I’ll try to knock another of these out.
We’re up to episode 3: Dream House. Walk into lab with 4 intricate-looking doors.
So, because Twisted 6 Effects lost 2 weeks in a row and are down 2 people, the show decides to move 1 of Team Ethereal Effects to the other team to balance the workload and hopefully add some skill to the other team.
I mentioned this in my previous Spoiler - I don’t like this. So the whole stated purpose was to make two “houses” and have them compete, but since one sucks you have to break up the good house. I guess it’s fair in the sense that they were all assigned by the show runners anyway, so arbitrarily moving one is as fair as the original assignments. It still bugs me, though it is a reasonable concern they had to know they might face.
As I said before, I would prefer the old method of shuffling teams each challenge, but that’s not what they went for.
Anyway, Joseph gets moved to Team Twisted Six (which is now [del]4[/del] 5). So, will moving one person give enough of a talent shake up to alter the already emerging trend? We shall see.
Challenge: take a picture from behind one of the doors and use that house to inspire a family of three whimsical fairy tale characters that live in that house. Oh, and this is a two day challenge.
Ethereal Effects: foreperson - Suzanne; house - She picks a door with a wooden log for a handle, and inside finds a portrait of a treestump that’s been converted into a house, with a wooden shed on top and a hollow trunk.
Concept: a friendly witch lives in the treehouse, and she has magically befriended creatures to help her go around building homes for less fortunate animals. So they will have a Witch, a Woodchuck, and a Faun. Interesting concept for a “family”, but it’s whimsical so I can’t see how it violates the spirit of the challenge.
Nelson and Suzanne take the Witch, Kiersten takes the Faun, and Faina and Andrew take the Woodchuck. Suzanne decides to make the Witch out of wood, and give her the grainy bark texture. Andrew gets busy on the Woodchuck face, and definitely gets the jolly fun look. Kiersten doesn’t know beauty make up, so she’s challenged right off doing the pretty Faun lady. She’s finishing up her face and decides the pretty face doesn’t fit the other two. Given the short schedule, they rethink and make the female a Woodchuck as well.
Nelson gets to work on the Witch’s cowl, and he starts forming a big treestump sticking up that kinda looks like a hairstyle. Faina starts working the color scheme for the three characters.
Twisted Six Effects: foreperson - Nick; He picks a door with a wreath on it, and he gets a picture of Victorian house covered in colorful flowers.
Concept: Nick suggests Fairy Godmothers, because the flowers speak fairy to him. So they make two Fairy Godmothers and a Fairy Godfather, and will match colors from the portrait. Seems like a decent plan.
KC suggests the father be more treelike and she is going to make a moss-wig and branch antlers. Jill and Nick take on the female faces, KC and Joseph take the Fairy Godfather, and Phil is going to help everyone out. Hmmm. Didn’t someone just get sent home for not doing enough? Guess he will have to make sure there is some element that is really his. He gets with Nick, and they decide to make three chestpieces that are glowing orbs as their power centers to tie the three together. That’s at least something, and it’s central to the characters.
KC is the horn guru, so she designs the set up for the Godfather’s antlers, using magnets so they can be detached and reattached. Smart.
Jill has the Fairy Godmother with the orange colors, but there is some disagreement between her and Nick over the design. He seems to be giving her specific directions rather than letting her design. Jill doesn’t think just putting flowers on the mask is sufficient, so she is making the appliance stretch on down the face and trying to make her own look while being similar to Nick’s.
Mr. Westmore critiques Nick’s face design for ending on the cheeks, saying it will be difficult to fix them down well. So Nick offers to bring the bulk down a bit with more taper. He also comments on Jill’s face that the lower part looks more like bad veins, and the two items need to be more similar. Nick starts getting pushy, suggesting that he “jump in to help refine the look to match his”, but Jill wants her own piece that she made. She gets frustrated that he is being so pushy and walks away to compose herself, so he decides it’s his right to take over, and he starts peeling clay off. YIKES. He starts all over, so they will be “cohesive”.
During application, Nick directs that the three have a white base to paint on top of. But Jill thinks her character has warmer tones, and the white won’t really work. She seems a little lost. So Nick jumps back in and paints more white over the work Jill has done.
Judging:
There’s a guest judge, actress Elizabeth Mitchell.
Ethereal Effects: Witch and Woodchucks. Overall first impression is not bad, but the female woodchuck’s head seems tiny compared to her body. Definitely out of proportion, with no neck.
The wood texture on the Witch looks really good, though there’s something missing in the sculpt of the face. It just doesn’t pop. But the hairdo is great. The judges also feel the head is better than the face.
Pappa Woodchuck is older and pudgy. The face really hits the right notes of being whimsical and fun, the paint job is good, and the hair is applied well. If I have a critique, it’s that the head seems a bit too pudgy and round, losing form. But the character as a whole reads great.
Mamma Woodchuck isn’t as good. Trying to follow the forms of the male but tone them down doesn’t really work. It’s a bit bland. And the fatsuit is out of proportion to the head. Also, Neville points out the lipstick is behind the teeth. This is troubling on the top lip, where the teeth appear to be applied to the lip, not coming from in the mouth.
Twisted Six Effects: First look is good. They definitely have three fairies in bright colors.
Godfather is in green, and his hair is moss and vines, not a cowl at all. His head is really built up to lead into antlers. To me it reads as too much, distorting the shape of the head too much. But the hair and the paint are great. But the judges love it.
Purple Godmother - the problem is the face. The vines and shapes framing the eyes are not enhancing her beauty, the get in the way like a mask. And then the top of her head consists of flowers and blond hair. It doesn’t feel like a full character. And the chest orb is off-center. However, the blends on her cheeks worked out very smooth, so at least that’s good.
Orange Godmother has the same problem with the face and the structure around the eyes. But it also has the problem that the edge above the mouth is very visible. And I think Jill was right, the white was the wrong color for her base coat. She kinda looks like a Klingon wearing flowers.
Faina and Andrew, Pappa Woodchuck: “It’s awesome.”
Suzanne and Nelson, Witch: Ve complains that the witch doesn’t fit in with the woodchucks because they were directed to create a family. I still don’t see the disqualifier - it’s blended family. Glenn says that the lack of accuracy in the tree sculpt looks like it’s a rudimentary version. I don’t see what he’s saying.
KC and Joseph, Fairy Godfather: Glenn loves the shape of the forehead. Elizabeth likes the eyelashes that look like butterfly wings.
Jill, Orange Godmother: Neville, “You’ve arrived at an aesthetic that feels like she is a victim of the forest.” Jill throws Nick under the bus immediately, saying that there was conflict in the shop. Glenn digs into that, and it quickly comes out that Nick removed her clay. “That is tantamount to sacrilege in the effects industry.”
Winning team: Ethereal Effects, for the Woodchuck.
Individual winner: Andrew, for the Woodchuck face.
Eliminated: Nick, for removing Jill’s clay. Bad foreman.
They don’t like the color choice as too doughy.