Location Scouting a Lost Boy Shoot Part 1

Finding a little free time our creative director (JamesC) decided to break away from his usual duties of admin and management to do some location scouting for a 3 part story built around The Lost Boys concept, with his trusted point and shoot camera he walked along the promenade and into town to find some specific locations that would fit the brief and in doing so has settled on 3 distinct locations that will add a touch of drama to the shots (with a video being planned to add to the drama of the scene).

“The images themselves will be built around derelict buildings, waste ground, and a fractured symbolism of nature. Each model will have his own story that will hint at both the inspiration of Pans Lost Boys to the more dystopic visuals of the backdrop to fit with the ‘council estate boys’ look of the models.”

A full and detailed explanation of The Lost Boys shoots can be found by clicking here. We are really excited by the concept and the fact we have the support of fellow Creative Director Shakti Sood founder and brand manager of The Sons of Adonis and the amazing Lord and Berry makeup line, both seeing the potential of what we are working on.

Restructuring The Lost

With our two blogs (Lost Creatives on the professional side and Lost Project on the consumer), our creative director JamesC, and a new site in the wings, the overall concept of The Lost as we started it has grown in the last 2 years into a much bigger and much more refined business that while it was our plan, is still surprising how things have changed for the better. In the next few weeks, we will be adding heavily to the various galleries we have of our work and making amendments to the overall layout and general themes of our work to better fit what we feel in the direction we are heading in. What this means is we will be changing a few of the frequently asked questions, designated accounts, and announcing the longer-term plans and goals of how we will progress in business terms including that of our base location.

*We did consider an office but in the current climate that seems like a redundant step that would be overly complicated and serve no purpose for what is coming into play.

Admittedly many of the changes will be small and have a minimal effect on the business there is something larger that will be taking public soon that focuses heavily on the vision of founder, creative director, and head of makeup JamesC, who has led the charge on the basis of “be the change you want to see.” Creating The Lost and carefully selecting who we work with, researching and planning, taking additional training as and when required, he has taken the lead on the business and we do want to offer a nod to the Nepal Film Production team who have offered up several opportunities and been a huge supporter of the work we are doing.

In an industry that is evolving and changing we fully intend to make the most of the digital landscape in whatever format we can and we are taking steps to ensure that our work is seen in the best possible light with more updates on this coming soon we are really excited about the future of The Lost.

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.