Fragmented: a Short Film

Having already garnered festival laurels and awards, the short film Fragmented by Accion Films is a prime example of the excellence that can be found on the indie scene and shows that working outside the mainstream is a valid and in many cases fruitful avenue.

Built around heartache and building to a heart-warming moment of family unity, the creative team led by Alejandro Forcado has given the world a glimpse into the beauty and humanity of his country, the people and brought a familiar concept into a new realm that with an amazing team of creatives from the actors to the crew, and showcased talents that deservedly are receiving accolades for their work.

To learn more about the Accion Films see:

Accion Films YouTube.

Accion Films Instagram.

The Foreboding: Fractured

We are always impressed when people take risks and put together projects big or small to showcase their talents, The Foreboding: Fractured is just such a project and with the cast and crew currently doing the media rounds we will be talking in more detail with them soon but could not resist taking the opportunity to start that rolling with a featurette of our own on the film and a little preview set of images from the award winning film.

“Entering the woods for a simple camping trip, four university students find themselves hunted for reasons unknown. With their fates being intertwined in this place, how can they ever escape? Perspective is everything.”

With interviews already in motion, we were lucky to be able to get some of the images from the film and to be able to talk to Peter Tilley about his involvement and will be expanding on this soon in the meantime we suggest you check out their other interviews and IMDB to learn more about the film and to see the team talking about the project:

IMDB The Foreboding: Fractured.

Horror Scream Video Vault Interview.

Blazing Minds Interview.

Podcast Interview.

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.

Creating The Lost Dog Detective Agency with Tedium Entertainment

With numerous shorts under their belt, the team at Tedium Entertainment is working on their latest crowdfunded project The Lost Dog Detective Agency, a sweet coming of age film that has caught attention and backers in short order. Founded in 2016 they have already made waves within the film community and this latest project has the hallmarks of a winner with a touch of social commentary.

“The Lost Dog Detective Agency is a coming-of-age tale of two 10 year old boys, Darion and Emmanuel, growing up on an estate in South West London.”

Bringing a film to fruition is hard work and with their body of films is growing constantly with plans in motion for more shorts, a feature film, and a TV series in the background, we look forward to not only seeing the results but interviewing the team about this film and talking about the details of funding, shooting, and creating work in the current market.

To learn more about The Lost Dog Agency project or to help with funding click here.

For further details on Tedium Films and their work see:

Tedium Entertainment Website.

Tedium Entertainment Instagram.

Tedium Entertainment Facebook.

Tedium Entertainment Twitter.

Motivational Changes

With so many changes happening in the world of cinema, our predictions are starting to look more and more like a reality as people move toward digital platforms and the rise of the Indie film scene as smaller companies step to the plate and create films and TV projects that are specific to the likes of Prime and Amazon in general and of course our own personal favorite HOD TV.

Part of this for us has been about rethinking the websites and the content, we have made some small steps in this and will be taking our creative director’s portfolio site fully offline for a few days to reorganize and rebrand to fit upcoming projects.

While this is happening we did pull out some images that for us are a marker of what we are aiming to showcase and have a very commercial leaning that suits our style and future plans. What we have also been doing is talking to other small companies via Twitter, where we have been making a push toward support for Indie film of all stripes and will be publishing interviews with some fantastic small companies who have been talking about their pre-production work for their projects and how they are working within the guidelines. taking time to talk to distributors about what is out there for us as a team.

Naturally, for us, we are going to be looking at web TV first and foremost and have looked into various festivals and options to promote with our ultimate plan being commercially driven.

Film Festival Tie-ins

In the run-up to the festive season, we were talking to various small film festivals gathering information, and planning for the future. Naturally, this meant opening accounts with sites like Film Freeway and doing some in-depth checks and planning around our goals for the company. What this has led to will be announced soon with full details of how and where we will work. One of the festivals (in Eastern Europe) reached out to us and we are now talking in terms of being a media partner which we do love as a concept. Film and TV, particularly web TV, is something we as a team are keen to push forward with now more than ever.

This does not mean we will be abandoning our editorial work, far from it, we will work with magazines on a continuous basis as part of our marketing strategies but will not be the sole aspect of what we do. In fact, we have found a very interesting film crew based magazine that looks really promising in marketing terms so we will be writing inhouse articles to publish and take ad space later in the year.

Our plans are coming together well and there is some diversification in motion. More announcements and news will be released on the completion of the contracts. We are excited about the prospects of 2021 and look forward to showcasing the hard work that has already been done in the background.

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.

Festive Thoughts From The Lost Creatives

Featured brand Lord and Berry (UK)

A slight departure from our normal scheduling but we wanted to get this post out before Christmas day and say a big thank you to all our supporters, the brands, and of course our readers as we share our final thoughts for 2020. From here we will be focusing heavily on the future and what will be happening for the team in the new year. We have been busy over the last few weeks setting in motion concepts, finalizing and in some cases reediting images for the various websites we run, there will also be a run of work that is designed specifically for editorial (we have some really fantastic magazines we have shot work for). We do want to look at the festival circuit, there will be an announcement of a new film festival media partnership in the new year, the goal of this will be to boost our video content and bring a little attention to talent. Naturally, these projects will be small crews/cast to keep the costs down and very much in the kitchen sink drama territory which will develop into other areas and our ultimate goal of tackling the horror/thriller market for TV, scripts are already earmarked for this.

One of our biggest supporters and our favorite writer, has offered us a development contract that will expand our portfolio to include video games for a variety of platforms which is an exciting prospect.

Our creative Director; JamesC, is working around different ideas and is editing, shooting, and managing our background work such as the brand placement and of course stock levels.

We will of course keep you all in the loop of changes and updates through the website and till then we want to, again, thank you for the support and wish you a Merry Christmas.

2nd Nepal Cultural International Film Festival-2020

With the festival team working hard and the brand support being announced next week, The Nepal Culture and Film Centers International Film Festival is shaping up to be a huge online affair with over 40 films, 24 countries, and an array of speakers in place it is set to be a landmark in the cultural and cinematic calendar.

• The 1st of December will be the grand opening ceremony through virtual media which Ncfc team members, Chief guest, selected filmmakers, jury members, actors, film industrialists, and the VIP guest will be invited to attend the virtual festival.

• From the 3rd to 18th December selected films will be screened. Each day 5 films from different categories and countries will be screened virtually and will incorporate Q&A Session with the filmmakers after the screening of the film.

• The final award distribution ceremony will be held on 29th December.

Filmmakers can register their attendance for the festival free of charge, forms can also be filled out worldwide through the website of the organization: www.2ndnciff.ncfc.org.np.

The Micromania Catalogue is Live

While many have put their careers on temporary hold and are now focusing on marketing or planning for a new slate of projects, the team behind the Micromania Film Festival have taken steps to support indie film and have opened up their back catalog of work (all films under 5 minutes) through their Vimeo channel, giving talent a new home and a chance to be seen. Which is a huge plus and opens the door to new and exciting names in the industry. A technical route that is often overlooked there is something incredible about the short that film should be appreciated and valued, a story can be as simple as a single image and Micromania is a shining example of showcasing talent, giving a voice and a platform to films under 5 minutes and talent off the charts.

The doors are open for 2020 and submissions can be made through Filmfreeway allowing you to open new doors and get your films seen.

Building a story and creating a cohesive look in a small format can be a big challenge that does not get the same reverence in the global scheme so its important to support not just the films but the talent behind and The Lost Creatives are fully behind the Micromania Film Festival.

To learn more about the Micromania Film Festival or to submit your project see:

Micromania Film Festival Website.

Micromania Film Festival Film Freeway.

Micromania Film Festival Facebook.

Micromania Film Festival Twitter.

Micromania Film Festival Instagram.

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.

Refreshing The Lost Concept

In the last month, we have been working really hard on the creative and more solid business elements of our work and we are really grateful to our partners for not only being in regular contact but helping with giving us a new direction and helping to define boundaries.

Over the next few weeks, we will be working with our creative director JamesC on what will be his relaunch, a new portfolio website and shop with My Beauty Brand is being constructed to showcase his work and separate him from the more lifestyle and art-based work of the Lost Project.

With all the new doors being opened up to us with our new collaborative relationships and partnerships in place with companies such as Nepal Film Production and HOD TV, whos horror and thriller distribution service we will be making good use of, we are really gearing up for the new year as the starting point of a whole new and fresh business year.

Lost Project will continue as an art, beauty and lifestyle blog with a new element of travel (which we are really happy to take on) with efforts made toward creating new work for that site around its current themes.

Lost creatives as a site is going to expand and we will have a new banner for production coming soon, with ties to our current team members here in Scotland and some more options coming to the fore with our partners overseas.

Overall, we are happy with our new direction and will continue to push boundaries with our team and media partners.

Out of Kit Prosthetics

Out of Kit Prosthetics was an interesting Instagram find by our creative director who was researching options for upcoming projects including a TV series and several shoots which will require Prosthetics. What caught our attention as well as his, was the potential of the range and selection. Built around film grade materials (silicone and top quality skin-safe adhesives), the Out of Kit range is a film artist dream for cost-effective and high-grade materials that will revolutionize the indie film sector in particular.

Image courtesy of Out of Kit

What drew us into the potential of the out of kit range was this quote from the website:

“When you’re being crushed by production deadlines, there’s no room to do anything but react. You can only run around putting out whatever fire is burning brightest.”

As we are working with the team from Nepal Film Production on PR and project development, this has the potential to be a real asset to us long term and the catalog of items on the website have already got us thinking about how and where these items can be used to add depth to our character for the TV Show we have planned for 2020. Standing out for us is the fighter kit (available in 4 different skin tones), which would fit perfectly with one of our planned stills shoots).

Out of Kit offers a bespoke service (details available via the site below) as well as their premade items and collections including trauma, old age, fantasy, and character.

To learn more about the company or to purchase from the range see:

Out of kit Website

Out of Kit Facebook

Out of Kit Instagram

Nepal Film Production Partnership

Nepal Film Production

Our creative director and founder JamesC has done his time across the globe working in Europe, across the UK and of course a 2-year stint in India, so it was a natural progression to deal with Nepal and this new partnership with Nepal Film Production is an absolute joy to announce.

One of the most unique and beautiful countries in the world, Nepal is the jewel in the crown of South Asia and is considered a hub for creativity, tourism, and spirituality that has no parallel anywhere in the world.

We are familiar with the managing director Digbijaya Bharati who’s connections and business skills are widely known and respected throughout Kathmandu (Nepal). His attention to detail, malicious business sense and ability to spot trends have put him in a unique position of authority in the media industry.

With Lost Creatives and Lost Project (by extension makeup artist and creative director JamesC) all joining forces making us the UK partner to the Nepal Film Production team with more options being discussed and contracts being drawn up it is the start of our existing business relationship that will see us make changes alongside Digbijaya Bharati and his team across 2020 and beyond affecting not just how the Lost concept moves but the Nepal film production team works as well.

Having built a solid reputation for their professionalism in media including previous work as location fixers and production managers for companies working documentary, drama and a huge array of film and TV projects from across the world including the USA and mainland Europe.

More announcements on this partnership will be coming soon. If you want to learn more about the potential of Nepal for film and TV production see:

Nepal Film Production Website.

MicroMania Film Festival

Short films have a magic all their own, the skill and talent in front of the camera, the talent behind it and ultimately the ability to condense and convey a story concept in a short amount of time is often overlooked and undervalued as a skill set. From a commercial stance, it’s common to see an advert designed to convey a narrative quickly and effectively.

As a storytelling format its an incredibly smart move especially now in the social media age where there can be time constraints on your piece posted to one of the many platforms or you could be taking that first step into the world of media and want to show your talents.

Creating a narrative is important to your journey and with the festival circuit, there is no greater start than the MicroMania Film Festival who see and value the art behind films of 5 minutes or less.

What was the inspiration behind the Micro Mania Film Festival?

Last February, I took my two-minute short ‘Ostarbeiter’ to screen at the Santa Fe Film Festival (which I highly recommend). It occurred to me, at that time, that the odds of film 5 min or under of winning a festival award, no matter how amazing, groundbreaking or incredible it may be, are really slim when juries with films up to 44 minutes in length - which is the standard definition of ‘short film’ across the industry. Apples and oranges. These are distinct film-making forms and should not be judged together. Finely crafted micros are great proofs of concept and skill that cost less to produce. They are an accessible avenue of entry to an industry well known for its barriers.

By that logic, if film festivals really want to #SupportIndieFilm they need to modifying rules and fees with regard to micro-short submissions. Premiere restrictions make no sense for micros and neither does exclusivity in

terms of online availability. Micro short films are not in the same game with regards to distribution and should be free to build audiences anywhere and everywhere. I get why most fests only accept recently produced films but for me, only quality and impact matter. I don’t care when a film was made. It’s a shame to put effort and passion into creating something only to have it sit on a hard drive, unseen, after one run. Ultimately, I’d like to see micro-short film-making as a viable means of revenue generation and audience building for the millions of filmmakers out there doing their thing. I’ve got a big idea that I’m working on to make that happen.

Who is it aimed at as an audience? Animation? Live-action? Drama? Horror?

micromania Film Festival was created for film lovers who either already love short content or are unaware of all the great work out there. I want audience members to be surprised and inspired; surprised by the quality that matches the longer length theatrical releases they are used to, and inspired to make micros themselves. Accepted films run the gamut of genres from animation to experimental.

What are the short- and long-term plans for the festival?

In the near-term, I’m organizing encore presentations for those who weren’t able to make the first event. I want these films seen by as many people as possible. Ultimately, I want to micros recognized as a distinct and respected form of film-making alongside ‘short films’ and features. I’m working on collaborations and partnerships with other fests to share promotion, lessen restrictions on micro-short submissions and enhance value for filmmakers.

Year two - find sponsors. I’d love to make submissions free and offer some cash awards. I’m also considering building this out to a few genre-specific single-day festivals that build to an annual multi-day fest.

How can people get involved and show support?

Let the filmmakers you know about MicroMania Film Festival. Submissions will be opening again in the next few months and the best way to hear about it is to follow us on twitter @MicroManiaF and add us to their FilmFreeway watch list. We’re also on Instagram @micromaniafilmfest and on Facebook (which I want desperately to leave). If you work for a company that is trying to reach a big filmmaker audience, have them reach out. We have a number of fun sponsorship opportunities. And always, #SupportIndieFilm - and by an indie film, I mean real films with budgets far under 1M that have faces you don’t recognize.

Lukia Costello

MicroMania Film Festival Director and indie filmmaker