Okay, time for Finale Part 2 - Glenn’s Haunted [del]House[/del] Experience, “Journey Into Fear”
I forgot to mention that out of the three devices that Roy fabricated, he went 0 for 3 - the first patient’s wing broke on the way over to the soundstage, the demon Ahmet’s hands looked like crap, and Ozmodius’s crown was a floppy cheesy thing that KC had to pitch. I suppose this might be a problem with the very limited time he had for each team as much as anything, but it doesn’t reflect well on a guy who’s reputation for fab is so incredible.
At the close of the last episode, everyone had notes on how their makeups looked via camera and how the audiences reacted, and Glenn and Mr. Westmore’s recommendations for change. Additionally, they just had a “surprise” sprung on them to create a third character makeup, a “floater” to hang out before the tour itself and create the right atmosphere and mood.
Tonight we start with a bit more on that detail. The theme for the entrance area will be an old mental ward that houses the evil doctor’s failed experiments that have all been spliced by some reptile or insect DNA. Because the mutants will be interacting and mingling with the guests before they enter, they will be up close and personal, so the make ups will need to be flawless. Each team has been randomly assigned a character, and Glenn will be by to discuss ideas with each team. 2 days to prep for the Grand Opening.
Because they got a new character, they get a new team member as well. Out come Nick, Laura, and Al. Whee!
KC picks first, and goes for the all-woman shop and picks Laura. I’d probably have picked her, too, just to skip any drama with the other two. Andrew pics second, and he grabs Nick. That leaves Al for Kierstin’s team.
Design Time Redux:
Andrew: Patient 1 has pieces of chitin (bug exoskeleton) emerging from the skin on the face and head, looking like a cockroach. Andrew sketches out an ambitious full head sculpt to make from silicone, including mandibles and fake teeth to hide the actor’s real mouth. Glenn is a bit concerned he has the time to do it and make it look super real, but says he can go for it. Andrew puts Nick to work sculpting the cockroach hybrid, and he’s off to a great start. He assigns Nelson the task to improve the doctor’s mechanical arm attachment, adding a big syringe and tube for liquid. Joseph gets to work fixing the creature’s wing to make it sturdier. Andrew runs a new silicone mask for the Doctor’s head so he can rework it with a new wound in the head. So he runs it and begins painting it over. He then makes a wound to the side of the head - did he sculpt an additional piece and glue it on? Nelson and Joseph start pre-painting the creature to make it have much better contrast.
On application day, Andrew has Nelson and Joseph work on the creature, while Nick and Andrew pre-paint their patient. Once the creature’s appliances are on, Joseph gets to work on details - nails on the creature, the new gizmo from the Doctor’s new head wound, etc.
Kierstin: Patient 3 has fingers fused into a single claw like a scorpion, his face and jaw show the beginning of mandibles taking form. They aim for a slightly less dramatic approach, a facial appliance for half the face and jaw, and an appliance for one hand. She sketches an asymmetric face with a full mandible on one side and a small one forming on the other side. Glenn says that looks like the right amount of work for the 2 day challenge. Kierstin puts Al to work on the scorpion hybrid’s face, she says because he has the eye for detail. She runs a quick liquid latex mold of Phil’s arm to use as the base for a sculpt. She also decides that although the demon Ahmet was pretty good and really just needs the hands redesigned, she wants to up the game so she puts Suzanne to work constructing a set of insect wings to add to Ahmet’s profile as well as start from scratch to make new hands. I don’t know where she comes up with those cool beetle wing shells, but she makes a backpack that has the wings and some more foam for the back. She apparently rolls and folds some foam to make the back, which is quicker than sculpting and lightweight. For the hands, she sculpts and vacu-forms some plastic shapes and attaches them to some gauntlets to allow the actor’s hands to do the manipulation and make the forms more streamlined and scary. The vacu-form will be trimmed better so the edges convey the exoskeleton better. The resulting fingers are smaller than the previous design, but are sufficiently long to be scary and allow the fingers wrapping over the ledge look she wants. Kierstin also decides to make some modifications to her conjurer cowl, as well as start working on the paint job. Color contrast is the most important take away for her.
On application day, Phil is painting the demon cowl and face, Suzanne is working on the wing harness, and Al is molding the nose pieces. Kierstin takes point on the conjurer, making sure the paint is much more distinctive. Somewhere along the way, someone modified the demon face sculpt as well, because the nose has removed the horn thingy altogether. Al is applying the patient, but finds the edges on the facial appliance aren’t quite as good as he hoped. But he claims to have a lot of experience doing this and making the edge lines disappear. We will see.
KC: Patient 2 has thick black feelers protruding from his body like a fly, and a proboscis forming from the face. Jill suggests making the nose skeletal and then the proboscis coming down below, and KC likes that. Glenn likes the idea, and stresses the importance of scaling the work and making it super real. KC assigns Laura the task of fabricating the crown and collar for Ozmodius. She sculpts some forms to vacu-form with black plastic, which will make them stiffer than the L-200 and yet lighter as well. Jill has the task of rerunning the hands - let’s see if she can get it right. She should, given she has more time to run the molds. The Imp character needs major work, but KC doesn’t want to start from scratch, so she has Faina run a mold on the existing mask and then use that to sculpt harpy features to it. I don’t know if that will be enough of a change to save that character. But this work breakdown allows KC to focus on the new fly-hybrid character.
For application day, KC has a lot of work left. She gets Faina started doing applying and painting the prosthetics with Jill - Faina excels at both of those. She has to work fast but still give flawless work. KC works with Laura to continue working on Ozmodius’s crown and collar. KC puts Jill to work sewing the crown into the wig while she sets out to monitor everything else. She begins adding some vibrant paint patterns to the Imp character’s head, ears, and neck, to improve the look and give it some more contrast. During installation of Ozmodius’s collar, wig, and crown, the whole apparatus has to be secured better, so the team works to safety pin the crap out of it all.
Results:
Andrew, room 1, laboratory: The complete set is even better than the glipse we had from the first episode. There is an old blinking light computer panel on one wall, jars of things in formaldehyde at the back, an old light microscope, some other apparatuses, and the centerpiece is a table that folds up to allow the “patient” (aka creature) step off it. The light is once again green, but now the paint jobs read much better in the lighting. The creature has much higher contrast coloring to break up the countours of the head, which makes the weird lumpiness read a lot better, like misshapen growths. The scales on the neck, face, and shoulder pop out much better, and they were already pretty good. The wing is intact and painted with shades of green to give the crocodile element. And the dome eye has been painted with a lot more detail patterning so at least it isn’t a tennis ball. I guess it could be lizard instead of insectoid. The new wound on the doctor’s head is creepy and cool, with a great paint job to read like injured skin. There’s a small magnifier lens attachment to help the doctor see better. The arm attachment is good, and the hairline has been fixed. In fact, the only complaint I have with the doctor is the mouth - for some reason it is actually stiffer than the test run.
Kierstin, room 2, Temple: Kierstin’s set is also much better, with columns and two enormous statues of Anubis, plus the giant well from which the demon arises, and a portal that the guests run down to leave the area, which has some funky light work and a laser working to really look like an energy portal and not just a hallway. The contrast on the conjurer is much better, with the face skin a very pale white, and the head dress a deep green. Looking here, she for some reason changed the top of the piece, adding black beetle shells that cover the top and a ring of stringy flesh? around the tips of the spikes. I don’t like that as much as before. She has the underlying sculpt of the head piece still there - I saw it during prep, where she was painting it - so I don’t know why she also changed it. I think the gooey stuff ruins the silhouette of the spikes on the head, which were more unique. Overall it is much better of a read because of the paint contrast, but I prefer the old top. The demon Ahmet read is also better. The wings and back and spines across the top of the head are black and shiny like bug chitin, while the face is more crocodile skin. The dark paint contrasts with the lighter face, which has stronger contrasts within its paint job. The nose is better without the horn. For the face, the sculpt on this one is interesting - it has a wide face with a narrow muzzle protruding, but not very far. I get the protruding muzzle is supposed to be croc-like, but against this facial shape it reads a bit more dragony. The teeth also jut out a bit too much. Still, it has a very strong read and it’s not a strong complaint. The hands are also a huge improvement, getting rid of the clunky shapes and visible lines. The fingers don’t reach over the well wall quite as much, but they work well enough to give a creepy feel, and combined with the enhanced silhouette with the wings, it is a great result.
KC, room 3, Hell: The light is just as harsh a red as before, but now KC and her team have made the paint jobs much better. Ozmodius has a pale face to stand out better, and the contours and shadow lines have been strengthened to pop. She somehow adjusted the face piece to include some small spikes under the eyes, and the break up greatly helps the “simian” complaint. Even more importantly, both the hands and the crown/horns turn out great and really fit the scale desired by Glenn. The crown and horns have a huge collar around behind them, which helps enhance the look. The chest appliance has had the paint contrast strengthened and had red gemstones added. The chest reads much better and is creepier. The hands are sufficiently large and well molded. As for the Imp character, I’m not as impressed. The hook nose looks more birdlike, which is an improvement, but she didn’t change the sculpt on the ears or the head, so that is still not great. She did add some vibrant paint on the sides of the neck and ears, and also the back of the head. And to help the head, she’s added some type of hat that covers the dome but has a slit to expose the paint in back, though I didn’t notice that the first time through. The paint is an improvement, but the overall character still kinda sucks.
Audience Reactions:
Anteroom - Mental Hospital Ward with patients:
The room is decorated with old institutional beds and such. Some guard characters come out and mingle with the audience. They are wearing large steel helmets with tubes and hoses, glowing eyes, etc and have speakers pumping out creepy breathing noises. They act imposing to get the audience started. Then the floaters emerge. All three characters are scary and creepy and gross. They all get a great reaction as they mingle around and interact with the crowded room. They have guests flinching and screaming and running around, jumping on the beds to get away.
Andrew, patient 1, the roach-man: This one is the stuff of nightmares. The head is shaped with tiered layers like a bug shell, and the skin has been given a bit of a shine to help sell that. Then there are two large antennae from the forehead, the blend around the eyes are once again steller, and the mouth has two huge mandibles jutting out from the edges inside the lips, with big teeth and gums to give the rest of the mouth form. The mouth might be a little static, but the details in the sculpt and paint are spot on, and then he covered the thing in slime, which the actor casts about as me moves. Utterly disgusting.
Kierstin, patient 2, scorpion-man: Al has surprised me and done a spectacular job with this one. The face sculpt is great, it really reads creepy buglike, and the application is stellar. He really did make the edge lines disappear. The character design as a whole works well because, by being somewhat human, you have that empathy for him more, and Ve mentions he could be verbal if you wanted.
KC, patient 3, fly-man: This guy is absolutely disgusting. The nasal openings like a skull are creepy, and the bumps and pus-y nodules are gross. The actor starts snuffling his proboscis in a bedpan, and that is just awesome. He’s got some black feeler hairs from his head like fly. The paint job is great.
Next, the “ghost girl guide” makes her appearance. She comes waddling in on two crutches, with a bowlegged and hunchbacked shamble. The make up on her is also amazing, and a huge step up from the sample make up on the test day. This face really has shapes that suggest insect, being smooth and shiny with stretched lips. And then there are reptilian elements in the feel, too, especially in the thin arms and long pointy finger claws. I guess Glenn didn’t want to drop this to the contestants before they were done designing. The actress delivers her lines in just the right creepy tone of voice, too. She leads the guests through the rooms in groups.
Andrew, room 1: The doctor is thin and his head is slim-faced and bulbous. The sculpt and paint really read like an old man. Like I said, my one complaint is the mouth is just a little too rigid, which the previous mask did better. But everything else is spectacular. Then the table tilts up and the monster is unleashed to chase the guests. He lurches into motion and chases them really well. I do observe that Glenn was very adamant that he wanted the wing to twitch before the creature was animated, but I don’t see that happening. I guess they couldn’t get the mechanism working right? But everything else is so great and the delivery is so good that it isn’t missed except I was specifically looking for it. Glenn and Ve feel the head proportion works great, it isn’t too big for the small body.
Kierstin, room 2: The conjurer looks great under the lighting, and the room lighting helps by flashing like a storm. He gestures, and the well is full of fog. Then he calls forth the demon, who starts by having 1 large hand rise up and grab at the rim of the well. That pulls off the creepiness that Kierstin was seeking in that profile. And the pop of the vacu-form plastic on the rocks sounds like an insect scrambling forth. The wings cut up through the fog and become visible next, before you can see the full outline, so once again the tension of the reveal builds. And then the demon lunges up into sight, and then starts reaching out over the wall towards the guests. He has a guttural growl and looks fierce. Ve thinks the proportions of the head are off, being wide on the sides and then having the narrow muzzle. And she doesn’t like the teeth. I kinda see what she says, but I think it works pretty well for the description given, which is to have reptilian features. Neville compliments the artistic detail that Kierstin placed on the bridge of the conjurer’s nose, saying she has a real feel for beauty. Neville loves the silhouette and reveal of the creature, with the anticipation. Glenn agrees, and he is pleased with the new hands and the look of the fingers. Glenn comments that it has improved dramatically.
KC, room 3: The imp’s movements and voice are good. The nose is an improvement, but still not spectacular. The ears haven’t changed, which doesn’t eliminate the goblin/elf element. The hat hides the paint added to the head without really breaking up the shape. The collar of the costume hides the paint applied to the neck, so the only part of the paint really visible is on the ears. The mouth still is troublesome, although they did replace the teeth with a taller set that hides the lips behind it better. Also, a harpy is a bird lady, with bird legs and wings. Making a harpy without wings and no feathers feels wrong. It shows that the result looked more goblin or evil elf because it didn’t have bird features - the bat elements overcame any harpy concept. Adding a beak nose did not do nearly enough to fix that. Then Ozmodius is revealed by a bright spotlight focusing on him, and his face really pops out with the color scheme and the paint contrast. The contours on the cheeks read great and solve the large empty flat spot problem. The chest stands out so much better, the waving hands add to the imposing feel, plus the giant horns. And then the throne surges forward and Ozmodius screams - it is really terrifying. I do still have a problem with the drape from the knees going so far to the floor that it makes the legs not read right. I see now how they built up the knees to look bigger, so the hands and knees fit the same scale. The huge head is so much better than the small head from the test audience. The helmet and collar just sell it so much more.
The audience reactions are uniformly fear and terror, from the hospital room through to Hell. People are jumping and screaming and flinching and running. It is everything they wanted in a Haunted Experience. Glenn says they exceeded all expectations.
Judge Reviews:
Kierstin: Glenn says every single thing got better in every way. He loves the new hands for Ahmet. He loved the new back and wings and how that created a cool shape. He thinks the conjurer got even better. Ve loves the paint on the conjurer, and she says the best result was the patient, where the remaining humanity in the face made it more tragic, and the fused hand was the creepiest element. I just finally saw the close up of the hand, and the ring finger is actually a nub between the fused thumb and two fore fingers and the pinky claw. And you can see the fingernails on the fused fingers. They eye to detail and form is superb. Neville says she has so many beautiful moments, like the nosepiece on the conjurer’s helmet. Her personal style has moments of works of art throughout, and the downside is everyone is so scared they don’t have time to experience them. Neville says Kierstin found her footing at the most important time of the season, and she didn’t let up the gas in the finale.
KC: She says the imp was described as goblin-like and she wanted to play with personal fears of harpy. Except the description in the first episode says nothing about goblin - that was Glenn’s critique of how it looked, when she was aiming for a batlike harpy. She also says Glenn told her to look to arachnids for Ozmodius. I don’t recall that. Ve starts with “bedpan man”. She says when he started eating from the bed pan, she thought she was going to barf. KC says he’s been calling himself “Snotty Pippen”. The demon guy big head and collar, everything about him was fantastic. Neville compliments how brave she was to do such a big head and then also the chest and do it so well. Glenn says she did amazing at synthesizing the changes. The proportion was correct. He says the nose worked far better, and the “frog pattern” she put on the skin made it much more sophisticated. I don’t know about that - so much of the paint was hidden.
Andrew: Neville said the patient was so beautiful, he got the cockroach immediately. He says the choice to go with the almost cartoonlike and cliché bulbous head for brainiac was risky, but it communicated instantly to the audience and was a huge success. Glenn says the doctor was his favorite character. It was so realistic, you might think it was just an old man with some attachments. The doctor lures them in and then the creature lurches at them and scares them more because they were focused on the doctor. Ve loves the integration of insect and reptile in the creature, with the elements intertwined instead of separated on different halves. Glenn says the doctor couldn’t get better. As I mentioned, I think the mouth was just a tad stiff. Neville says he doesn’t think the creature was terribly inventive. Well, that wasn’t really his sculpt, either, - it was Phil, who we know struggles with that. But Andrew still bears responsibility for the design. But it was well-done. Then the patient which was another full head silicone mask that was flawless as well. Neville points out that Andrew’s quality has been a constant.
Winner: Andrew. He had three awesome make ups. In the test run I wasn’t thrilled with the creature’s shapes, but with the new paint job it conveyed so much better. And he did a lot of work fast to deliver the new patient character with a full head silicone mask. And his overall season quality was more consistent than KC or Kierstin.
Kierstin had all three of her make ups being great overall, with a few small elements that were off primarily on the demon. She had less work on the patient, but it was still excellent, and she made bigger changes to both her other characters. She had a large workload for that. But she struggled at points in the season and had to find her confidence.
KC had two amazing make ups and one that was passable, improved but not a lot over the test run. Her biggest workload was crafting that headdress and horns. Her new character was a full face and a bald cap with some attached blenders. She had a big mold, though, with the long proboscis. Her all-season quality wasn’t quite matching Andrew’s, but she did very well overall. I think she needed to fix the Imp better to have a shot at the win.
MacKenzie’s blue sequined dress is also superb.