1/15 Face Off 4 Show Discussion

[Arielflies]

To view this season's audition tapes take this link...This Season on Face Off... | Face Off | Syfy Video | Syfy

The first Foundation Challenge introduced the cast to their mentor for the season - Michael Westmore. They were to create a queen to match a crown. Here is the assembled cast on the Queen Mary posing before their first challenge of the season.



Anthony won this challenge as well as the duo team challenge with Meagan for the Spotlight Challenge in which they had to create a Troll (?) King based on a region of a fantasy land - forest, swamp, desert, etc. Troy, who does more glamor makeup went home for not doing enough with the makeup for his Volcano King.

The guest judge for this episode was John Rhys-Davies, who has worn creature makeup for movie roles.

[TripleGemini]

This is going to be an excellent season :-)

[ness]

I think so too, TG!

First off, I am too thrilled that Michael Westmore is going to serve as mentor for the contestants this season. He's a Westmore, so he DEFINITELY knows his stuff. I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing him share his knowledge and expertise with the contestants, as he did in the premiere ep of S4.

Thoughts, opinions, observations . . . .

Jumping around in no particular order, straight off the top of my head:

Troy, bless his heart, was laid back. SO laid back, he was damn near in a coma. I COMPLETELY understood and sympathized with Michael when he was quietly freaking out about how slow Troy was moving while he was painting their face mask. He handled it, though. Me? I probably would've pushed him out of the way and rolled it, myself.

Their Volcanic Goblin sucked. Seemed to me like the crown, the face mask and the chest piece were different colors. I absolutely agreed with JR-D when he said something to the effect that the work wasn't cohesive and it LOOKED like different people had worked on different parts of the entire presentation. Also, that "crown" looked kinda like a mostly-covered-up lava lamp, to me. Or a REALLY jacked-up Dunce cap.

Another thing I found interesting was that these two made the SAME mistake that Jason did last season in the "Supermobile" challenge: They covered up their nice chest piece (which the judges said was the best part of their work) with a costume. And, really, if their character comes from a volcanic world, WHY did they think that it would be all covered up in robes like that? That made NO sense, to me. Seems to me like the one thing this character would almost be GUARANTEED to do would be to run around shirtless. Do these people NOT bother to watch at least a few shows before they come on?

Guess not.

Oh, and Glenn had me cracking UP because he hated that Volcanic goblin so!

Jungle Goblin King: Loved it. Can see Autumn being a future PITA with the meltdowns, though. And I did NOT care for how she seemed to talk down to Eric Z.

Arctic Goblin King: Loved it. Wondered about House doing the face piece in silicone because of the heaviness (remembered Derek's dropping lower jaw from last season), but it worked. I thought it was a really beautiful creation.

Desert GK: Loved it. Eric F. SO reminded me of that lunatic, Joe, from last year. Seems like he's not crazy, and he knows what he's doing, though. So he'll probably be around for a minute.

Swamp GK: Wayne and Alex DEFINITELY had their heads up their rear ends. As great as that could've turned out --- and as much as I DON'T know --- even I knew that they were in SERIOUS trouble as late as they started painting their pieces. STUPID. Again, DO THESE PEOPLE NOT BOTHER TO WATCH THIS SHOW? Oh, BTW, that crown on theirs almost looked like it could've worked on the Arctic GK, too. Also, their chest piece just looked like mini car grills, to me. Not good.

Also, Alex didn't do herself any favors with me when Anthony dropped his and Megan's (sp?) life cast, and she went running past another contestant (Kris?) remarking that she'd TOLD Megan (sp?) "this was gonna happen!" Meaning, she was assuming that Anthony was just going to sit back and cruise his way through the challenge because he had immunity.

I'm glad Anthony put his head down and made a liar out of her.

I don't really care for people that prejudge others.

Speaking of those two . . .

Mountain GK: Absolutely LOVED it! Like the Arctic King, this rocked. And WON. If he keeps it together, I think Anthony will be a force to be reckoned with.

Forest GK: Really liked it. Unfortunately, I don't see Alam, bless her heart, being around too long, because of her inexperience. But then again, strange things HAVE been known to happen before.

Hmmmmm . . .

Think that's about it, for right now at least.

Oooops!

I lied.

I'm also wondering if Ve was wearing contacts or had laser surgery.

[Gala62]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode! Thankfully no one like Joe from last season - everyone there seems ready to compete. Well...except for poor Troy. Seemed like a nice enough guy, but it was clear from the Foundation Challenge that he was wayyyy over his head. My guess for why they covered up the body on their volcano king? probably the edges were horrible, and they needed some easy way to camouflage. Just a guess.

And aside from the swamp king (who's head sculpt was good at least), everyone else's was really damn good. I would've been happy with Jungle, Desert or Mountain winning.

Personal preferences - nothing against Ness of course! - but Arctic didn't strike me as top tier. I think it was the back piece (cowl?). It seemed odd with the spikes. The face was good though.

Happy, happy, HAPPY! that we'll be seeing more of Michael Westmore! I love shows where the contestants actually get useful, helpful advice. Only one of the reasons I adore this show.

[ness]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode! Thankfully no one like Joe from last season - everyone there seems ready to compete. Well...except for poor Troy. Seemed like a nice enough guy, but it was clear from the Foundation Challenge that he was wayyyy over his head. My guess for why they covered up the body on their volcano king? probably the edges were horrible, and they needed some easy way to camouflage. Just a guess.

And aside from the swamp king (who's head sculpt was good at least), everyone else's was really damn good. I would've been happy with Jungle, Desert or Mountain winning.

Personal preferences - nothing against Ness of course! - but Arctic didn't strike me as top tier. I think it was the back piece (cowl?). It seemed odd with the spikes. The face was good though.

Happy, happy, HAPPY! that we'll be seeing more of Michael Westmore! I love shows where the contestants actually get useful, helpful advice. Only one of the reasons I adore this show.

Troy, bless his heart, WAS in way over his head. I seem to remember something being said --- or HIM saying --- that doing beauty makeups is/was his forte. I dunno, but it seems to me that in a way, if these folks seem to excel in either beauty OR special effects makeup, then when they try to cross-pollinate and do the style they're NOT so good at, they're either nervous about/afraid of/or completely tank at doing it. Roy last year excelled in special effects makeup, but was nervous about doing beauty ("All my beauty makeups wind up looking like hookers!"). IIRC, he won that challenge, but he wasn't doing cartwheels and jumpy claps when it was announced, either.

The edges being not great on the volcanic chest sculpt sounds reasonable, to me. Just thought I remembered seeing from the sketch that they had put full robes on the character, there, too. If that's right, that begs the question: Why would you waste time fabricating a full chest piece, in the first place, if the character was going to have its chest covered by robes? Or, why wouldn't you ditch the shield and staff (I think) and tell your actor to make sure he moved or brushed the front of his robes away in some manner to show off that chest piece?

The Arctic makeup? LOL! No worries, TG, and thanks for pointing out about the back piece on that outfit!

You're right; when you look at the finished costume from the side/back (IIRC), that back piece DID seem to come across as a bit (or a LOT, maybe?) "Hunchback of Notre Dame-ish"! What I loved about that character --- and still do --- is that when you look at it from the front, especially when you are pulled back and look at it, the face, the hands, the colors of the makeup and the costuming all just worked and drew me in to the creation. IIRC Michael Westmore said something in the lab to the effect of ice being really hard to breathe life into, because it had to be colored and painted carefully, and had to have sheen to it to make it work and read properly. And when they were showing the construction clips in the lab, I kept looking and going: "Whaaaaaat?" because I couldn't see then what was going on with the face, the wig, etc., and how it'd all possibly turn out. Fact is, you CAN'T just view a piece from one or limited angles and pronounce it perfect (or close TO it, anyway). Anthony and Megan (sp?) definitely and clearly deserved the win for their work (and I'm glad, ESPECIALLY, that Anthony won). Their piece DID excel over the Arctic piece in terms of overall perfection. But from the front, I just loved the look, colors feel and appearance of the entire Arctic Goblin King and how he came together for final presentation. Frankly, I really didn't think there was a snowball's chance in hell that it'd be pulled off to an acceptable level. But they fooled ME!

LOL!

[Gala62]

oh ITA - it was VERY well done! That alone gives me great hope for this cast ...the quality on this first challenge was off the charts.
LOLOL - yup! Hunchback sounds about right <grin> but the coloring/shading/icy effect was first class.

That's very interesting about the sketch including the robes.... I guess it just proves that Troy and Michael were going in circles and came up with a molten dunce in a moth eaten bedspread. sheesh.
Not too much suspense on who was going home unfortunately. Wonder if Michael just had a bad day or is also over his head and got there because of his brother (who was his brother again??).

[ness]

BTW . . .

My apologies to BOTH Gala and TG!

I was responding to Gala in my second post, above, and --- like Elvis --- what brain there is between my ears left the building and I mistakenly referred to G later on in that post as T(riple)G(emini).

My bad, and I promise faithfully to try harder to remember just who it is I'm responding to, in future!

LOL!

[ness]

oh ITA - it was VERY well done! That alone gives me great hope for this cast ...the quality on this first challenge was off the charts.
LOLOL - yup! Hunchback sounds about right <grin> but the coloring/shading/icy effect was first class.

That's very interesting about the sketch including the robes.... I guess it just proves that Troy and Michael were going in circles and came up with a molten dunce in a moth eaten bedspread. sheesh.
Not too much suspense on who was going home unfortunately. Wonder if Michael just had a bad day or is also over his head and got there because of his brother (who was his brother again??).

You're right. The quality clear across the board astounded me. Matter of fact, when the judges were reviewing the work and there were closeups of it, I was SMH because I was thinking: "DAMN, this is gonna be a tough call! If they do this kinda high-class stuff all season, there'll be the devil to pay to try to settle on who's gonna win the whole shootin' match!"

Then again, they put them through such insane paces, it's pretty much guaranteed that they'll drop like flies throughout the season, anyway.

It's possible that Michael COULD'VE had a bad day. I'll give him that. Right now, anyway. After the brothers from last season, it's also entirely possible that Michael was just grandfathered in because of his brother (i.e., Matt Valentine, from S2) and may possibly BE in over is head, in the long (or short) run.

The FaceOff world will keep turning, and we will see!

[JohnnyK]

I'm looking forward to starting this season.

But right now I still can't get over that Star Wars challenge in season 3. Joe and Tommy's creation was laughably bad.

[jadewarlock]

I will say two things:

1. I'm glad we had no Joe effects this season. I'd been really mad as all these designers have the skills and the right attitude to compete. Joe didn't care and was a waste of a spot.

2. The volcano one was the only one that was really poorly done overall. It just looked so dark and fake up close and from a distance.

OK, I'll add a third:

3. I'm glad that at least in this challenge there really wasn't any makeup that read like a "Horror" makeup. The fact they were doing "Goblin Kings" would've enticed previous season designers to consider that type of makeup, but thankfully none chose the route. I liked all of them overall save the volcano one.