a requirement for many digital magazines) and once the lockdowns are sufficiently lifted we do have plans to do a full marketing campaign with more work built around the Lost Boys and Lost Girls concept as outlined in the Lost Project blog.

Marketing is something we are really keen on and we do work with our partners in Nepal (the Nepal Film Production team), on campaigns and this will be revised again at the end of this month in line with changes to the market as it stands.

One of the main reasons we are looking at this now is we have time, the blogs are keeping us busy along with various other elements but like many in the creative fields, we really are keen to get back to our real work. The focus of our upcoming campaigns will start with the two lost sites and then the actual artists who are working on the creative side such as actor Raj Srivastava and of course JamesC.

Commercial Shoots and Editorial Goals

We are really excited about the upcoming photo project we are creating and have been carefully selecting clients to work with to augment this and take it in a more commercial direction, with a deal being worked alongside a Scottish clothing designer and a fashion media house in London that will see The Lost Creatives and The Lost Project, taking massive strides toward the creation of our goal of multimedia work.

Structuring the planned work round behind the scenes capturing the collective work of the Lost Creatives and the brands we will be working with to give an increased sense of cohesion and showcase not just the in house talent but also the brands and creatives we meet on our journey.

Within the next few months, we will be adding to our South Asian Stable of clients and collaborators with a new casting service that will be based out of Mumbai, one of our creative director’s favorite places to work incidentally. We will be continuing to work with the team at Nepal Film Production and pushing boundaries with them in what is set to be a hugely important aspect of the business we do. More on this soon.

Our business is naturally evolving and we are starting to see more and more interest from companies and we plan to offer packages for brand placement within the various behind the scenes for editorial/advertorial shoots, our TV series plans (we have 2 fantastic scripts in place) and on a smaller scale 3 short films we are currently planning for the festival circuit combining our in-house artists and actors with talent from other fields.

If any brands are interested in knowing more then please drop us an email to discuss.

JamesC Makeup artist and Creative Director

It has been just over a year since JamesC took down his website and took a break from the world of media and fashion, focusing his energies on the blogs and building up The Lost Concept (for which the team is extremely grateful) but we all decided that it was long overdue that he came back. With new commercial projects and plans in motion, we needed our creative director standing tall and being showcased.

We have been planning this for several months and carefully selected from his previous work for the new site, showcasing only the pieces we felt were the best illustration of his work creatively and offering a starting point to what will be a resurgence in the commercial aspect of his and our business.

The team is really excited about the prospects of this and with our Lost Photo and Video project being planned strategically (for further details or collaborations please email the team) with a series of editorial shoots, cover images and of course short films to start the ball rolling, it is gratifying to see his work back online and moving toward a goal again.

JamesC has been instrumental in all aspects of the Lost Project and Lost Creatives, making the calls and arranging the meetings so it’s truly a pleasure for us to be able to showcase the work.

Naturally, we will be taking steps toward an increased marketing strategy that will fit all aspects of the work of the Lost Concept and the Lost Team with JamesC leading the charge toward new and exciting areas.

To learn more about JamesC and his work see:

JamesC Website.

JamesC Instagram.

JamesC Facebook.

JamesC Linkedin.

Creating an iKonic Show

When talking about fashion week or even the off-schedule events, there is one show that stands out above and beyond the rest: House of iKons. a stellar showcase weekend of fashion that is fast becoming a household name globally for their savvy marketing, press coverage and the divine array of designers whos work grace the catwalk.

From humble roots to a leading light in fashion in a few short years, it goes without saying that the talent-driven event holds a place creative director JamesC’s heart as he was there for the very first show working backstage as a makeup artist.

Through the years House of iKons has built a solid reputation for the shows and taken risks in film and music supporting various projects both inhouse and on a global scale with CEO and founder Savita Kaye taking on the line producer role for projects more than once in her career.

Giving a platform to the creative and working that tricky middle ground of commercial, it is within our sites to return to the fold and possibly pitch for members of our own team to work (alongside a sponsor) at the show which at this time has an extensive waitlist for not only the designer slots but the backstage area and we will be discussing the options with the CEO later in the year, although we most likely will be sponsors and front of house as a blog team.

With so much on the table with the lost creatives and our sister site Lost Project, we love the potential to showcase and it is little to no wonder that the House of iKons is top of the list for fashion bloggers and magazines with an ever-increasing TV channels like BBC worldwide, etc, vying for a slot at the prestigious show and a waiting list for the press pit.

To learn more about the iKons show or to purchase tickets see:

House of iKons February Ticket link.

House of iKons Website.

House of iKons Twitter.

House of iKons Facebook.

House of iKons Instagram.