Re: This Challenge.
No.
No no no.
NO NO NO F**K NO AAARGH GET IT OFF MY TV!
YOU’RE PAYING FOR THE BOOZE I’LL HAVE TO DRINK TO GET TO SLEEP TONIGHT, YOU HEINOUS BASTARDS! YOU SUCK!
(And the porcelain WAS the best).
The rabbit chick from the webcomic linked by Skywatcher in the post before mine. The character he named in his post.
I don’t really see the face similarity, and again, the “rabbit” mostly comes from the ears.
Tonight’s challenge - creepy dolls.
Some people think clowns are inherently creepy/scary. For me, it’s marionettes and some ventriloquist dolls. Those wooden heads are goofy shaped in a way that comes off scary. Especially the ventriloquist doll they used.
The rundown:
Logan, Voodoo Doll: I thought his concept of a person becoming a voodoo doll was great, despite what Ve said. She’s wrong. I thought his face and head turned out awesome - creepy, gorey, looks like becoming the burlap creature. His reset really worked on that. The one pin was a good element, like Glen said I think it needed more. The problem is the rest of the body just didn’t convey voodoo doll to me. I don’t know what it was. Scarecrow kinda maybe. Safe is fair.
Emily, Ragdoll: Great concept, great execution. Interesting technique to create the texture she wanted. To me, there was something missing in the face being too obliterated, but the judges raved over it. And great recovery from an oopsie. Overall a strong result and deserved Top Looks.
Julian, Ventriloquist Dummy: My problem is the face is a little too rough hewn, not quite carved enough into a ventriloquist head. Too much wood texture, not enough carving. And as the judges commented, the shape just wasn’t quite the right concept. I think he was going for most of the paint faded and worn off, which is why it was very similar in color for hair and face. The distressed paint effect didn’t come out. There was a lot of good work in the texturing for wood grain and hair. In Bottom Looks, but only because there was a lot of strong stuff this week.
Adam, Rubber Doll: WTF? Adam, you had both Mr. Westmore and Rayce telling you that you were missing this week’s concept of the doll, tone it down. Yet it took you until the end of day 2 to see it? Come on, man! Adam pulled a Ben and payed the price. He went with his concept even though it didn’t fit the challenge. Plus, the work on the face was bizarre and didn’t read like the kind of damage on a doll. Just a giant fuck up this week, and Bottom Look and elimination.
Darla, Porcelain Doll: Even though we’ve seen the porcelain doll before, this one really felt and looked right. She was superb, with the cracks and the paint and the hair, and the oversized head. Clear win.
And I have to applaud all the models this week, for how they portrayed on stage. I loved Darla’s, with the jerky movements, and the smacking the mirror (!). Emily’s was great, too.
So, the current standings:
Logan: 3 Wins, 0 Tops, 8 Safes, 0 Bottoms
Darla: 2 Wins, 3 Tops, 5 Safes, 1 Bottom; 1 Foundation Challenge win
Emily: 1 Win, 4 Tops, 4 Safes, 2 Bottoms; 1 Foundation Challenge win
Julian: 0 Wins, 6 Tops, 2 Safes, 3 Bottoms
Once again, Logan merely makes Safe. He can’t tank, but either blows it away or falls a little short. Can he still limp into the finals?
Darla positions herself as the favorite, with 5 Top/Wins and a Foundation win.
Emily holds tight for 5 Top/Wins and a Foundation win. She’s one Bottom look where Darla was Safe - not much difference in record there. She’s 1 Top for one of Darla’s Wis - pretty close.
And then Julian still doesn’t have an individual win, and fell short this week.
If Emily doesn’t blow it, then it will be her and Darla and then the showdown between Julian can’t quite Win versus Logan who hasn’t failed. The two oddballs shooting it out.
Based on the recent weeks, this is not the way I would have called this one.
Yet again, I think this was a competition that was won and lost during the selection process. We’ve seen porcelain dolls before and, while it’s a makeup that requires a ton of skill, conceptually it’s straightforward. Give it a few cracks and it’s creepy right out of the box. But picking a plastic “baby” doll? What, realistically, did he think he could do with that with a full-size model?
Adam was just genuinely self-destructive on this challenge. He kept to his original concept long after he must have known it was going to be a bottom look. There’s a chance he could have saved it by going big on the “doll” part and minimizing the demon aspect, but he did it the other way around and spent far too little time on the technical aspects of the doll. Ah well. As the judges said, he’s super-employable.
I agree with the judging this week. Ventriloquist doll had a weird head and read “zombie” rather than “doll”, although I thought they could have given him more credit for that cool jointed jaw. Once the jaw moved, it said “puppet”.
The voodoo doll needed more pins and was a bit muddy and messy, but a safe look nonetheless. And Emily had an excellent design and made a nice save on the failed shoulders by pulling out the stuffing.
At this point, it’s anybody’s game and it probably depends on the challenges. A “hard” sci-fi concept would favor the guys, I think.
Is anyone else trying to figure out which way the judging is going to go by looking at the “oh my gosh I’m going home interviews”? Clearly all the interviews were shot on the same day (Emily has worn the same outfit in all of them, and she seems pretty damn perky.)
I was a little surprised that the challenge wasn’t actual marionettes or at least puppets. But creepy dolls is good, too.
Logan’s Voodoo Doll: this was the definition of safe for me, at this point in the competition. There were some good elements. I agree with the scarecrow assessment. But overall, just not stunning enough for top looks this late in the season.
Emily’s Rag Doll: I really liked this, I liked the blobby face, and Ve even picked up on how she made the mold, and seemed very impressed. Glenn seemed to really like the hair, personally I felt the hair was a bit much, but I guess it worked out for her. I am willing to give Emily a pass on her “omg this is a disaster!” approach all the time (reminds me of Miranda from a few seasons ago) because she’s young and otherwise pleasant.
Julian’s Ventriloquist’s Dummy: I understood all the critiques the judges had on this, although some elements were okay. I loved how the jaw was attached a little crookedly, I thought this was a delightfully creepy touch and I was sorry none of the judges mentioned it. But yeah, overall, it was too monochrome and other than the mouth, didn’t really read like a ventriloquist’s dummy, plus I was confused by the backstory – why is this SO old?
Adam’s Baby Doll: Oh man, what happened here? There was just way too much concept and too little doll. I have to say, though, that I liked the tiny doll arm and think it would have been a cool element if Adam had managed to keep the face looking like a doll. It did not work at all, and even though I have liked some of his previous work, this was the clear choice for elimination for me.
Darla’s Porcelain Doll: This was terrific, although I felt a little much like we’ve seen this before on the show. I guess that isn’t her fault – the porcelain doll was offered as a choice. I thought it was a great execution, and was a fantastic example of how sometimes it can be harder to do a more human looking thing, like it still has a HEAD, but she had to make the head be truly doll-shaped and not person-shaped, and this was all really successful.
I know that they have to spend a lot of time talking about how great the guest host’s work is, but NO WAY is Chuckie the scariest horror doll of all time. That is clearly the little doll from Trilogy of Terror. I mean really.
Exactly. He went all Ben on this. “I’m doing what I want to do, despite the advice of my mentor and Mr. Westmore.” They both told him on day 1 he was missing the point of the challenge. At least he went out on something he enjoyed and a result that looked like he wanted.
Perhaps even a better effect. More damage, doll in worse shape.
Oh, it’s definitely an open field for the finals and for the win. The win will certainly also come down to who gets on which team.
As for where a hard sci fi challenge falls, hard to say. Darla’s done pretty well on a variety of tasks. The one’s she’s done less well are more fantasy elements - the superhero and the troll come to mind. The body painting didn’t work, mostly because of the boobs and the wing placement not being quite right - the latter not under her control as much. Certainly anything with a beauty makeup component puts the guys at a disadvantage.
They do those interviews all one day after the show has been shot, reflecting on how they thought at the time but presented as “this is how I feel right now” for dramatic license.
I use their comments to evaluate how they are doing, just like I use what we see from how their creative process is going, how many mistakes they make, etc. It’s all a guessing game until we see how they look on the presentation stage and especially start hearing the judge’s comments. That’s when I really start to get a feel for how it will go down. When they start picking apart the technical elements, or make comments about how elegant the design choices were, or the artistic forms, or whatever, I get a sense of their leanings.
I sense a disconnect here. Can you elaborate? Do you feel they should have kept Adam for his previous three strong results and sent Julian home because… he hasn’t had an individual win yet? He’s had more Top looks than Adam, and fewer times in the Bottom. Plus, on this challenge Julian tried to accomplish the challenge as given, if missed a little in technical ability. Adam went way off track despite early warnings, didn’t meet the challenge as given, and had technical problems on top of it. You could call the technical problems even, then bust Adam for missing the challenge where Julian at least was on target.
Yes, Adam has skills and, as said, is super-employable.
No, I just meant that Adam had been on a roll lately and I had him picked to be in the finals. So I wouldn’t have guessed in advance that he would have gone down the road he did – previously he’s displayed a lot more savvy about what’s appropriate to put on stage.
Also, what I meant by “using the interviews to determine how the competition is going to go”, I meant “the final results of the competition”.
I agree with what has been said.
Darla has really stepped up in the past few weeks. She was forgettable in the first few weeks but is now really shining. I was worried about her straight forward make up but she did it so well, that the creepy factor was there. The actor helped with the mirror.
Emily as well kept going and did well, which was good to see. I did think hers needed a bit more polish? but was still good.
I was surprised Adam kept going, even when told not to. However, it really seemed as if Rayce was being more pushy than usual? Maybe that was the editing and the drama but it seemed like a lot this week.
I do agree that if the next few have beauty or SciFi, it might throw a few of the contestants. Having said that, I think they have also learned a lot and it could be a good challenge.
I’m just happy that Laura has done so well as a coach. Again, maybe for drama, but how they cut Anthony and Rayce’s interactions didn’t impress me.
vislor
I actually liked his concept, and I think he could’ve pulled it off if he just made that doll’s head actually look like a doll’s head. It was painted all wrong and the ‘cracks’ were confusing.
Still, I was surprised he went home because his overall contributions have been reasonably good.
If he’d made the doll’s head look like a doll’s head, and cut down on the monster a bit there, and had cracks that made sense, and the hollow doll eye thing had worked, and…
Wait, at some point we just have to give up and say there were way too many things wrong for this one to have made Safe. Nevermind winning.
If he’d used the same concept, but toned it way down and emphasized the doll, it could have worked. He chose to emphasize the demon aspect, and lost the doll.
Well, that was interesting. The producers threw the girls a curve (Steampunk? Cyborgs? Cowboys?) and I was pretty sure that they were going to take a swing and a miss. Especially after Emily picked “Undertaker” which is an occupation that doesn’t have much to do with either Steampunk or Cyborgs. Surprisingly, after a period of dithering and weepy drama, they both came up with decent concepts and the competition came down pretty much to fabrication and the character’s back story.
While I thought Emily’s undertaker was maybe a bit muddy in the features, she really did a good job capturing the feel, helped by the undertaker’s traditionally formal garb with the waistcoat and top hat, and the bottles of embalming fluids sold the concept. Given the degree of difficulty, I have no problem with this character as the top look.
I was less convinced by Darla’s character. The judges put it at second place, based largely on the quality of the makeup application (including sweat). I thought it was kind of a minimalistic job and the basic concept, putting a forge inside of the human body cavity – well, let’s just say that this didn’t seem like a great idea from a “how does he continue to walk around with no heart and a 2000 degree oven inside his chest?” standpoint. If he were actually steam driven, that might have made more sense. The model also looked too willowy to be a convincing blacksmith and the character didn’t really say “Old West” to me.
Logan did a cyborg bar girl. Decent fabrication, with some makeup issues. The judges liked the filigree work which probably offset some of the other flaws in the design.
Julian was eliminated despite some decent fabrication work and doing a good job at capturing the Western aesthetic. Probably the biggest problem was his character’s headpiece which was critiqued by the judges as being “pasted on gears” – not serving an obvious function but being there in order to say “Cyborg”.
The judges admitted that it was a hard call and I believe it. Julian has been bottom looks the last two outings, so that probably didn’t help him. I’m also thinking that “cyborg gunslinger” doesn’t have the same degree of difficulty as some of the others, so maybe the standards were just a bit higher for this character.
All told, I think Darla’s was my least favorite of the characters, but none of them were bottom looks. Next week is going to be interesting. Emily does seem to be on a roll, while at the same time she’s getting increasingly emotional. If she can hold it together for one more week, I think she’s got a shot.
Apparently they’re bringing back all the contestants for the final competition, so we’ll see which of the finalists is the best at managing people. That’s a skill we haven’t seen them exercise yet, so it may come down to that.
All four did very well, I thought. The judges seemed to think so, too. I agreed with nearly all of their comments. Even though Julian had some good elements, in the end the overall make-up just wasn’t quite as together as the others’, but not by much.
Missed last week.
I was concerned for Emily and her Undertaker, especially the coffin form in the chest. The chemicals and corrosion worked out for her and it ended up a solid result.
I agree on Darla’s concept of the forge in the chest of the blacksmith. While the blacksmith perhaps could have been a bit more muscular, at least she tried with the models they have. Without molding full arms, that was the best result. Her application was superb where her concept was slightly weak.
Logan had a great concept with the bar girl and some great design, but it all fell apart in application. Don’t know what happened, but the edges went to crap and ruined the beauty look.
Julian had an overall great look, but I agree with the judges that the gear brain missed on the “looks like it works and does something” aspect. And the face wasn’t quite skin. If he’d sold it as fake cyborg skin maybe. Solid concept, some execution issues.
I agree with Julian being the eliminated candidate. While he had strong results, he never had that special something that made a winner. Logan had middling results except when he really knocked it out. His result was strong if had some issues.
For the season finale, the teams had to create a set of 4 characters as part of a movie franchise ensemble. Big challenge, brought back all the eliminated contestants. Then they had to pick a genre blindly and pick words to then craft a movie title.
Results:
Logan got “Sci Fi” and came up with the title “The Fortress”. They conceptualized an “Island of Doctor Moreau” concept with animals that were experimented on to make them peoplish cyborgs, who then broke free and took over the ship. An iguana for the captain, an armadillo for the weapons expert, a skunk for the engineer, and a hammerhead shark for the science officer. Overall his team was fun and had a cohesive look. There were some great elements. The skunk was amusing, the iguana had some interesting sculpt. I feel the color was wrong on the armadillo - it should have been in shades of gray rather than reds. Still, a solid result overall.
Emily got “Post Apocalyptic” and titled it “Paradise Reckoning”. They themed up a retelling of the Wizard of Oz story. There was some really good sculpt and color work in these. The leather as skin patch was interesting. Still, there was something overall I can’t pin down that wasn’t quite there for me.
Darla had “Fantasy” and title “The Spirits of Eden”. Her characters were the four elemental spirits to defend the Garden of Eden after the departure of Adam and Eve. Once again, her eye to detail and exquisite application were very evident. I have to agree with Laura, the worm would not have been sexy, so going with the tree spirit was a better approach. That was truly a great result, different than the other earth goddess spirits that have won but equally conveying a beauty and plant elements. The forms with the mushrooms were great. Her fire spirit had some great sculpt and application for the face, though the overall look wasn’t quite that good to me. But the faun air spirit was really intriguing. I don’t think I would have come up with a faun for the air spirit, but making her a woodwind instrument was inspired. And the stilts to make the deer legs was great, but didn’t get any airtime to show them off. They’re almost invisible on the show. The merman for water wasn’t that good IMO, but the whole set was decent.
Tough call, they all had good cohesion and all had stand out elements. I got the sense it was Darla from the overall pattern of how the contestants were shaping up going into the finals. Darla was connecting with the judges better overall, and I think that’s what got her the win.
One other comment I wanted to make, a couple of those models really get improvement out of their makeups.
The black girl who played the faun has a slightly lopsided face, but the sculpt and paint totally masked it and made it hard to recognize her. She looked great.
But even more so was the Dorothy. That actress in her “no makeup” picture has almost a masculine or lionine look. I totally did not recognize her with the makeup on, and her face was beautiful hidden under the post-apocalyptic damage. Color me impressed.
(Elf girl in the tree always looks cute.)
If its the one I’m remembering, she got picked as a model by someone almost every week. Some of the models really did seem more like regulars than some of the others. I would be real curious to know if any of the models had a track record of being in either Top or Bottom Looks. Not curious enough to re-watch the entire season and do a spread-sheet ------ but curious.
Last night would have been a hard one for me to judge. Everyone seemed to be really on their A game but I have enough of a bias for sci-fi to have maybe leaned that way. And I just really loved the skunk.
The episode started off well with a truly interesting and original way to assign the tasks. It ended really well with three wonderful sets of makeups. (I still can’t get used to using the word that way.)
I would have been very hard pressed to pick a winner from the three, but I guessed the judges would pick Darla — don’t know why. Maybe because the tableau of her characters in their set was awfully pretty, and the other two weren’t.
This episode was good and ended about as we expected after the halfway point.
I was impressed that all those who came back worked hard and we didn’t see any problems, specifically drama.
Emily had problems with her designs but it seemed to be more due to wanting to do more. She’s going to be very good in a few years and I hope she comes back as Laura did.
Logan had a really good concept, was in his comfort zone, and even tied them all together well. I really liked that he did the final touches on the sculpts but wouldn’t have known if the judges hadn’t said it.
Darla won and deserved it, imo, because from what I could see, her stuff came together well. Her beauty stuff was spot on and she was in her comfort zone with fantasy. In fact, I wonder if they forced the genres to the finalists as they all seem to get the genre they liked. I think her team worked well together and it showed.
It’s been long enough that I can’t say details anymore but I remember thinking that Emily hadn’t done quite enough for a win and it wasn’t that Logan’s was bad so much that Darla’s was just better to take the win.
Can’t wait for next season!
vislor
I don’t know her name, and I wish I did, but there’s one model/actresswith blonde hair and an elven face who consistently gets picked. She’s very good at creating a character in the makeup; I believe she was Darla’s model for the creepy porcelain doll, who kept hitting herself with the mirror. She was also the one who was practically squeeing with joy when Doug Jones was giving her tips in the troll challenge.
Hell, based on the seven seasons of Face Off I’ve seen, I’d tell any would-be contestant that the secrets to impressing the judges are A, have an awesome paint job and B, pick a good model.
I thought Darla’s win was well-deserved. Everything was well-executed, and the four spirits really seemed to go with each other, like you could completely believe they would be four things from the same world of the same film. I agree with the judges that the air spirit in particular was the highlight.
I thought Emily’s was great, too. The guy with the glass might have been my favorite individual concept out of all – but, overall, the characters didn’t seem to work quite as well together as a group as opposed to Darla’s. I loved her theme, although I was hoping, I think, that there would be a few more little touches referencing back to the Wizard of Oz in her designs.
Logan’s was not bad … I guess for me it was good, but just not at the level to be competitive in the finale. His theme seemed a little broad, I get that they are all the experimented-upon animals, but still, “animals” is a wide zone. Each one looked good … but not a stand-out for me.
Overall, I was a little disappointed that we the viewers didn’t get to see more of each character. I don’t know if that was a result of there being twelve characters total, or because there was more screen time devoted to the hoopla of the finale (I’m not sure I needed to see a bunch of similar reactions from the members of public viewing the designs, as opposed to the actual characters), but I felt like it was hard to get a grasp of each one of the characters, and the judges were even making comments on specific things that they liked that in some cases I swear were not visible once on the screen.
Yes, exactly.
Yes, exactly. There was too much hubbub of showing people reacting and showing the entries of the judges and coaches and hosts and everybody, but not enough close up screen time on the final results. That’s what we’re paying to see, right? (Oh, wait.)