Tea and Business With Nepal Film Productions

Something I and the rest of the team at Lost Creatives are incredibly proud of is our ties to Nepal Film Productions as a consultant, our founder and creative director JamesC works closely with the team to discuss a wide range of subjects and catch up on the latest business news from our partners in Nepal.

Our most recent discussions were done as always virtually, with JamesC taking coffee at his favourite spot and working with the team at Nepal Film Productions on some smaller concept project details with a little personal news into the bargain.

Leaders in various fields, it is always a pleasure to hear about the clientele and projects that they are involved in and offer up new options such as introductions to our own contacts such as Sons of Adonis, and New Village Video, giving the makeup artists and fellow filmmakers of Nepal access to new resources and avenues in both makeup and of course, distribution for indie film.

Nepal Film Productions are currently working a slate of exciting projects with new and regular clients ranging from the premium end of the market (Netflix and Warner Bros to name but two), as well as indie film and collaborating with film festivals to showcase new talent.

Very soon we will be working on a series of blogs with Nepal Film Production on a wide range of subjects that affect the industry and offering a deeper insight into a country that is the jewel in the crown of South Asia, a beautiful country with a fascinating history, the endless potential of Nepal is something we are always happy to showcase and in conjunction with our partners at Nepal Film Production, look at things from a different perspective than the standard vision of the country.

To learn more about the company and Nepal or what they can offer to film and TV see:

Nepal Film Production Website.

Talking Business with Lukey Lukey

Something we find fascinating is the desire and passion behind brands, Lukey Lukey is a great example of this with the line already gathering attention we wanted to find out more about the beginnings and future of this eye-catching collection.

Lukey Lukey is a curated, yet all encompassing color range that has really grabbed people's attention. Can you tell us more about the line and how it all started?   

 It all started for me during the lockdown. I had been working in the beauty industry as a stylist, colourist and educator for well over a decade, and I had just started a new career as a freelance beauty editor. It was a nice change of pace from the type of work I had been doing for the longest time. I always felt like there was something missing from my career. Whenever I achieved what I set out to do, I wanted to move on to the next thing immediately. I never felt fully content with what I was doing. Finally, it just hit me: I need to start my own brand. Once I had that "Aha moment", everything just became really clear to me. I was grateful to be working fully remotely at the time because it gave me enough time to research everything that I’d need to know to start my own business. The hard work started there, but my vision was crystal clear, so to me the hardest part was already complete. 

When you were designing the Lukey Lukey range what was the driving force behind the look?   

 Lukey Lukey, it’s branding and everything about the aesthetic is like something that’s been trapped inside my head that’s always been yearning to break out. I can’t explain how easy it all came to me. It didn’t even “come” to me, I just let it all out. I knew exactly how I wanted everything to look, how I wanted the logo to be styled, the type of models I wanted to use, everything just flowed very easily. Getting to be creative and design all of this was a dream for me. My mother is an artist and she painted the original artwork, with me instructing how I wanted it to look. It’s such a fond memory of the brand's creation. 

You chose to lead with a cream blusher collection for your brand, is there more planned for the future and can you share with us your plans?   

“ Yes! Blush is very near and dear to me and my journey in beauty! I was always self-conscious of blushing and having rosy cheeks, so it was me taking back my power!”

Trying to celebrate our insecurities – as difficult as that may be at times. I also find blush interesting in terms of colour theory; colour has always been my passion, in every avenue of my life. I have so many plans for future launches and where I want the brand to go. A collection takes such a long time to create, I started planning the second collection before Dream Cheeks – my first collection – even launched! 

Is there any advice you can offer to aspiring entrepreneurs entering into the beauty industry? 

 It’s competitive, so you need to have a very clear idea of what you want to create. Once you know what you want and you are confident in your choices, trust your instinct. Nobody knows what you want to achieve as clearly as you do. It’s great to have a few people to bounce ideas off, but once you make a decision you need to have the confidence to stand behind it. Running a business is difficult enough without doubting yourself, you need to be sure of yourself, always. 

To learn more about the brand or to purchase see:

Lukey Lukey Website.

Lukey Lukey Instagram.

Lukey Lukey Facebook.

Lukey Lukey TikTok.

IC9: A Glimpse Into The World of Film Courtesy of vShowcards

The Lost Creatives team always appreciates when we are given insight and a little bit of the background to a project and as always vShowcards has been part and parcel of that by bringing to our attention the new police drama IC9.

Tackling the controversial and very contemporary issues of people trafficking and illegal immigration, the film looks at the personal as well as the professional from a police woman’s standpoint as she hunts for her sister and discovers a startling, dangerous truth about her own family coupled with the harrowing insight into the world the trafficked people find themselves in.

With a stellar team both in front and behind the camera including such leading actors as Georgia May Foote (coronation street) and Richie Campbell (Grace, liar, ITV) and of course vshowcards founder and all round actor of note Darren Tassell who has (with permission) given us access to the documentation and files for the project.

vShowcards works hard as a casting site and has also played a part bringing in such excellent talent as Richie Campbell, and Georgia May to peoples attention thanks to their savvy use of social media and contacts, each member of the team of course brings their unique talents to the table and add dimension to a nail biting script by Kyle Titteron and Gulshan Singh making this more than a film but a true showcase of talents.

With filming underway at the moment, stories and images are leaking out that show not just a cast and crew enjoying the work but adding to a film that is gathering attention not just from social media buzz but from interested parties looking to the project to see what is happening in the business including bloggers, journalists and potential viewers who are seeing snippets and images sneaking through, the anticipation for this film is rightly high.

IC9 is a large scale UK indie production that is a showcase of talent, ingenuity and intrigue. A truly welcome project that will hit the high notes and with the support of vShowcards and many others who are seeing the potential of cinematic projects and how it can be achieved with the right people backing you.

Naturally, we will be happy to support the ongoing work and cannot wait to see the final film, we will be talking to key team members about the project itself looking at the casting process, making of, and what the future is for the production team.

For more information on vShowcards and what they do see: The vShowcards Website and stay tuned to the blog for further updates on the project.

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.

The Behind The Scenes Podcast is Now Live

If you are a mover, shaker or media maker, then the Behind The Scenes Podcast is the place to be seen and a must for keeping up with what’s happening. Started as a way to bring the behind the camera people to the forefront, it is already offering up insights into the background work of the creative realm that would otherwise be unseen and showing how much deeper the work goes than just the stage or a screen.

We are privy to some of the upcoming interviews (one of which will be our own JamesC) and know how much time and effort is going into this from a purely creative stance, it is already on our watch list. Lost Creatives being a behind the scenes blog, we are fully behind Stephen the founder of the Behind The Scenes Podcast and cannot wait to see more and highly recommend watching and subscribing to the channel and other social accounts.

A special nod goes out to the cast and crew at City Theatre who are amongst the early interviewees and offered up some interesting insights into the world of theatre casting and acting.

To learn more or to subscribe see:

Behind The Scenes YouTube.

Behind The Scenes Twitter.

Behind The Scenes Instagram.

Behind The Scenes TikTok.

Talking Politics and YouTube With That Preston Journalist

Building on his early success, Ashley aka That Preston Journalist, has opened up to The Lost Creatives about his journey as a podcaster and journalist in the YouTube sphere.

Since we first talked to you about your You tube channel and political commentary, what has changed for you as a podcaster and how has that affected your channel? 

When we first spoke, my channel was very much in its infancy. Since then, it has grown bigger than I thought and continues to pick up around a thousand new subscribers each month. As a result, it no longer feels like a hobby or a past time, it is now something that is very much part of my daily routine. As the audience grows, the content I put out has to be taken more seriously as well. When I first started, I was talking to maybe 100-500 people, now the channel generates 50,000-100,000 views per day so it has to be good. 

Working to YouTube restrictions on what you can talk about is difficult, but when it comes to politics, most things are OK. I have also been asked by other channels to appear with them as well which I have done on many occasions, but the main passion is always with the daily content. 

“It is also quite nice to be recognised by people in the street, I am by no means a celebrity, nor do I wish to be, but it does happen sometimes and it is always nice to hear that someone enjoys the channel because it takes up so much time and a lot of effort goes into it.”

One of the things that stands out about your work is you talk from a working man's perspective rather than the usual political bubble stance. What do you think makes this important and how can people be more involved in the discussions? 

One of the biggest compliments I get is that I am a working class man from a working class background. I am not part of the establishment, I live and work in the same streets and towns as the people who watch me, this means I am far more relatable than someone sat in a studio in London who knows nothing about life outside the M25. 

I am very lucky to have an active audience who leave thousands of comments on my channel every week. Its fantastic to see so many people engaged, it shows that the content is interesting and thought provoking, which is exactly what I want. Also, in terms of YouTube, the more comments and interaction you get, the more it aids the channel algorithmically.

Are there political aspirations in your future or do you have other goals in mind that you can share with us?  

I have harboured political aspirations in the past, but to be honest, I, like many millions of people in this country, am politically homeless. This, I feel, helps the channel because it gives me some impartiality. I can never say never about maybe standing for a party one day, but it won’t be any of the current parties, they all represent the same things and do not represent me. 

I would like to do further media work, perhaps radio or even TV discussion shows, but they are such a closed shop to anyone who isn’t, or hasn’t in the past been a part of the media scene. I am in no hurry to do either really, my channel gets more views a day than some organisations who spend millions of pounds on presenters etc… such as GB news and Talk TV. IF any opportunities did come my way, there is no way I could sacrifice my YouTube channel, it has taken a lot of dedication and hard work to build it up to the position it is in now and I wouldn’t throw it away for anyone. 

What message would you like to convey to your viewers and potential viewers in terms of what you are doing as a podcaster highlighting the political realm?  

The idea of starting the channel came to me because I was so frustrated with the group-think media we have in the UK. Whoever you watch on the TV, whether it be the BBC, ITV, SKY etc… They all say and think the same things, it's just a big echo chamber. 

I wanted to present a different side to politics in this country, what I would consider to be the opinions of the silent majority who are not represented, but these are the people who decide elections, they deserve to hear news from all different aspects. 

If anyone reading this is wondering whether or not to give it a watch, I would ask them to ask themselves, do you believe everything you are told by the mainstream? Is there not another point of view out there to consider? If the answer is yes, then my channel is the place for you. 

I discuss all sorts of subjects in relation to politics and try to remain impartial most of the time, but I do it with passion, so the impartiality lapses sometimes, but I feel that adds character to the videos and debates. Some people who watch my channel don’t even agree with me most of the time, but they keep watching, so I guess that means I am doing something right, if people keep coming back for more, the content must be worth watching. 

To learn more or to subscribe to “That Preston Journalist” Channel see:

That Preston Journalist YouTube.

That Preston Journalist Twitter.

Project Notes

A habit our creative director JamesC picked up when living in India that we are actively pushing again, is keeping a notebook and pen to hand, ideal for writing down phone numbers or emails, sketching ideas for photos or as we know he did frequently, outlining plots for TV or film projects.

JamesC has in the last few weeks come up with ideas that will work as short films for festival entry or expanded into a much longer concept that need to be padded to suit the plans for 2023.

Festivals are going to be a very heavy focus of the work ahead, we have spent a lot of time checking options of annual, quarterly and by far our most favoured, monthly film festivals that take film and photo projects.

Of course our favourite book for filmmakers “Don’t F*ck Up Your No Budget Film” by Ivan Peric, plays a heavy part in our thinking because this insightful first hand account of low budget creation is designed to shape your work into a commercial project and works well with our own thinking and add to this the very savvy and again, first hand account of Patricia Jones book “Opening Doors for Working Class Actors” which when combined with Ivan’s book has the scope to create a great combination and open up the projects we have to fresh talent and with the right focus and marketing (kept within a budget) see a series of smaller films and Web TV projects built with a commercially viable slant that will benefit all involved.

We will be using the Vshowcards site for casting and actively encourage people to check them out not just because we think it is a fantastic network site, but for the various casting calls that are available.

Expanding notes on our plan will be slow released through the blog and we will be working hard to get this push running with the Lost Agency supporting it and of course led by our own JamesC who will be front and centre with upcoming interviews including the Behind The Scenes Podcast, amongst the other elements at play.

Stay tuned for more updates and sneak images of our notes.

Introducing The Behind The Scenes Podcast

Entering into the podcast field and offering up a new perspective on the industry is the team “Behind The Scenes” whose upcoming podcast is creating massive buzz before they launch to such a degree that creatives of every stripe are seeking them out to talk.

Going behind the camera is something we at the lost creatives can appreciate to such a degree that our own creative director will be interviewed, and we are supporting the move fully, the leading voice behind this; Stephen, worked as a supporting artist and saw first hand what goes on and the hierarchy of the industry and wanted to give a voice to those who usually don’t get the chance to share their stories. Opening the door to so many new and established faces, the Behind The Scenes podcast is set to be the place to be seen and heard in 2023!

To learn more about the “Behind the Scenes” podcast and subscribe see:

Behind The Scenes YouTube.

Behind The Scenes Twitter.

Behind The Scenes Instagram.

Behind The Scenes TikTok.

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!