ANTM - Cycle 18 - The British Are Coming! - February 29, 2012

[jadewarlock]

I can't see how they will give it to Sophie. How would they get the "rah rah rah. U.S.A" moment?

They could go this time the British beat the Americans in the "revolution."

Plus - if they want even an ounce of legitimacy internationally for a winner (we've had several non-winners with international success, such as Elyse and Norelle), they may want to consider it. Laura's look is not as easy to sell internationally, and her walking does hurt her. I can however see Sophie in other international shoots.

Plus, I've seen Sophie's work outside of "ANTM" - she is a much better model in photography than they're letting on in the show. Then again some shots, such as the one on the tower, were sabotaged by editing out the harness. Her case the photo would've been a MUCH better shot with it.

[SurrnderDorothy]

Then again some shots, such as the one on the tower, were sabotaged by editing out the harness. Her case the photo would've been a MUCH better shot with it.

I've never understood why they do shoots like this. (Well, okay, actually I do-- it's for the "Fear Factor" element to "punch up" the show.)

But it always results in such lackluster photos that I can't imagine anyone really doing this.

If you're going to pay to retouch a harness out-- and yeah, let's put a bungee harness over the delicate designer frock you're allegedly promoting-- then you might as well shoot indoors with a couple of fans for "wind" and pay to Photoshop the model into the exterior shot. Given the choice between "taking a harness out and making the dress look good again" and "pasting a model into a background," I'd much rather have to do the latter.

At least it wasn't as ridiculous as the shoot in C7 where the models had to pose in spacesuits in a wind tunnel. Not only did the poor retouchers have to take out the guys holding the models in place and add a "space" background-- they had to heavily retouch the models' faces to take out skin ripples caused by the pressure of the wind tunnel.

In reality, they'd be posing just simulating "floating" moves on a background that was easy to remove and replace with the "space" background. That alone would be hard enough-- trying to angle your arms and legs and back to look "weightless" while maintaining your face, all without looking like a bad mime routine-- but not dramatic enough for ANTM.

So we have to have models posed on outdoor building ledges and other scary spots, whether it makes sense or not. Because as we all know, a model's life is fraught with danger and only the strongest survive to reach the top of that model-y mountain... and people will tune in to watch them drop one by one.

Hmmm... I wonder if Tyra's read/seen "The Hunger Games" and has a shoot planned for next cycle with real shooting?...

[jadewarlock]

At least it wasn't as ridiculous as the shoot in C7 where the models had to pose in spacesuits in a wind tunnel. Not only did the poor retouchers have to take out the guys holding the models in place and add a "space" background-- they had to heavily retouch the models' faces to take out skin ripples caused by the pressure of the wind tunnel.

That one was bad; however that season either relatively great shots - such as IMHO the ones with Fabio - had that gosh-awful scribbling added to them, or they had gimmicky ones like this. My faves from thats season were the circus shot then pretty much the rest of them in Spain (?). The exception was the bullfighting one because the capes looked photoshopped (they were but it was too obvious) and worse, the bulls didn't match.

Hmmm... I wonder if Tyra's read/seen "The Hunger Games" and has a shoot planned for next cycle with real shooting?...

While I COULD see a challenge based on this - the outlandish costumes and such - she would probably have them posed out in wilderness in tribute costumes bloodied up with some sort of bloodied weapon after the person "killed" one of the other models and the other person played dead.

(Tell you if that death shoot during Jaslene's season wasn't controversial enough...)

[Little Sew&Sew]

Thought the show was ending tonight. No, can't be that easy. Tonight is a 'recap' of the seasons events.

Finale is next week.

[Fanny Mare]

Thought the show was ending tonight. No, can't be that easy. Tonight is a 'recap' of the seasons events.

Finale is next week.

I was all set to watch it online( it shows on Thursday here) thanks for letting us know

[jadewarlock]

Thought the show was ending tonight. No, can't be that easy. Tonight is a 'recap' of the seasons events.

Finale is next week.

Was disappointed as Tyra said "Next ANTM" last week (and again this week) but we had the recap instead.

I didn't mind too much because it did show some funny scenes such as the "ninja models" (Catherine/Sophie) hiding under pillows and glasses then Anneliese and Sophie dancing to the music video.

The scenes with poor Ashley having to try and explain that she was saying "girl" and not "ghetto" were also cute. (Note, I have a strong accent too and have done a similar growl of frustration that she gave - and was told it was "cute"). I feel bad for her though because while she can be tough to understand, even I agree that the two words are different enough an accent shouldn't be a deterrent.

Also - found it quite interesting (and sad) that AzMarie was the cleanest one in the house. Did think she was a bit OCD in her cleaning, but at least she did clean up the place.

[SurrnderDorothy]

The scenes with poor Ashley having to try and explain that she was saying "girl" and not "ghetto" were also cute. (Note, I have a strong accent too and have done a similar growl of frustration that she gave - and was told it was "cute"). I feel bad for her though because while she can be tough to understand, even I agree that the two words are different enough an accent shouldn't be a deterrent.

Ashley's pronunciation of "girl" is sort of like "GEH-ruhl" or "GEHr-uhl," with a relatively soft "r" sound, which reasonably shouldn't sound like "ghetto"-- because "ghetto" should be pronounced "GET-toh," or at the very least, "GET-oh," with two distinct syllables separated by a solid "t" sound.

Problem is, most young Americans pronounce it more like "GEH-oh," taking the consonant sound out of the middle and making a slurred vowel sound after the first "g".

*sigh* Never mind a duchess-- these days Prof. Higgins would have trouble making the average young woman sound like an Edwardian shopgirl.

Also - found it quite interesting (and sad) that AzMarie was the cleanest one in the house. Did think she was a bit OCD in her cleaning, but at least she did clean up the place.

I'm not so sure it was that Az was "the cleanest one in the house" so much as she was the ONLY clean one in the house during her stay. I don't think it was OCD so much as "they dirty it up again just as fast as I can clean, and I don't want salmonella."

Hey, maybe that's why she refused to tooch and let herself get cut-- she wanted to stop being "Alice" in this Brady Bunch!

And I'm really bummed this episode was a recap instead of the finale-- I had a rare Wed. night off and the opportunity to watch in HD rather than my usual SD timeshifted copy. Dang. Tyra, you mislead and disappoint me-- as usual.

[jadewarlock]

OK, I've seen the finale photos and have to say a couple of points - in spoilers of course. :

[SurrnderDorothy]

Thank you for the spoiler conceal. I look forward to reading your comments after I've seen the finale.

I must say, I'm just not as excited about this finish as I thought I would be, especially when we have two good models in F2, and both are from the two Brits and two Yanks I thought would make it to F2.

I guess it's because:

1) I have a hunch Laura has to win;

2) The things they've shown in the edit kind of diminished my estimation of Laura towards the end, and a final episode "redemption edit" is going to be hard to pull off. They've just made her less likeable than Sophie and harder to root for;

3) No real designer in the final runway show. It's kind of hard to get excited for clothes that I had to Wiki the name to be sure it was who I was thinking of (it was). Even worse, the Wiki entry reveals that a number of real designers have alleged that Forever 21 stole their ideas.

It's really bad when I'm actually approaching the last episode with a sense of relief that it's over...

[Little Sew&Sew]

It's really bad when I'm actually approaching the last episode with a sense of relief that it's over

I agree! And thinking ahead to the next cycle . . . well, I am not anymore interested in that than I am in the finale of this one. No Nigel and neither of the Jays. I just can't find anything to get excited about. The gimmicks have all played out.