Whouknow a New Marketing Tool

We were really intrigued by the idea of the site Whouknow for marketing targetting the creative side of the world and opening up doors to new and interesting prospects with both clients and collaborators. The site itself is straightforward to set up and our creative director JamesC has already thrown his cap into the ring and created a profile.

“There's no such thing as buyers and sellers in creative communities, which is why Whouknow works the way you do. We've also thrown in a bunch of other features that'll make your life a whole lot easier.”

Whouknow offers the option to set a base budget and offer your services to projects on other terms such as barter, it has real scope for marketing and has gathered some interesting talents to the table who are open to opportunities and marketing their skills through the site.

Naturally, we plan to use this as a part of our upcoming projects and where possible source additional team members to the fold for this. In fact, with our 3 shorts and a small-scale commercial/showreel project in the works, this could be something positive and give us access to a host of new faces to work with which is a real boost to our goals both short and longterm.

We recommend you go check out the site and see the potential for yourself:

Whouknow website.

Whouknow Instagram.

Whouknow Facebook.

Whouknow Twitter.

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.

Marketing using Magazines and Behind the Scenes

With the creative development work being done and a much more solid sense of the future of the Lost Concept, we are shooting content and work that is specifically tailored to marketing and will be slow-released as we set out our editorials and other magazine elements in the coming months.

Our goals have become really clear and we are determined to push forward with an agenda of creative commerciality that was our goal from the start of our journey.

All the strategies we are using require a certain amount of investment both financially and in terms of time but will ultimately bring into place what we want and can be used by a wide range of people to accommodate their own business model from makeup staff to the filmmakers themselves.

For us, we are focused on film and TV with a minor but none the less important aspect in fashion and print for the marketing value. *There are sites that are dedicated to magazines that offer different packages that with careful checks and a little effort will make good marketing tools for business.

The logic we are using to work this is we are a business, we want to create content that sells and promote ourselves in the best light with key members of the senior team organizing and looking at the different aspects structuring the photoshoots around the magazines to maximize the potential of the work across the board; this does mean we have had to calculate a budget to cover the costs and will be talking to a Google rep this week about SEO.

Our preference overall is for digital magazines and online content sites as the overall potential reach is higher when you combine the magazines reach and our own social networks (this can be a smart method of driving home your brand and giving validity to your skills).

From cover images to interviews, the options are endless and we are going to be adding behind the scenes stills and video to our arsenal with our script work in motion and a solid sense of the future of our company it is going to be a fun few months as we finish our additional sites and creative director JamesC reopening his portfolio site with fresh content, after 20 years in the job and his various travels the time feels right to relaunch his site, he will still be a heavy influence on our blogs but will also be influencing the direction of the business more strongly in terms of the look which we are all very excited about.

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.

Depixym Paints A Freestyle Artistry Dream

When it comes to creative makeup there is one artist that stands out above and beyond: Linda Mason, her freestyle work has inspired many shoots for me and I will be working on something new with The Lost creatives soon to showcase this. When I came across the Depixym Paints I knew the time was right to start working on something fresh and outside of the commercial norm that could be an editorial piece.

Opening the doors to a wide range of potential looks, the paints are designed to be used on the whole body (externally), a creative must, they are reminiscent of the traditional paints you would find in a fine art studio and have a vintage, tactile look that makes you want to play. The color spectrum they offer is perfectly suited to mixing or using straight from the tube. A truly multi-purpose range the scope is endless.

We will be looking into booking a studio soon and naturally we will be doing some clean beauty work and experimental with a freestyle paint shoot, simply because it will be fun and that is ultimately what makeup should be.

Taking this forward we can see the potential of the Depixym paints and will be testing these out during the shoot for the sheer and simple joy of working with something designed for creativity and thinking outside the box.

*A little side note to the Depixym Paints is they would fit perfectly with period makeup as they are close to the original makeup used on early cinema and consumers, making them ideal for the ’20s to 50’s looks or pin-up work amongst other options. Which we will consider for our future film/TV projects.

To learn more about the range see:

Depixym Paint Website.

Depixym Paint Instagram.

All We have is Now

When I was asked about the motivation behind The Lost Creatives, my answer was simple. All we have is now. Over the last few years, we have seen a dramatic change in the industry both from an observational standpoint and as a hands-on member of crews for film projects.

Not all have been good experiences and made me realize that the only way that would change is if I did something to rectify it and move forward.

Professionally I see my work and that of the Lost Creatives taking a more film and TV-based route geared toward something solid that can be sold, creating projects from a commercial stance may seem against the grain for some but that does not stop the artistic process contrary to the myth you can be artistic and commercial.

It is not easy to build something solid and takes time, earning credentials and getting started is a scary process but for me, that is half the fun.

Taking the stance that “all we have is now,” I plan to keep moving forward and taking creative and personal risks in business whilst supporting the arts. Each step we make will be a triumph and give more fuel to the business.

*We will give consideration to taking a team to an off-schedule London show during fashion week if we can work the marketing to suit.

Progressing forward we are now looking at additional script ideas for festival projects and editorial concepts that we will use as promotional material over the coming months and then in the new year (watch out for this one) our big marketing push. Creating a new narrative is what we are about.

The expansion will be over time and give us a more solid base to work from with a range of placements coming up which will be designed to give professional experience in the media and fashion arena.