George Westmore Establishing an Industry the Legacy of Makeup Artistry

George Westmore an on Set Moment

In the early days of cinema, it was common for actors to do their own makeup and wigs, a craft that found its roots in theatre and vaudeville and carried over to the beginnings of the film industry and changed dramatically thanks to the savvy and artistic vision of George Westmore.

George Westmore, whose vision brought him from the Isle of Wight in the UK where he had established himself as a hairdresser and wigmaker, going onto become a leading light in the film industry working his way from Canada to the USA as a wigmaker with his family and taking risks along the way that led to a career and legacy that is still talked about today. 

With an inauspicious entry into cinema: offering his services for hair and makeup to the Selig Polyscope Company at a starting rate of $25 per week to later and by chance, it was Perc Westmore (son) offering support to Adolphe Menjou who had accidentally shaved off part of his mustache, which so impressed the legendary Douglas Fairbanks (senior) that the Westmore’s were hired to create all the wigs and take care of the hairdressing needs thanks to the professionalism of Perc Westmore and his father George Westmore (father of the clan and founder of the makeup artist industry we all know). 

With a client list that reads like the who's who of cinema throughout the years, from the Talmage family, Theda Barr, Douglas Fairbanks to name but a few, it is no surprise that the ethics and work started in early cinema with the Westmore clan have carried on throughout the cinema age into TV and beyond keeping alive a family legacy of excellence and defining a now multi-million-dollar industry.

To learn more about the Westmore family and its legacy see:

The Westmore’s of Hollywood Website

*With Special thanks to the Westmore family for supporting this blog series.

Digital Magazine Research

In the grand scheme of editorial, it is a great tool for marketing when you handle it correctly and put a little effort into the background work of creating and then the marketing after the image(s) are published. Over the last week, we have been really carefully planning around this idea and thanks to certain websites, we have pulled together a list of potential magazines we will shoot Marketing content for.

We are putting together a budget for this, as its a marketing tool, we will be spending a little extra time and money to make this work the best for us as a team.

looking at this as part and parcel of running a business, we decided that alongside our social accounts, website and film plans (a separate blog will come soon on this), editorials are a great tool for putting out your information and showcasing the work we do and what we are planning for 2020.

Each of our planned shoots will be built around themes that suit the magazines we are targetting and interestingly there is an option that will give us front cover style images that can be showcased across the board on our social media accounts.

An option we are looking at which a few of the magazines do look for is behind the scenes stills and video to be included in the submission, which admittedly is a great concept and allows a greater degree of marketing to the images and opens up an interesting dialogue about shoots that we do love.

As creative director and head of makeup this also allows flexibility in changing up the products used, JamesC is looking to downsize some elements of his kit and bring in new products including the My Beauty Brand range for one shoot, in particular, offering an overall experimental feel to the shoots we have planned.

More updates will be coming soon on the forward momentum of The Lost Creatives.

The Lost Creatives in 2020

In a short space of time, The Lost Creatives has become a major part f the Lost Narrative and we are really proud of what we have achieved to date. In 2020 we are looking forward to what will be a clean slate opportunity and taking the more strides toward achieving our creative goals.

We will be working on new and exciting projects with our affiliates and partners across the globe and making a concentrated effort to increase our marketing, expand on the narrative of professionals in the media sector. Our creative director is reopening his website as a portfolio only site and will continue in his capacity as the resident beauty blogger for The Lost Project and as our primary blogger as well as.

Expansion of the Lost Narrative is being worked on and we will be looking at bringing online (over the course of the year) an additional site that will become our home for film and TV, management services are also being addressed for the new year which will allow us a higher degree of control over how and where we are pushed as a brand.

Part of the expansion will include an increased and focused drive to work closely with our partners Nepal film production and of course HOD TV.

Both of whom we are really proud to be associated with on the film and TV side of our business. It is also worthy of note that World Fashion Media News will see more of our work in print and have exclusive access to the creative team for profiles etc.

In the coming year, The Lost Creatives will be pushed heavily and we will continue to work The Lost Narrative to showcase not just our creative team but the creativity and ingenuity of the media sector as a commercial entity.

The Office of Lost Creatives

We have been really working hard over the last few months designing, meeting with stylists and wardrobe staff and negotiating contacts that will come into full effect in the new year. Much of the work has been done in our home office with emails, WhatsApp messages and our social accounts being heavily used for international calls and messaging.

There are some really big announcements to come as our continuing work Nepal Film Production and they're associated businesses along with plans to shoot a TV series here in Scotland mid-2020.

Portfolio wise, the JamesC mua site will be reopened for the new year and we are working with James on updates and script choices for festival entries (micromania film festival we are coming). Naturally, we will be looking at the Himalayan film festival as well.

Something we are focused on getting done is more of the out of the box fx work to update our books and give some depth to the upcoming shoots we have planned and of course there is our beauty work which will be tied to creative director JamesC webstore with My Beauty Brand.

We are really excited about the prospects for 2020 and so grateful to all our supporters.

My Beauty Brand as a Professional Tool

From a professional makeup artist stance (or that of a beauty blogger) the newly launched range of My Beauty Brand has all the hallmarks of a game-changer for the savvy artist. Looking at key areas of the makeup range and potential avenues we wanted to break this down and show different artist positions and how this can be a beneficial range as a sales tool or for the sheer simplicity of access.

1: Salon freelancers/wedding artists: sales can often top up the wages of an artist and having a brand in-store can be expensive to arrange. My Beauty Brand offers up a simplified solution. Having the range in your kit (an investment with a potential return is always good), you can add the link to your own store to your cards allowing clients to choose from your curated favorites or buy from the collections giving you a commission on sales.

2: Fashion/event makeup: our creative director has worked on numerous shows as an artist and a supervisor, so understands that models do ask for information on the makeup used so they can buy it for themselves. What better option is there on two levels than My Beauty Brand, you can control the look and offer a one-stop-shop for a look, earn commissions on sales and ensure that everyone is on the same page for cosmetics with the back up of ease of marketing as stated above, your shop link on a card or linked to your site allows you to promote your own favorites and streamline the process as supervisor.

3: Film and TV makeup: in much the same manner outlined in the previous two, you can work theMy Beauty Brand range into your kit and know that you will be able to recoup some of your outlay (if you shop from your own store) and that the makeup is suited to your needs from the creative to the commercial. With the added bonus of knowing that actors who want to have a piece of the range can buy direct through your store via a business card or link on your site/social media page or account.

4: Beauty blogger/social media influencer: in much the same vein as other commission-based lines, My Beauty Brand is designed for social marketers and gives you not only a professional grade range that can be integrated into your work but a retail store that does not require you to carry stock or handle shipping etc.

It should be noted that this is currently available in the UK only for shipping and each link in this blog is tied to our creative director and head of makeup JamesC who offers his own professional endorsement of the range and is not affiliated directly with the company at this time he is a supporter and has a storefront of his own.

To learn more about the range or shop from the JamesC favorites click here.

The Process of Consultation and Management At Lost Creatives

As we move ever closer to our goals for the end of the year with contracts being reviewed and an increase in our consultation work for production and other areas, it is interesting to see how our work is being viewed and see the key areas that we wanted to tackle being put into action.

To date, we have secured deals and partnerships with Italy (HOD TV) and Nepal, with further plans to create our own projects in 2020 with some of our business contacts in India such as actor and model Raj Srivastava who has become integral, alongside the team at Nepal Film production, to our overall goals.

Of course, we do have plans for the UK and in particular, Scotland where we will be shooting some of the new content for our website (hopefully by mid-December), it has been slower on that front than we would have liked but certainly positive as we can say that our goals and aspirations are being met in a time frame that is frankly speaking ahead of schedule in key areas.

As we have always maintained, we would prefer to have all the I’s dotted and t’s crossed to ensure that things roll smoothly, which at this point the consultation and management structure we have in place is really moving things forward.

Continuing forward we are looking at stock levels, camera equipment and planning around this to ensure that we have everything in place to a level that creative director JamesC (also senior artist and blogger for Lost Project) is happy with.

In addition to our film and TV goals, we have reopened dialogue with some of our fashion contacts including London and Delhi.

Planning and Development with a PR agency

Image Courtesy of Pexels

In what is a short amount of time, we have secured a great deal of support both in our (current) home base and with outside parties (Nepal Film Production) to a point where we have had early morning video calls back and forth, planning strategies via email, WhatsApp and occasional phone calls.

While this may seem a little strange for a creative team to be doing less of the creation and more of the management it is the nature of the work and we are happy with the progress and deals being pushed which include negotiations with distributors, PR support for the beauty blog side of the business (The Lost Stories) all of this leading to what will be a multi-faceted and diverse company.

This for us means we are making the right choices and dealing with the right people which is a positive step forward and will later, give us the flexibility to be creative as there will be a multinational team rather than just a local base, handling the work. Such an amazing opportunity for us to take risks and put in motion projects that have been on the backburner for a while.

With so much in the works and a clear set of short and longterm goals being placed in motion, it is really an exciting time to be a Lost creative.

Creating a Narrative

When I talk about creating a narrative what I mean is keeping the story linear. Each aspect of what the Lost Concept is has to fit smoothly with the other elements and gel. From the language, I use in The Lost Stories to the way I talk to a potential or existing client.

As the founder and creative director of the Lost Project and Lost Creatives, I do spend my time on the background work and fitting the pieces together. With shoots planned and brand campaign articles to write for PR agents its a matter of juggling my time to fit in what is feasible in a day.

Checking the stats on both our websites, we can see a real global reach to the Lost Project and the start of something similar to the Lost Creatives that is really gratifying given the short amount of time we have been working on this.

Seeing a pattern to the stats is giving us the team a more concrete sense of what we need to do and how to focus our energy on moving forward from a business and geographical stance.

We really are grateful to our audience and will be working on showcasing the other elements of the business very soon, we are looking at relocating and equipment, adding new stock for shoots and so much more is planned much of which will be put in motion in 2020.

The Lost Concept is growing and we cannot be prouder and will be increasing our marketing over the next few months to make the whole package even bigger.

Working Smart in a Hustlers Market

Working Smart in a Hustlers Market

We are taking our time over how and where we market ourselves as a business, building the groundwork before we go full scale in 2020 with our projects in the wider media spectrum. We are focusing on the bigger picture overall and adding smaller details as we go.

To us, the hustle of creating in this market is part of our reason for taking time to get things right, dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s to ensure that every single aspect of the work is clearly defined and fits our brief and look.

We are working with some amazing talents across the globe and have a solid idea of what we want to do and how we want to approach this from a business perspective it does look slow but trust us when we say it, there is a method to the madness.

Aside from our studio based shoot plans, we will be doing a series of location shoots in the UK focused on the Lost Boys and Lost Girls concept taking the dynamic of these ideas and expanding it in a visual context and padding out the idea overall to match our vision.

With our media plans, we have in place the HOD TV option for horror and thriller (they have some amazing projects already in place) and Streamlette who are nonexclusive and open to all styles of shoots, that we will be working with to push our film and TV projects.

Taking the initiative has always been at the heart of our work and will continue to be so, The Lost Concept is built on experience and expanding to encompass and support creative talent.

Searching For a Studio

We are currently on the lookout for a natural light studio to book so we can do what will be a 2-day shoot focusing on the areas of work we will be focused on in the long term.

• Portrait and beauty.

• Character and out of the box FX for film and TV.

Our goals are simple, we want to create inhouse, a series of still images that will be portfolio based for the models and ourselves to showcase not just the skill set of the team but the potential of what we are doing.

With a series of long term plans and targets for 2020, it is really interesting to get to be able to see our hard work behind the scenes coming together, we are constantly dealing with brands and opening up new avenues that will include product placement and video of the work in action. Which we might send-off to one of the many fashion film festivals if we can find something suited to our work.

In fact, part of the plan for the studio shoot is to be behind the scenes videos that will be a showcase of the work as it’s done with our Lost Boys and Lost Girls them from The Lost Project being carried over into the work we are doing.

Naturally, we will do some outdoor shoots in and around the Lost Concept in industrial and bleak landscapes, adding a touch of dystopian drama to our work.

While we are really aiming to be making waves in 2020, we are laying the groundwork now to help with the marketing push we have planned that will integrate all of our social accounts and give a deeper insight into the creative process.

A meeting With Style

We are pushing forward with plans and setting things in motion that will become clear in the next few months for the creative side of our business. In what was part catch up and part brainstorming session, I met with two of my favorite wardrobe people: Shona Boudica Blair and Amber Richards, to talk clothes for some of our marketing shoots.

With two distinct areas of expertise I wanted to pick their brains on, Shona who is known for her reenactment and historical costuming and Amber (currently studying fashion manufacture and retail) who came to the table with the more current and fashion-led options, it was a fun little catch up that led to me leaving with a beautiful 3 piece suit that will be split up to create two different and distinct looks thanks to the input of the girls during our little meeting.

Aside from being a fun time to catch up and discuss our individual progress, it also allowed me to run ideas past them concerning future plans such as collections and our TV plans for 2020.

The Lost Creatives is pushing forward into new areas of business and with the support of the various talented people in our address book, such as our fantastic wardrobe mistresses Shona and Amber, we are able to pull resources and access different areas of expertise that will benefit the projects either by consultation in our meetings with style or through direct action on film/TV/print projects.

In what we are pushing to become a regular thing, we will be calling these get-togethers “a meeting with style.”

The Lost Creatives continue to be a priority for The Lost Team and we are really excited about the future.