(I didn’t see a thread on this yet, so I figured I’d start one)
Face-off, Season 2, premiered last night. I started watching Season 1 on a whim, but I was soon drawn into it.
These were two very interesting challenges:
Preliminary Challenge:
I really love how the non-horror-related entry won the preliminary challenge. It was nice to see that they can create works of art, rather than just gore.
Some of those designs were pure crap. I’m going to chalk it up to nerves, and hope that some of the artists will settle down.
Oz Challenge:
I think the male-made female lion was the most intriguing design made. It was a great imagination of the character, and the actress behind it played off the “cowardly” part very well. I must say, though, that the male lion’s headpiece was also very real-world.
I don’t see the love for the female-made witch. It looked just… out of place. Way too Vegas-y for the rest of the characters.
General:
Judging from the personalities on this show, the immediate turn to the Horror/Sci-Fi genre for all the contestants will still continue to be the dominant theme. Its a bit disappointing, as some of the fantasy body-painting shown in the contestant vignettes were very beautiful. I hope to see more of that work.
Personally, I find it interesting that each of the artists have a very unique body type, and that as they get older, they seem to try and “remake” themselves using their skills. The older female winner, Fema or whatever her name was, used some of her own makeup techniques on the witch. Their facial styles were quite similar. NONE of the contestants have that hollywood-style facial structure. I’m wondering if their interests in makeup and theatrical design come from this.
It was great to see Vi and last season’s winner working together. And I don’t find it contrived - I think that his talent really stood out last season.
Personally, I can’t wait until about half of them are weeded out, so we can concentrate more on seeing their scupting techniques and fabrication abilities - that latex cape she made for the witch by painting it on concrete was just amazing to me.
My wife and I loved this series last time around, and we’re delighted to see it’s back. The problem with the first episodes (like with all these competition-type shows) was that there are too many contestants, so you don’t really get a chance to see their work.
For those who haven’t seen it, it’s like Project Runway or any similar, except that instead of fashion-design, they do special effects / make-up / costumes.
I agree with Noelq, it was nice to see the non-horror win. The fall-back seems to be zombies.
It was the same with the last season, too, but they really, really need to stop with the fake tension. This episode had probably the most blatant example, ever.
After the praise they gave the women’s witch and scarecrow, and the scorn on both tin men, did they really think the audience would be on the edges of their seats thinking, maybe, maybe, the men were going to be declared the winners (on the strength of their lion) when they came back from the commercial break? Shift the break to before the teams are called in - which was a natural break point - or before the individual winner is declared - where there was some actual real tension - and cut the ‘tense’ music, and it would have been a lot less ridiculous.
Also, the men’s witch was terribly disappointing (it’s like they took the MGM version and peeled her skin off and called it a day)…I’m happy to see the judges call out the ‘teeth on the outside’ thing, which is insanely over done, and rarely makes sense.
When season 1 came out, I thought “This looks cool, and if I were going to watch a reality competition show, this would be the one,” but didn’t watch it. Then I got drawn into The Apprentice.
Saw this coming on again, decided to give it a go.
I really liked that, too. I saw “zombie”, “biker zombie”, “scary zombie”, “ugly zombie”, “guy getting zippered out of his skin like a zombie” and thought if I were there, I’d do anything but a zombie. And turns out that was the payoff.
The black chick definitely was a stand out bad job. She took on too much or what, but the zippers didn’t work and she didn’t blend well at all.
This was a fabulous idea in my mind. Recreate the iconic concepts. Teams need coherent look and feel for the set, a cohesive theme, and originality. Don’t copy the previous, do something new. I like how the judges set the challenge and how they graded it. I was fascinated by the idea.
I agree - the scrawny, emaciated lion was spectacular concept, well executed. The ladies’ lion head was excellent work, and yeah, I agree Sue’s partner was dead weight. She spent time molding her own hands to make the paws to be worn by a large male. She was so worked up over the paws coming out right, they looked cartoony, and didn’t even have claws. Gah. Sue’s face was a huge tell how she was feeling. I so wanted to see the judges ask more on that and have Sue flame that blond. “It was a timing issue.” Yeah, a timing issue caused by your idiotic waste of time sculpting those paws and inability to actually be productive. Sue’s work was spectacular, and then the body was bare with tribal “tattoos” - human. Gah!
I totally agree, the look wasn’t spectacular, and the gold chin looked a different color than the rest of her face. Maybe it was a lighting issue and a camera sensitivity issue, but it really stood out to me. And they voted the black chick the winner because of the witch head piece? That tacky thing? So much of the character they liked best was the other girl’s work - her idea, her execution, but they voted the black girl the winner. Meh.
And painting liquid latex on the floor to peel up as the cape? Priceless. I’m disappointed I didn’t get a better look at the finished product on that.
I agree. I felt overwhelmed on the headcount. And then when they’re doing the intros on the cast, and then skip three of them? I’ve pegged them as the first three off. We’ll have to see. (I’ll have to confirm if Greg was one of them. I forgot to check that.)
I liked the way the judges asked the contestants questions about their decisions without trying to influence or lead them. They tried to make the questions neutral, which bugged the contestants. “I can’t tell if he wants more or less symmetry.” Exactly! He wants to see your choice and rationale, not tell you what he wants to see.
I like the way they asked who did what so they could apportion credit and blame appropriately. One of the big annoyances of The Apprentice is the random allotment of blame for who was responsible for the failure. So far, I like the way the judges are working.
The ladies’ team had the right approach. They brainstormed a basic theme and sketched the basic look of each character to set the cohesive feel, then divied up jobs based upon the teammembers’ interests and skillsets. Then each teammember had responsibility for creating the detail work on their specific assignment. Should make it easier for the judges be able to sort out who did what later, like on the ladies’ lion. If they were parsing that one - great head, why didn’t you continue on the body? “She was supposed to do that.”
Also makes it more astounding their fave was the pumpkin scarecrow, the girl who worked by herself. She felt rushed and hampered and totally alone, yet pulled off the best one by herself. Awesome. I’d almost have rather seen Sue do the lion by herself, too. She practically did, and if she had known she was alone, she could have apportioned more time to completing the look rather than having a half complete lion.
The men’s approach was a failure. They were too collective in the idea parsing - creating by committee. No real leader, though two of them kinda pushed things a bit. No clear responsibilities, so no character was any one person’s creation. When the judge querried them on it, at least they picked up the ball and made assignments. That helped, but the scarecrow guy still got a comment that his original look was better - to which he agreed. Committee decision on the change.
I also agree the Tin Man was a failure. Why doesn’t he have a heart? Because he is made of tin? No, because it was ripped out of him. :rolleyes: Then the metal arms were just paint, and hairy. Doh! Yeah, that was a dud. Thing is, I called that Nix was going to survive, both because he was a more featured introduction and because of his personality and look seems like an attention factor.
Overall I’m impressed and liked the episode. I’ll definitely watch more.
“I won because I’m dope”. I want her to lose everything from now on, simply because she referred to herself as “dope”. You’re 40. Act like it. You’ve got talent. You’ve got training. You’ve got great skills. Y’all ain’t Dope, Babe.
This challenge really showed which individuals had worked in the industry, and thought ahead, versus those that didn’t. The ones that knew the most did the best in this challenge.
That was the worst turtle I’ve ever seen. Scary-Goth-Guy should have lost for the sculpting, but Nix had no skills that I saw. And it was unforgivable that he didn’t test for water-soluability on the paint.
Fabric on the edges really saved the winning design. A great pull-out-of-your-butt solution, and what is even more impressive, is that each of the judges saw it for what it was, identified it, and recognized it was a great way to do things.
Overall, I still can’t wait for the teams to get winnowed down, as I’d love to see more of the sculpting methodologies, and fabrication techniques. They do a good job explaining them, but I just want… more.
I definitely enjoy this show. It’s a fantastic idea for a reality TV show… because unlike something like Top Chef, where we can’t actually taste the food, we can in fact see the creatures/characters that are created.
That said, I wish they’d show us 15% less of the drama between team members and a bit more of what they’re actually creating.
On the plus side, the challenges have been really creative so far this season.
The turtle was atrocious. Cartoony was definitely true. It screamed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - and not the live action movie. A more subtle paintjob would have mitigated that aspect a lot. Not saved their creation, mind you, but perhaps saved Nix.
Yes, I like that they were able to admire the solution to the problem and look at the effect rather than what it covered over and why it was necessary. The skill on edging the sculpted pieces wasn’t there, and the blending with paint or even latex wasn’t going to do it.
Agreed. I want to see what they are doing, the decisions they’re making, the methods they’re employing.
Agreed. One thing that annoyed me, they were trying to show their creations and compare to the creature that inspired it. So there’s a picture on the screen. Good, but it was a little small, and not on for long. Okay, rewind the DVR and pause. My pause bar runs across the screen right through the picture. I wanted to compare the details of the creature vs the creation, but couldn’t get a good side by side.
I think they made the right choice on this decision, though I’m pleasantly surprised they picked Nix. They sent home the showy personality because he just didn’t do the work. Kudos. A lesser show would keep him for the drama, at least a few more rounds.
Really, that design was a total disaster. The creature choice was okay, there were s some textures to work with that could have made that an interesting creature, but their actual design was crap. I wasn’t put off by the sculpture of the face like the judge Patrick was, but the paint job killed any sense of subtlety and definitely made it scream cartoon. A subtle color job could have made the texture do the work. The shell, though, was horrible - a half shell that stopped at the shoulderblades and used paint on the back to finish the shell? Horrible choice, and is tore apart under motion. The shoulders were not anchored well and fluffed, the back peeled up, and somehow the mask was actually chocking the model under water. Um, yeah, fail on all counts.
I actually think the two girls who had the worst drama had one of the best results. I was blown away by what was actually accomplished. They had a remarkable coloration on a fabulous look, the makeup was solid, the costume was elegant and well crafted, and the flares and fins all worked well in the water. Given all the prior conflict and the struggle for them to work together, the result was amazing and far better than most of the other teams that worked better together. I would credit most of that to the experience chick who incidently was the stronger partner on the Witch last week, but the paint job was the other girl and it really was spectacular.
And that’s a situation where the bold color choice was right for the creature. The turtle should have been all about subtlety. The actual turtle they modeled was a pale green with slightly darker shell, the make up was bold brown and yellow with bright green shell. Gah! But on the sea dragon, the bold colors were part of the actual creature, so they were perfect.
Maybe up close there were some details that didn’t stand out to the camera, but I thought there’s was the best of the bunch.
The other sea dragon, they made the fins too stiff, and they didn’t get to use all they had envisioned.
I’m surprised the lionfish did so well. I thought the mask was a bit too halloweeny. The model did a good job acting it. Still, it mostly seemed paint except for the head, vs the sea dragon.
The lawyer shark was a very poor choice. The paint job and texturing were pretty good, they were trying to convey the lines running down from the head to the dorsal fin, but that wasn’t well thought out. But putting the guy in a suit was just wrong. They were told he was going to be immersed in water. How did they think a suit was the right choice there? It’s interesting that they didn’t get blasted for the concept of a lawyer shark, but just told their execution was not done well without considering how clothing behaves in water. That shows the judges gave them leeway for creativity, but really evaluated the execution. There’s probably some show out there that could conceive of a lawyer shark going for a swim in his suit.
For the winning team, they awarded the win to the guy because they saw it more of his effort. But the thing is, the fabric edges was the woman’s idea, that he opposed, and it saved their implementation. Not only did it mask the edges, but enhanced the look. She should have gotten more credit for that, but where she complimented her teammate, she didn’t get credit for all the effort that was hers.
Yeah, I give that one totally to the model. He really sold the “fish”, and I think it bumped up their rating. It would have been nice to see the trailing fins, but it looked like they only had 5 minutes left, and couldn’t properly finish
Again, I agree on that point. It totally saved their creation, and made it look spectacular.
I caught the episode last night with the fish costumes. It was pretty good.
I need to go back and watch the first ep that I missed.
I’ve never understood why people fight so much on team challenges. If they watched these shows before appearing they should know what to expect. You’re going to get team with people of all experience levels. Getting a bad attitude against a less experienced teammate doesn’t help. Smile, and be as helpful & encouraging to the weaker teammate as possible. That’s the only way to make sure your team isn’t in the bottom.
What really bugged me about the turtle was the pointless asymmetry - one arm was a human arm, one a flipper. It made no sense. Maybe if the concepts had been a major part, and they’d mentioned what theirs was, it may have had some reasoning behind it, but it wasn’t a good idea - why 80% of hybrid creature designs have that going down, I will never understand.
They did ding the lawyer-shark on concept, but they didn’t ‘blast them’ because it wasn’t a bad idea, just a boring and cliche one.
I just watched the first episode. The mens lion was really good. I especially liked the fear it projected.
Overall I was very disappointed to see such dark and frightening characters from both teams. These are characters that are supposed to bond with and befriend Dorothy. An innocent sixteen year old from Kansas. Most of these characters as done by both teams would scare the living crap out of Dorthy. Can you honestly imagine them happily skipping down the yellow brick road together?
I liked the Women’s witch. They understood that an evil character doesn’t have to look like something from a zombie movie. Their witch is very attractive and yet I still got a sense of menace about her. A really nice job with the character.
People have different personalities, and they don’t always mesh well. That said, you can definitely affect the results by your attitude. Look at the two women from the first episode working on the lion. Sue seemed to have really good skills. She made an excellent mask, and had great painting and texture on the head and shoulders. The blonde wasted time casting her own hands and feet to make the paws, ended up whiffing those (no claws), and then didn’t have time to complete the paint texture on the rest of the body, and painting was supposed to be her specialty. But while Sue worked like a dog to finish their project, and was visibly frustrated and annoyed, she didn’t tear into the girl. They survived the cut. Sue even felt bad she couldn’t help out the woman working alone on the scarecrow. Irony, given the results.
Well, it’s somewhat in the approach. Yeah, that’s probably not the best way to suss out the other girls skills. Beki is certainly a bit difficult. But she’s got mad skills. I still think they’re end result was amazing.
Yeah, that was the model acting the part. I thought emaciated really fit the character of a lion that is cowardly, so doesn’t succeed in hunting.
Well, you have to pick a theme and make the theme work. You’d have to adapt the overall storytelling to make those dark themes work. That said, Dorothy wasn’t sixteen in the book. Her age isn’t specified, but it feels much younger. The pictures are dressed like a toddler, but that’s not right either.
The lion is definitely supposed to be scary looking - at least at first.
Yeah, that might be one reason the judges liked it better. It was scary but with an edge of beauty. Didn’t follow expectations. They seem to like originality. Look at comments on men’s Scarecrow, the change on the face and the judge’s negative reaction.
I always think they should take points off for people on reality shows like this who don’t play well with others - in the real world, you’re going to get along with your team members while working on a movie or an album or whatever, or you’re going to have a very short career.
Yeah, same here. As seen in the first challenge, the default setting for makeup/creature is horror. That’s why I was so happy that the elf makeup won in the first challenge. I would have expected at least one person to suggest a fun reconception of the characters.
But the body-painting next week hopefully will show some of the beauty they can do.
The relay was…an odd idea - two of them, even. The fact that all but one team were able to come up with coherent make-ups is amazing to me. Not that any of them were terribly good. But the ‘no communication’ concept means they clearly didn’t care too much about the make-up coming out well.
The nude painting…I really agree with the judges’ decision. Though, for the concept they had, I think Matt may have done too good a job of blending the girl - took me a moment to figure out what was going on with the models.
I wasn’t really sold on Bree and Matt’s concept while they were working, but, actually, once it was finished…it actually worked really well. (Also, kudos to whoever did the photo compositing…had I seen the image cold, I’d have no idea he wasn’t actually there.)
I wonder if Asher’s actually going to use one of the images for his album, or if that was just used as a concept for the challenge.
I liked the image with the guys bare ass as a basketball. Pretty funny.
That image with the girl in bright golden yellow and the dude in darkish colors needed to much explanation. Sure, once I heard it explain then it made sense that she was pulling him out of that dark world. But, before the explanation I was wondering why the girl was so brightly colored against the dark background. I had no idea what the guy was trying to say.
There was a GQ question last week asking if body paint is the same as clothes. After seeing those big titted ladies in body paint I’d say No! Those big boobs still looked like… big hanging boobs The body paint did nothing to disguise that. They had one girl in profile and she looked pretty sexy in spite of the paint.
I thought it was rather interesting. You could see the thought processes of the artists involved, and their reactions were indicative of their personalities – they either said OK, and went with what was there, or they said screw it, and added what they thought would look good. That Starchild face was a whole team of “I can do this good, so I’ll just add it”, and the monster-guy was a collaborative effort.
But damn, I was VERY happy to see their techniques! It was interesting to watch them.
Yep, totally agree. As much as I dislike Bree, her model job was damn interesting. The actor had just the right look on his face, and their concept was perfect for a rap album like Asher.
And I hate that I felt sorry for Bree. 14 minutes… the model couldn’t wait 14 minutes to collapse… I think their photo shoot would have been more interesting with the ability for the two models to interact.
I also wonder how the judges would have responded if they’d seen the live models. I don’t think it would be too different, but I’d love to hear their critiques on the body painting styles.
In teams of two, create a human-animal hybrid based on either a black beetle, ostrich, or elephant.
Body paint a nude model for a magazine cover photo shoot.
Create an alien inspired by the environmental conditions speculated to exist on Gliese 581 g.
Create a concept for a horror movie with an iconic villain.
Take an engaged couple and make them up so their genders are switched.
Create a makeup to become unrecognizable to a loved one.
Reimagine two fairy tale characters in a different genre. (They did The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Mermaid.)
I wanted to compare the details of the creature vs the creation, but couldn’t get a good side by side.