Face Off Season Finale (SPOILERS)

So, this was it, the final three, Anthony, Wayne and Chris (sorry for the wonky photos, they wouldn't upload how I wanted them too).  So after what I think has been the most talent filled season it's time for that nail biting last episode... and I really think this one delivered as far as tension is concerned.  Now I really want Anthony to win... despite some flubs I thought he has consistently had my favorite make ups.  Though, I have to say that I was really disappointed that Fox didn't make it to the final three because I really felt his makeup, originality and personality were amazing.... but it is what it is.  But who won?  Well...  We'll get to that.

So the final challenge is that each artist has to come up with a "dream thief"  concept for the new Las Vegas show "La Reve: The Dream".  Which is a water show.  Yes.  Their makeups must be able to survive being fully submerged in water.  Yikes.  So each of the final artists gets a team and a theme, coming up with a concept of a hero being chased by a villain that wants to steal something from them.  So, I will go through it all finalist by finalist.

Wayne:  Wayne picks a supernatural theme, choosing Fox and Meagan as his teammates.  Wayne's concept is that a demon is after an angel who is budding wings.  As in most lore, his demon is actually a fallen angel and all he needs are wings to get back to heaven.  The concept is strong and as always with Wayne the sculpt is amazing but time is an issue.  Oh Wayne will you never learn?

Kris:  Kris goes with an ethereal theme, choosing House and Alam as his team.  Kris is immediately plagued by the limitations of this challenge.  He wants to go big and show the judges what he can do, but with the water element he has to scale down.  He also has the least focus as far as a story goes.  He tells the judges that his villain can't dream but his hero can, so the villain wants to steal her dreams.  I didn't really get that, but whatever.

Anthony:  Anthony chooses sinister has his theme, his team being Eric Z... and Autumn... yeah.  Anyway, Anthony's concept is that his villain has had his soul ripped out symbolized by a gaping hole in his chest, while his hero has a beautiful glowing soul at the center of her chest piece.  Anthony has a ton of issues in the work room.  First his hero's face piece comes out all wrong and he literally has to re-sculpt the whole thing.  Then Autumn fucks up his chest piece... but thank God they were able to save it. 

So after three days working, everybody flies off to Vegas and get really awesome hotel suits.  We get the same old application day we always get where everybody says they don't have time and they edit it to look really intense but really everything was fine... except Wayne didn't get to paint a few things (like always) but honestly it wasn't a grievous error.

All three makeups were really awesome.  Here is how I felt about each, these are my reactions as I watched (yeah that's right I typed these out as I watched):

• Not sure how I feel about Chris's... I love his bad guy but don't feel that his female character is very ethereal, if anything she seemed hard.  The villain has a smooth coolness while the hero is harsh and really bright... I really don't get that choice
• LOVE Anthony's sinister... BOTH characters looked quite sinister bad and good.  It's obvious they are from the same world and they both kind of creep me out.  Well done!
• Wayne's looks kind of like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer rip off...  There was something very "I've seen this before" to me, but the sculpture is quite good.

Thankfully, the judges do a pre-water close up of the make ups.  If I had to guess I thought they were most impressed with Anthony, but they only had good comments for everybody.  And then the water... I knew they would be getting wet but I didn't realized the would be FUCKING SLAMMING into it from CRAZY heights.  I couldn't even enjoy what I was seeing because I was holding my breath in terror that a cowl or chest piece would fly off.  Not only do all the makeups stay on, but they look perfect post water.  All three men nailed it

But... in the end their could only be one winner and BOY was it close.  I really had no idea who would win and when the commercial break popped up I nearly died... I just wanted to know... and who was it...

ANTHONY!

That's right, for once my favorite won!  I am so happy, but really he deserved it!  This season was so full of talent and I really think it was a close call but it's just wonderful that Anthony got it.  Now we have to wait until August to see what the next group has to offer.

Face Off... Double Elimination!!! (spoilers)

Oh man, I hate double elimination challenges because it panics the contestant and you tend to have this worst  looks, but after the crap we saw in last week's werewolf challenge it can't get worse.  This week's elimination challenge is to create an undiscovered creature from any of the Earth's natural settings.  The twist is that the contestants must use iridescent paint to create something completely different under a black light.

The episode started out Megan getting really sick, so sick in fact that she has to go to the hospital.  Megan's work hasn't been up to snuff, she never actually comes up with a concept for any of her makeups.  She just sort of says, oh this looks cool, and then when the judges ask her "why" she looks scared and confused.

Now, I got kind of nervous because it seemed that most everybody was doing an undersea creature.  With the exception of Megan with her venus fly trap rock thing and Eric Z with his... rock thing every other person went for an undersea look.  I guess it makes sense, most undiscovered creatures are in the oceans, but still it could be good to take a risk now and then.  Everybody seems to be doing well with their sculpts except, uh oh Eric F. may have taken on too much.  Again.  No matter how many times the judges tell him to chillax, he just can't!  And in his rush to get his molds done he doesnt test the illuminated paint.  THAT'S THIS WHOLE CHALLENGE!

On application day it seemed that House and Wade struggled the most, House's mold not coming out cleanly and Wade not getting his pieces on fast enough.  Wade just barely gets any of the bioluminescence on his character.  But I while watching I was most worried for Eric Z who seems to be randomly finger painting his rock monster... thing.

Here are my thoughts as each makeup came up, and it turned out that after the judges including Jon Ladau totally agreed with me.  This is literally what I wrote as I watched:

House- What happened?  The paint was bad the application was bad, the prosthetic was bad... your drawing was beautiful, what did you do?!

Eric Z- Great concept of rock monster, but what they hell was that illumination?  I could have painted better... a four year old with finger paint could have done better.  Boy you missed the mark.

Anthony-  There's the guy who won all those challenges!  Flawless, lovely, great use of the luminescent paint. I am so happy to see Anthony back at the top of this game!

Kris- Awesome face piece, the illumination could have been better, but the face really makes up for a lacking paint job.

Megan-  Girl I know you were sick, but he's supposed illuminate, you weren't sick when you were painting.  You were in the hospital!  You had time to think of a concept!

Wayne-  Even though he rushed and could have done more with paint, I think the concept is amazing  I love the creature as a whole, especially the face which I think was insane!

Eric F-  My dad called it, that shit looked like Odo from Star Trek.  But I have to say the illumination paint was lovely.  And in case you don't know what Odo looks like, here you go:

Anthony won this challenge by a mile.  His work was the only one with a distinct bioluminescent nature.  There was duality that provided beauty and though the face sculpt was a little like Davy Jones from Pirates of The Caribbean, I didn't mind because at the end of the day he nailed the challenge.

Our losers, well, Megan was obvious to go home, and I really don't think it had anything to do with her being sick.  She really never had any cool or original ideas.  She may be good at make up, but concept design is a huge part of being a makeup artist and if you can't come up with a reason why your character would exist well...

Eric Z was the second going home and I absolutely agree with the judges.  He had such a smart concept going in but it just didn't come to fruition.  After what happened last week with the werewolf challenge it was just his time.

So, there goes all the ladies, it's suddenly become a total sausage fest in the work room, but I am not unhappy with any of the decisions made thus far.  I just wish this season had more throw backs to other TV shows like Star Trek or DOCTOR WHO... Is it obvious that I really want a Doctor Who episode?  Also if you enjoy reading my blog, please start following me and leaving comments!  I love open discussions.

The Competition Show You're Probably Not Watching But Should Be

If you love scifi, fantasy, horror, blood, guts, and all around out of this world creatures as much as I do, you will love SyFy's Face Off.  Currently in it's 4th season, I have watched since season 1 and I just can't get enough.  If I had any artistic ability whatsoever I would have gone into special effects makeup, but, especially after watching this show, I think it would be wise for me to just stick to the makeup I put on my own face.

So what's this show about?  You may ask.  And why is it called SyFy channel now?  You may also ask.  Well, while I can answer both questions, even if the the second question is something that has caused me great annoyance 2009.  Science Fiction/Fantasy is not its own genre!!  SyFy my ass.  Anyway!  Face Off is a competition show where makeup artists go head to head (or face to face as it were).  Each week, the makeup artists are given a concept for a creature or character, they then have to design a makeup, fabricate it and apply it for the total effect.  They are given 2 days to put together designs that would take full scale movies months and many, MANY design meetings to come up with.  It's amazing to see what goes into these makeup effects!  Its not all paint and pre-made prosthetics like my Halloween costumes, OH NO!  It's hours of work sketching, sculpting, running latex or foam into your mold, then applying and painting.  Really it's unbelievable.

I will always be the first to critique makeup designs, and if I see CGI where makeup or puppets could be used, well, be prepared to hear a ton of complaining.  For days.  This show uses some of the greatest makeup artists in the world as judges, make artists that I admire greatly for creating designs I have tried to emulate myself.  Specifically the designs of Ve Neil as I was Lydia for Halloween once.  That's right, this BRILLIANT woman gave the world Beetlejuice!  Well I mean, it's Tim Burton's brainchild, but Ve brought him to life!  And, if we have to talk about brilliant make up, Ve Neil somehow turned Martin Landau into Bela Lugosi!  Look:

Also on the panel, we have a man who helped make my teenage years.  Without Glenn Hetrick's sculpting and painting, our vampires would have been boring pointy toothed monsters, not these demons:

Not only did he help shape the demon's of Buffy and Angel fame, he also made sculptures for one of my personal favoite b-movies, PUMPKINHEAD!  So awesome.  Hetrick also is responsible for effects on X-Files, Babylon 5 and some of the more interesting looks of Lady Gaga.  That's right, I said Lady Gaga.  

The final judge on the panel is Neville Page.  Now what's different about Page is that makeup isn't his specialty but character design is.  J.J. Abrams pretty much uses him for everything, he turned my love Alan Cumming into a really awesome Night Crawler and he gave the world some really famous blue guys.  No not The Smurfs, these guys:

Oh, and did I mention that the host of the show is not only hot, but is also the daughter of one of the most prolific makeup artists in American history.  That's right, Mackenzie Westmore is the daughter of Michael Westmore, the man who gave us Klingon foreheads and Volcan eyebrows.  Michael Westmore also plays a major role on the show, often mentoring the contestants as the sculpt their makeups.

This season proves to be a great one as we are only 2 episodes in and I am already blown away by the work.  I mean... LOOK:

And if anybody who is in charge of the show happens to somehow read this, please, PLEASE do a Doctor Who themed episode!  I have such a great idea, do a Doctor Who Main Baddie and ALSO a design for it's henchmen.  Doctor Who always has one main bad guy who has a bunch of henchmen who all look exactly the same.  Like the Daleks and Davross or the Silurians and their masked soldiers.  Come on!  You know it's a good idea!