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.

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.

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.

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.

Frederick Edward Social Commentator and Youtuber

We wanted to look at other elements of the media including Youtube commentators and a prime example of this would be Frederick Edward who took the leap into the world of social and historical commentary giving his viewers a unique insight into the world at large. Already a respected writer with articles featured in The Conservative Woman, he is taking steps in this new direction and bringing a new perspective to the public dialogue.

Frederick Edward Social Commentator and Youtuber

Can you start by telling us a little more about your background and what led you to set up a youtube channel?

Starting a YouTube channel is something I had intended to do for years. However, I never quite got round to it. I was always interested in issues surrounding politics and ideas but had been a consumer of content rather than a producer. Perhaps I lacked confidence or was just busy with other things. For example, I spent thousands of hours in my twenties learning Chinese – an unforgiving task which I’m still trying to find a post hoc justification for.

As strange as it may sound, the thing that made me decide to become more active was the death of Roger Scruton – the finest conservative philosopher of our age. Very suddenly, one of the most robust defenders of Western civilization was no longer around. While I am in no way suggesting that I in any way fill the vast gap left by his death, it made me realize that it is ultimately up to us all as individuals to speak plainly and enter the realm of debate. It is too easy to leave it to others to do the heavy lifting!

Tell us more about your target audience and what makes your channel unique?

I’m not sure whether I have a specific target audience in mind. My guiding principle is to make videos or write articles on topics that I find interesting; hopefully, this cathartic endeavor will resonate with people. My worry would be that if I try and target myself specifically to anyone niche I would end up adopting a style or lines of argument that aren’t necessarily mine. Putting on an act in that way is ultimately self-defeating.

In terms of uniqueness… that is hard to say. There are many incredibly erudite, talented, and insightful people who put out content online. I leave it to my audience to decide in what ways my endeavors create value-added in that realm. Nevertheless, over the last few decades, mainstream media has become victim to an intellectual and cultural monoculture that fails to speak to a majority of people, meaning appetite has grown for people who will say things that would certainly be unwelcome in an issue of The Guardian. I most definitely fall into that category – I’m yet to receive an invitation to write a column for that esteemed publication.

As a “YouTuber” are you a solo worker or do you have a team?  What has been your biggest challenge in creating your content?

Other than my mum making me the odd cup of tea, I’m a one-man-band. There were a few hurdles to overcome when I started producing videos – specifically that I had never used a video editor – but the process has not been as technically difficult as I first envisaged.

The greatest hurdle for me, instead, was the very act of speaking in front of a camera. Feeling comfortable, sounding natural, and cogently expressing thoughts when just speaking to the camera on your phone is something I still have to try and get used to. Going through all this, I definitely have a newly discovered respect for people who can deliver pieces in one, seemingly effortless, take. I’m quite not at that point myself. 慢慢来！

What is the future of your channel?  What is the longterm plan for your work?

I will continue to make videos alongside all of life’s other commitments. I think the next stage would be to learn how to make more visually engaging content: when you see a video that has unique and interesting visuals it can be hard to take your eyes off it. There are some YouTube channels that do this incredibly well and deserve their large audiences.

Otherwise, I will try and write more articles as well. While YouTube is a good platform, one wonders what may be at work behind the scenes in the website’s algorithms. As such, getting my articles and videos out there on other platforms is something I will increasingly try to do.

What advice would you offer to anyone looking to set up a channel?

Get ready to put in a lot of work and don’t be disappointed if you don’t strike gold immediately. It is peculiar to see some people’s attempts immediately translate into stardom, but the reality is more likely to involve a great deal of effort and long hours staring at your YouTube channel’s statistics and worrying about SEO.

More broadly, I would advise people in general – but also those who are thinking of starting a channel – to speak plainly and not to be cowed by the opinions of others. Be honest and speak truths as you see them. Honesty is a commodity that is increasingly in short supply today, and the truth is our greatest weapon in combatting the madness we see around us.

To learn more about Frederick or to follow his channel and social media see:

Frederick Edward Youtube.

Frederick Edward Facebook.

Frederick Edward Twitter.

Frederick Edward Parler.

Creative The Narrative

We are working in the background and will be showcasing new work soon through all 3 of our sites and talking about the creative process in more detail along with the logic behind what we did and how we did it. At the moment we are working on some site updates which will come into play across our sites. At this time we have some editorials in the edit suite with others in motion for publication alongside text articles that will be available through World Fashion Media News upcoming print magazine (which we are truly grateful to be a part of).

Our creative director JamesC, is working with a few brands on product testing (subject to non-disclosure agreements) which is an exciting prospect for our work collectively and announcements on longterm partnerships will be made as and when they are completed.

Understand that while we are quiet we do have a lot happening and cannot wait to showcase the new work and our refreshed sites and we are working to create new partnerships for future projects.

Editorial content will be playing a big part of our upcoming work with JamesC leading the charge on this and plans to completely change the layout and look of his site including an opening video for the site which we are designing the overall look for at the moment.

Focus is on publication and as previously mentioned, World Fashion Media News having a new print version coming soon, we will be working on editorials exclusive to them with an emphasis on clean beauty and male grooming.

Our list of magazines is growing and thankfully the terms are clearly laid out which means we can focus on the artistic over the corporate first with marketing taking a very close second.

Motivated and pushing forward The Lost Creative team is working hard and dreaming big.

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.

Luminar Photo Editing Software

Something that we have talked about frequently and have in hand at the moment is our editorial work since much of this is done in house, we wanted a simple, easy to use photo editing software that would make the flow of work easier for the team and we found Luminar. Designed to work independently or as a plugin with other photo editing software, the Luminar Photo Editing Software is a dream for someone like our creative director JamesC, who likes the control aspect of being able to work with a small team which in the long term may be a good thing.

Naturally, at the moment we are holding back on further work (we do have some work in the can for publication later), the time we have has been set into doing other elements of business and the process of editing images, in some cases reedits has allowed us a little flexibility and changed the dynamic of what we offer. Which is positive all around for the creative process. Based on artificial intelligence the Luminar Software is designed to smooth the flow of work and reduce time spent on editing and will change the game for many people not just for the ease of use but the cost factor. With a series of deals available at this time and the added bonus of a donation from each sale going to Corona Virus research, the Luminar packages are excellent value and have the bonus of lifetime ownership.

To learn more or to purchase the software see:

Luminar Website.

*Affiliate Link Included in this article/blog.

The Changing Face of The Lost Business

While we are restricting our movements and only going out when we absolutely need to, we decided to look at the future and what will become of business as time goes on. It is fairly positive and we can see already changes to the market that will be making massive waves to how we view the media world.

There will key aspects of the current climate we will be maintaining such as having smaller shoots and focusing on story rather than just an image which we have talked about before but never seemed to find the time, from a photographic stance it really is interesting working out how we can do this and still have a cohesive narrative.

On a film and TV side, our favorite writers are working from home happily and have taken it under advisement that we want thrillers and horror that can and should be creatable on a smaller budget to fit with the requirements of the current market, will offer us quick turn around for shoots and of course minimal cast and crew requirements which will be a challenge in and of itself that we as a team we look forward to. The Lost Concept is something we are immensely proud of and can see the potential to take our initial idea of moving The Lost Boys and The Lost Girls as a story for stills and to turn this into a storied TV series with a dark edge built around individual stories and characters.

In the interim, we are working on designs, talking to our remote teams as best we can, naturally, we are very worried about our Indian and Nepal contacts and wish them the best at this time of full lockdown in their countries. However, everyone is in good spirits and has been positive so far.

The future is something we cannot solidly control or predict but we do know that we will continue our work for as long as we can. We will finish this by asking that our readers stay safe and well, keep positive and we will all be back to work soon and entertaining the world.

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).