I think all contestants need the ability to do beauty make up, it’s just that most women have a lot more training and practice on that front, whereas guys have probably avoided that training.
Yeah, that’s what I meant (but didn’t clearly say). I really liked the one artist - can’t remember which one - who gender-switched himself for his audition tape. I’d say, if you’re a woman trying out for Face Off, know how to make zombies and demons. If you’re a man, practice making pretty fairies.
That was Ben. It looks funny, because he didn’t shave his mustache, just painted over it.
I thought it was an interesting challenge, and better than yet another zombies or aliens challenge. But I agree that most of the makeups were pretty sad.
I’m wondering if most of the makeup artists never have had to make a face that looks human or realistic. When you’re doing a creature that’s alien or occult, you have yards of leeway as far as complexion, anatomy, and skin tone go. It’s probably much harder to do Mission Impossible type make ups where the mask looks like an actual person. And being the SyFy Channel, there are a lot more zombie/demon/alien challenges than “make this person look older” challenges. They may be doing the contestants a disservice in this regard.
Good point. But Glen Hetrick is often critical of make-up (even of aliens and zombies) that “ignores” anatomy or gets the anatomy wrong.
There’s a lot of truth to what you say… but I think someone should be capable of doing a realistic makeup, whether it’s a human or an alien. You can only get so far saying “It’s an alien, it doesn’t have to make sense.”
A truly excellent alien makeup is going to come from someone who thinks about where the bones, joints, muscles, etc. are, and then they paint it in a way that looks like flesh/bone/scales/etc and that enhances the sculpted features to make them most effective on camera.
So I’d say that the contestants being disserved (so to speak) are having a legitimate weakness pointed out to them. The fact that they can avoid that weakness in daily life isn’t much of a defense in a competition like this.
That’s what I meant. They’ve been given “easy” challenges, because you can always throw in a few knobs or horns or textures on an alien’s face and for all we know, that’s what the alien is supposed to look like. But we all know what a human face looks like, so that’s by far the hardest challenge. So far, the contestants haven’t really distinguished themselves on the focus challenges.
Yeah, but I think sometimes he carries that too far. I can’t even look at a dragonfly and figure out what the anatomy is for. So I dunno how I could look at something from another planet and make any judgement about how their joints and muscles work, assuming they even have those. What Hetrick is, I think, saying, is that if you’re going to make a humanoid alien, you have to tie the anatomy back to a human-like mechanism so that the audience can figure it out. And I’m not 100% sure that always makes sense. Hell, aliens could run on hydraulics for all we know.
If the model has shoulders, then you need to have bones that make shoulders, right? And if those bones are not where they make shoulders, they don’t make sense.
Sort of like making a 4 armed alien. How do you stack two sets of shoulders on top of each other, and still have it look plausible? Yes, it won’t look like a human, because humans don’t have two sets of shoulders. But you can look at human anatomy and get a guess at what makes two sets of shoulders plausible. Or at least what looks implausible.
Or when one of them does an exposed face zombie thing, where the face is ripped open and the teeth are seen from outside the face. What typically goes wrong is the fact that you are laying appliances on top of the underlying architecture and pretending it is the underlying architecture. Inevitably, the teeth are too far outside the jawline, and it looks like teeth on that side project out past the ears. That looks wrong when you are pretending it is a human face with the skin pulled off.
Yes, theoretically an alien could have a really oversized head with big knobs on it. Practically, though, there are certain aesthetics that need to convey sense to the alien form. For instance, if they have an oversized head, you would expect oversized necks to have the muscles and bones to support that head. Right? You wouldn’t expect an elephant skull on a giraffe neck, would you?
If you’re using the human form for your alien (which most are), then you should approach the anatomy similarly to support the same anatomical structures. If you’re going to deviate wildly on muscle placement and bone structure, you need to work really hard to make it plausible.
Think about it - muscles have to pull between two locations. So maybe your “alien” uses pistons insead. Fine, it has to push between two locations. Its very difficult to have your muscle running crosswise from the direction it is supposed to move. Physics complains against that.
Think about an artist trying to draw, say, a tiger. They want a scary tiger in attack, or something. Would you really not think something off if it were hunchbacked, or had one side drastically oversized, etc? Even though it isn’t human, you know it looks wrong.
That’s why artists need to study anatomy to be able to replicate it. Visual artists get taught to look at whatever and not see it as an object, but to look for lines and shading and shapes and stuff, because they have to dissect any image and reproduce it. But if you’re going to do drawings of live objects, then you need to know a little something about what live objects look like.
Having a horse’s mane flow forward up the neck looks wrong, correct? Why? Because hair doesn’t grow that way. Even on something alien, you still need to think like that.
The show works so well, I wouldn’t seriously recommend that they change their formula … but one thing I wouldn’t mind is if occasionally they did a little five minute segment on stuff like this, like Glenn EXPLAINING, using examples of what makes sense and what doesn’t, what the judges are looking for when it comes to things like anatomy. Or even some of the technical decisions, like Ve explaining the different options for materials for making prosthetics and the pros and cons of each.
I get that a lot of this stuff we’ve just picked up as viewers along the way, but I personally would be interested in hearing the judges share their expertise.
That would be great. They could replace the repeats of “OMG I’m never going to get done this week!”
Yes, I’m like you, some more of the technical would be interesting. But as we’ve seen, they already cut some of the judge inspections of costumes because they have more contestants than time. And we only get a slice of their conversations with the contestants, and we don’t really see their deliberations.
They’ve also cut the little voiceovers they used to do, explaining what a mold is, and what the paint job is. Remember those?
Wow, hell of a creative challenge concept. The Gauntlet. I feel like they’ve been reading this thread and responded directly to comments we made.
First off, we got more specific comments from the judges. And second, the big challenge didn’t involve sculpting and making prosthetics, but rather using lab prosthetics and spending time on application and painting. Pretty awesome. Now specifics.
Stage 1: Exposure to elements. Take a model and do a realistic either desert or ice exposure.
When Kevon started doing veining, I knew he was in trouble. I don’t know what veining on a face looks like, but I’m fairly certain you don’t, either, and that isn’t it.
Jasmine decided to do a weird poison exposure instead of listening to the challenge description. Not good. But they still rated her higher than some of the others.
Scott got third and they didn’t give us any of his content. I decided he would end up Safe.
Nora pegged it by knowing the anatomy, knowing what gets frostbitten first and worst.
Jordan was realistic but minimal. I think that was why he was not top. It was great, but they wanted extreme exposure.
Stage 2: Precostumed characters they have to apply a realistic paint job to complete the character. That’s a bit confusing since the characters are strong fantasy/horror.
Ben had an alien lady, he went with gold tones and then colors to highlight. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of beauty makeup experience, he did okay. The judges loved the variation and blending.
Jasmine got hammered for using body painting techniques for a realism challenge. Glen described it as feeling very airbrushed.
Kevon turned it around from bottom ranking to top ranking. This paint job was very good. I was concerned when he said the clothes were gold and purple so that was the colors he was using for the skin tones, but it worked. Definitely hit the realism.
Stevie, not a lot of variation in the color.
Scott, Neville commented on how sun bleaches fabric and the hollows would have been darker. That’s looking at how things work.
Meg’s was too monotone.
Evan is now on bottom. His witch was bad, but I didn’t like Jordan’s clown that much, and he got third (and once again they ignored third place).
Stage 3: a one day challenge to create one hero character and two background characters in sets: Witches and Warlocks, Angels, Goblins. That’s a lot of work, but because it’s a one day challenge, they’re using prefab appliances and focusing on the painting and application.
Ben, Witches and Warlocks: I didn’t like it. The women were background characters, but they were still too subtle. And the man that was the hero had a Voldemort nose. It didn’t make sense or fit with the witches and wasn’t explained. His odd coloration effect wasn’t explained either.
Evan, Angels: His hero is a fallen angel with a sidekick and a hot chick angel they kidnapped. Interesting appliance, odd choice for an angel, but we’ve seen some differing takes on those, and he’s a fallen angel, which means he’s becoming demonic, so there’s that. I guess that explains the color choice of purple shadows to the gold tone. I don’t really like it, and the background angels don’t have much going on. But the judges love it and give him the challenge win.
Nora, Goblins: She made three creatively painted goblins, they look like a set, and the two background goblins are almost as detailed as the main goblin, and that one is really detailed. She hit it out of the park. I thought this was best, but only second best for the judges.
Jasmine, Angels: Falling angel kidnaps two hot slave angels. I’m sensing a theme for the angel groups. The two backgrounds get nothing, and the main character got overdone with gold so there doesn’t appear to be any variation or highlighting and shadows, just gold. She sees it but wasn’t able to fix it even though she spotted it before last looks. Not good.
Kevon, Angels: Was this the opposite challenge from last week, making women appear like transvestites? Egads the eyebrows were bad, and then the purple hues around the eyes - did she get punched in the face? Somehow he got Safe.
Jordan, Witches and Warlocks: He wanted classic green witches with big noses and chins. Cohesive set, but the judges feel his detail is lacking. Rough, monochromatic, and dry.
Stevie, Goblins: Amusing concept of the Goblin pimp and his Ho-blins. Hot goblin chicks - just what every guy wants - maybe after a couple pints and not much cash. He’s much darker compared to the two girls, but she did a decent job brightening out of the muddy green she had found.
Scott, Goblins: Offhand, there was something off about his hero goblin to me. I can’t place it, maybe the bottom lip, maybe the tone is too solid, not enough spatter and such. But the judges think it seems really thought out, and lots of detail like the nails. But then they just make it Safe.
Meg, Witches and Warlocks: This was a fail. First, she tried to do a third eye growing out of the forehead, but then covered the eye with too much goop and paint so it lost that look, and the texture all across the forehead was pretty bad. Because of that, the background guy actually looked better, which the judges commented she should have swapped them. And then Ve pointed out her color scheme and paint job basically matches two previous looks. Any time the judges sense a pattern in your work, whether it’s color scheme or sculpting shapes or overuse of one element like fabrication, that’s a bad thing. It sets you up for getting slammed for lack of creativity.
Tops on Challenge: Evan and Nora. I liked Nora’s best, but they gave the win to Evan.
Tops for Gauntet: Nora, no question. She won Stage 1, and after Stage 2 was tied for second. Then she was a Top look on Stage 3. Jordan went down. Kevin went Bottom, Top, in the middle. Evan got the win on Stage 3, but his bottom after Stage 2 was too much to make up.
Bottom looks were Stevie, Jasmine, and Meg.
Stevie really didn’t seem like a bottom, they had good things to say on her Stage 3, but her Stage 2 status wasn’t great.
Meg had the mentioned problems. Between those and her non-showing in the first two stages, she was struggling to keep up.
Jasmine - Her misfire on Stage 1 put her down but surprisingly not the bottom. Stage 2 didn’t help by missing the realism and hitting body painting style. Stage three was pretty bad all around. The combo made her definitely the bottom.
Also, they said something about each stage increasing in weight for the rankings, but we never got those enumerated in any way. That was a bit confusing. I think Kevon’s stage 2 win kept him out of the overall bottom.
Now for a look at the stats. This was weird with three stages instead of the more typical Foundation Challenge and Spotlight Challenge. Wikipedia doesn’t know how to fit the results into their matrix. Foundation Challenges granted immunity, but this has incremental wins and losses that just mean rankings. I’m calling results in Stage 3 and overall rankings for Tops and Bottoms.
This episode did a shake up on the rankings. I had Jasmine tied for second, but now she’s out.
Ben, who previously was leading, kinda muddled through. Stage 1 was average, Stage 2 did well, but then stage 3 was average again. He still holds the lead, but it narrowed.
2 Wins, 2 Tops, 0 Bottoms
Jordan did well on Stage 1 but had trouble with Stage 3. He is still near the top.
1 Win, 2 Tops, 1 Bottom
Nora has moved herself into a tie for second.
1 Win, 2 Tops, 1 Bottom
Scott didn’t do much to distinguish himself. Third stage 1, dropped to 6th after stage 2, then bumped to middlin’ on stage 3.
1 Win, 1 Top, 0 Bottom
Stevie stumbled a bit. I’m calling hers a Bottom look for being named in the three discussed for elimination, even though her Stage 3 result wasn’t that bad.
0 Wins, 3 Tops, 2 Bottoms
Evan got a slight bump, but very uneven performance tonight. He started out weak, then his witch put him on bottom, then for some reason they loved his Angels.
0 Wins, 2 Tops, 1 Bottom
Kevon was also wildly uneven, going from ninth to first to middle of the pack.
0 Wins, 1 Top, 1 Bottom.
And that leaves Meg, once again in the wildcard slot. She was fourth after both Stage 1 and Stage 2, yet made the bottom three after Stage 3. That makes her comeback harder again.
2 Wins, 0 Tops, 4 Bottoms, and a Spotlight win.
So, last week I said it looked like Jasmine would be one of the tops, but now she’s out. Any takers on my rankings now?
Nora really shined this episode. Everyone else fluctuated. If she’s hit her groove, then she’ll be a contender.
Even with the stuff Scott did right, he just doesn’t seem to be poised to really stand out. Barring a challenge right up his alley, he’s getting by but not excelling. He’ll probably hold out for at least 2 more eliminations.
Ben, Jordan, Nora are top 3.
Scott’s got a better record, but Stevie seems better able to do something special to me.
Kevon and Evan are just holding slots for a couple more weeks.
Meg is still the loose cannon. She’s the only one with more Bottom looks than Tops and/or Wins. She could go out next week, or she could do well. Numbers say she’ll flub again in the next three weeks, and that will likely be it for her.
As usual, great summary! Thanks, Irishman.
I really liked the idea of the gauntlet challenge but I didn’t like how they scored things. It made no sense to me that round two was weighted so much that the person on bottom could get top overall with a win in stage two, as Kevon did. Top half, sure, but not all the way to the top.
I was not happy with Jasmine being the one eliminated. My wife summed it up well to me when she said that it feels as if this season’s contestants have hit their top ability and don’t seem to be improving. There are no standouts among them and their results are all over the place, so no consistency either.
As I said, I was not happy with Jasmine’s loss and elimination. Not a standout as much as I thought earlier in the season, but not as bad as some who are still in it. And this also goes back to the weighting of it. She seems to have good applications, even if the ideas aren’t in line with the judges, and maybe that was what did it this round? It might have been worse than we saw, of course, but when she got ranked higher in round one for NOT doing as she was supposed to do, I figured she had talent and would do better.
At this moment, I think Nora is the only standout and I’m not sure that’s saying much only because I don’t think she would do well in previous seasons. Kevon is way too up and down from challenge to challenge. Kevon reminds me too much of Ben from season eight where he does his own thing, regardless of anything else, but keeps going forward. Scott seems to just play it safe and I don’t think that’s a strategy to get into the finale. Jordan and Ben still don’t stand out to me but from their records, are strong contenders for the finale as well. So, I guess I’m spot on with Irishman as I talk this out!
Thanks for the recap, Irishman!
The Gauntlet was a really fun way to structure the episode. Overall, we liked it as a change of pace, although I wouldn’t want to see them over-use it. The biggest downside for me that we didn’t get a really good look at every make-up at each stage because it was moving so quickly.
Stage One: I actually liked Jordan’s the best, and would have given him the win, because they stressed “realism” when presenting the challenge, and I thought his was the most realistic. I loved Nora’s (and she’s one of my favorite contestants, her geeky enthusiasm is really endearing) … but I still felt like it was more stage-y or dramatic, perhaps. It looked great, don’t get me wrong. Kevon’s veining was terrible, and it’s like he didn’t even realize it was terrible. And overdone … maybe in one area of the face, but all over made it look like he was being attacked by spiders. How did Jasmine miss the “exposure” part of a challenge presented as “people stranded in either hot or cold environments”?
Stage Two: Like vislor, at our house we were disgruntled that it was SO weighted that someone could go from last to first, that’s insane. I really did like Ben’s. Was it Evan who said something like “painting is my weak point” … how can you do make-up if painting is your weak point, that’s crazy. I didn’t like Kevon’s that much – it wasn’t awful but I didn’t think it stood out, and I’m still not convinced those colors were the way to go.
Stage Three:
This time, I did love the judge’s pick for the win, I thought Evan’s angels had a great otherworldly quality without being Christmas tree angels. When they first showed Kevon adding the delicate feathers to the angel’s face, I thought “wow, this is going to look awesome!” … and then the final result was way too heavy, like he just kept slapping stuff on there.
I thought Nora’s goblins were terrific in terms of how “finished” all of them were – and the judges also noted how much work she accomplished. I know she said she intentionally went for a very traditional goblin look … but to be honest, I found it a little dull. I thought Stevie’s pimp goblin was really clever, and she pulled off a weird yet creative interpretation of the challenge (which is always one of my favorite things on the show)
Meg’s witches were just awful, what she was thinking with that “eye” that looked like a tumor? Both Ben’s and Jordan’s were blah, too.
I was a little disappointed about Jasmine going home – I like her work, although I have to admit it is all very similar, in a way that has not gone well for contestants who have too much of a “look” from past seasons. Evan and Kevon seem like the weakest links to me – even when they succeed, their make ups are not that memorable. I think both Meg and Stevie are better (or at least, have more potential) than their records would indicate – when they do well, it is REALLY good.
I have to agree. I knew I should have saved the results before deleting the episode. I had to go back through On Demand. Crap that’s annoying as hell. At least I could fast forward the program, but had to sit through all the commercials - seven minutes of commercials in a row is … arg, I can’t even describe.
Anyway, here are the results.
Contestant Stage 1 Stage 2 Combined Stage 3/Final
Ben 5 2 2 6
Evan 7 9 8 2
Jasmine 6 6 7 9
Jordan 2 3 2 5
Kevon 9 1 1 4
Meg 4 4 5 7
Nora 1 5 2 1
Scott 3 7 6 3
Stevie 8 8 8 8
I’m certain this wasn’t a strictly numerical ranking method, but rather a cummulative impression kind of thing. I don’t think numbers will make sense of things, it basically boils down to how the judges collectively felt after each step. Still, jumping to number 1 from the bottom just doesn’t feel right. I could see the 1 for the stage, but his cummulative should have been lower than Jordan, and likely Ben and Nora.
I just played with numbers for fun. If I assign points per their rank numbers in each stage (lowest value is best), I had to weight stage 2 by 5 to make Kevon have the lowest score. At 4 he’s tied with Ben, and any lower, and Jordan has the lowest score. That’s just wild.
And personally, while he had a lot of good stuff in that paint job, I just didn’t think the gold was right for the skin tone. Kevon shouldn’t have been No 1, and Ben shouldn’t have been No 2 for cummulative score. And at that rate, Evan shouldn’t have been number 2 for the final total, even with his win on the challenge. Again, there’s no numerical way that makes sense.
Before this episode, I had her in contention for win. This episode she misfired all three steps. However, even with her miscue on the challenge, her stage 1 results were middle of the pack. After stage 2, she was 7th because of the big bump Kevon got, and that’s probably fair. And yes, her stage 3 result missed the mark. This is a case where a strong contestant had a bad week and paid the price. Nominally, Stevie’s numbers were consistently lower. She didn’t do well on 1 and 2. But her stage 3 result was somewhat better than some of the others IMO.
I think Jasmine’s angels just don’t work, not only because the guy is so flat gold, but because the ladies’ color pattern just looks odd. The white over gold is a strange combo and not done in a particularly flattering way. On the one model, it looks like the white is just smearing off her darker skin. Even Kevon’s white with purple looks more natural a mix.
Ultimately, it looks like Stage 3 was the basis for the decision, and everything else was just gravy.
Ben is the only one without any Bottom looks, though I think he was saved this week by some other poor turnouts. His witches had issues, just not as much as others.
I, personally, would have rated Stevie higher and Ben, Kevon, and Evan lower.
Yeah, it’s already crowded doing two challenges, now there were three. Flipside, we didn’t spend any time with sculpting.
I think maybe the issue is knowing what severe frostbite and cold exposure really looks like. Jordan’s was more subtle, and they did call for something that stood out. I forget the wording, and I don’t feel like going back through the episode again for that line. I could see a win for Jordan, but understand why they went with Nora.
Stage Two: [snip] Was it Evan who said something like “painting is my weak point” … how can you do make-up if painting is your weak point, that’s crazy.
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It is a problem if you haven’t developed that skill and want to do make up. There are jobs doing parts of the process - sculpting, making molds, etc, but this show seems to be aimed at finding the next generation of the project leads: the next Ve’s, Glen’s, and Neville’s. You won’t get that job if you can’t do all parts of the process so you can guide others doing the work.
This week: make a post-apocalyptic set of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Or something like that. An individual challenge, but also two sets of four.
First set: didn’t really look like a set together. Supposed to all have timepieces to unify, but that is too small and subtle. Actually, I could put Pestilence, War, and Death together okay, but Famine in the suit didn’t match very well.
Anyway, the individuals…
Meg, Pestilence: Big ole lopsided head is a bit much. Not sure the texturing on the stomach worked. Overall not bad. Sick looking. Judges made Safe.
Jordan, War: He made great armor. His face sculpt is bizarre and creepy and really bitchin’, except it doesn’t really say War. It would be great for a different challenge, not sure it fit this challenge. I thought he might get high looks for quality, but I guess the judges felt like me, it just missed the mark. Safe.
Stevie, Famine: Her concept was pretty generic, gaunt and emaciated. Her chest sculpt was pretty good, but the face sculpt kinda missed anatomical. The deep set eyes aren’t bad, but overall it really isn’t creative or great. She’s probably saved on this challenge by two real fuck ups. Safe.
Scott, Death: He went somewhat different with a female mummified Grim Reaper. There’s a lot of good stuff in the mummification, but for some reason there’s just something missing. It doesn’t pop. Safe.
Second Set also doesn’t really feel like a set. There’s nothing really tying them together but the leashes. Reviewing now it just dawns on me that this set had all for Top and Bottom looks. Hmmm?
Kevon, Pestilence: Kevon tried to go big, but he missed the mark. The thing is, he was aware he needed to not make it too alien, and even got that advice from Mr. Westmore, yet somehow managed to not take the advice. He was aiming for a giant amoebic like or bacterial thing, but it just didn’t work. It lost the human form in the head and face, and this was ultimately a challenge to look like afflicted humans, not giant bacteria or whatever. The head is too big and blobby, the mouth and tendrils didn’t work, and the face lost all human dimension. A giant mess that’s overdone and under finished. Bottom.
Nora, Famine: She had a unique vision for Famine affected by having his mouth sewn shut by barbed wire. She struggled with her vision while sculpting, but stuck with it and it turned out very good. She also did a good job picking a thin model and painting and enhancing his natural chest rather than sculpting. That was a different way to give a gaunt look while reducing her workload and not going too cliche. This result was very good. The judges also commented on the subtle technique of coloring around the eyes to make them stand out. Top Looks.
Ben, War: He had an okay concept that went off the rails in execution. He wanted a more modern military look where the body itself was taking on aspects of body armor, with kevlar and plating. I think his facial sculpt would have come out better if he’d gone with a more traditional skin tone, or a neutral fabric tone (tan), but he went with a garish purlple red, and that didn’t help at all. He had a number of bad choices, like doing a lot of body sculpting and then covering most of it with clothing. He had a lot of time invested in the back that was completely covered. Did he just bail on it and cover, or was it poor costume planning? Overall, he knew it sucked, and I think he lost hope early and that contributed to him not executing everything he could. Bottom Look.
Evan, Death: He took a bit of a risk by subverting anatomy, but he did it knowingly and in a very thought out manner. He layered some bone over some muscle tissue. However, his result was very striking in appearance. He also did two great things. First, he was actually looking at a skull for reference to his sculpting, and second, he listened to Mr. Westmore in pointing out elements in the cheek to make fit the reference more closely. That played big time into the sculpt looking authentic. The gloss also was a good touch. This was a very creepy and striking result. Top Looks.
For the Win, it was between Evan and Nora, with Evan’s just being a bit more striking in result. Nora’s was very good, but I could sense the judge’s liking his creative and informed blend of bone and muscle. Evan got the Win.
For the Bottom, it was Kevon and Ben. I think Stevie got lucky this round that Ben had such a hard time getting this challenge. Her’s wasn’t dreadful, but was lacking a lot. But this had Kevon and Ben. If Ben had a more lackluster record, it might have been him going home, but as it was, he’s got a solid record with this one bad one, and Kevon’s struggled to delivery good work. So easy choice, Kevon’s overdone mess gets him home.
I couldn’t believe when I saw the face of model Stevie had chosen, on the reveal when the model’s face morphs into the make-up. C’mon, Stevie, you chose a broad-chested big guy to turn into Famine?