S07.E03: Ancient Aliens

[Bella]

 

No description.

 

 

[Quilt Fairy]

No description

 

Yeah, I can't describe it, either.   I am seriously underwhelmed by the talent this season. Although I don't have a problem with the winner, I would have put one of the top 3 in the bottom and vice-versa. Sometimes I want to see exactly what the judges see up close as much as I want to taste some of the food on Top Chef.

[Iguana]

I didn't mind the aliens theme this ep that much, largely because of the ancient wonder/Chariots of the Gods inspiration. Although I think the winning make up was beautiful, most of the rest were mediocre and might very well be in the bottom on earlier seasons. Absolutely no issue with the hideous and ill-conceived make up that went home today, either. Gwen made some very bad choices and compounded it by wasting so much time trying to fix that pointless chest piece.

[Ms Lark]

Although I don't have a problem with the winner, I would have put one of the top 3 in the bottom and vice-versa.

If you're talking about the 2 Egyptian characters, I'm with you. Damian's makeup televised in HD really well -- it looked like gold leaf that had the top layers burnished off the edges. His model really brought the regal attitude and it worked. I thought it was really good, definitely not a bottom nor merely safe. The Egyptian woman's makeup looked patchy, chalky, and underwhelming. It may have looked different in person, but it did not televise well at all.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Ms Lark

[Rhetorica]

I liked the challenge. The alien had to inspire the mythology/religion of the culture. Too bad so many were misses. Good that three women were in the top. Most women on the show in previous years whine or cry way too much. And I can say this because I'm a woman.

[GaT]

I don't think any of these makeups would work in an actual movie, everything reminds me of the original Star Trek aliens, nothing is realistic. 

[seacliffsal]

I, too, didn't think Damian was bottom three, but it was interesting that in explaining why he was in the bottom 3, Glen said that the cheekbones didn't make anatomical sense.  I was surprised by that as I thought the whole point of them doing aliens is that they are different from humans.  The ones I preferred looked different from typical human forms (including hands which someone made hand coverings because of that [sorry, the numbers will have to dwindle a bit before I know all of their names).  I really agreed with Mr. Westmore about Doc's original sketch.  But then, I thought Doc took too much time trying to prove his vision was right in the workroom; with one guy basically saying that Doc should listen to Mr. Westmore.

 

I do wish that we could see all of them when the judges inspect them.  The blue one that Gil (?) made looked interesting to me, but we never saw it other than just the one presentation.  I was also interested in Dina's.

 

Maybe an idea for a future season is to still have a million contestants (okay, maybe 16...), but only have half in a challenge each week.  The numbers would dwindle at the same rate, but we, as viewers, would see more of each contestant during an episode.  Then, when the numbers are down to 8 or 10, combine them all together again.

[leighdear]

It really tickled me when Lois was riffing on Doc's sad & suicidal looking Easter Island head....all the judges were just DYING...I know it's mean, but it was really funny to me.  

 

Sasha really lucked out that her imitating Dina in the molding phase went well.  How did that girl get on the show with so few skills?  Obviously her artistic sense is really good.  I also loved the nostril chains (I can't believe I just typed that!)

 

I felt so bad for Gwen, I really liked her.  Very calm & mature about everything.  I'm surprised they didn't criticize Vince for making his mask look exactly like one of the Easter Island heads.  

 

I also really liked Stella's.  That red & gold combination is very regal, and that collar was stunning.  Yay for the ladies!

[Primetimer]

If you don't spend a lot of time sculpting, your creature might have a glob of Silly Putty for a head.

Read the story

[FormerMod-a1]

I like the idea of the challenge, I think it left it wide open for creativity and execution.  However, so many ended up stone/rock-like or reptilian-like that I'm glad the top 3 were not that.  Just for variety's sake.  I mean they could have gone bird-like, or at least used feathers, or fur, or heck hair even.  Why were they all bald?    I wish the pinker alien had won.  I really liked that one.

[Quality]

Yeah, I can't describe it, either.   I am seriously underwhelmed by the talent this season.

 

It's really bad. Between the guy who was there because he took a makeup class and liked it, the guy who just does stuff for fun in  his basement, and the girl who had never made a mold before, it's rough.

[Lorimac]

Mr. A, I am just loving your recaps. My couch family has been faithful F-Offers since Season 1, but reading your review adds an additional pleasurable dimension. And you are right about the models being part of the deal on this show (remember the model who was the bureau bell-hop on the Tim Burton challenge?!) - getting a particular model would seem key - why don't these models get a spread in Marie Clare Horrifique?

Seemed to me that Doc should have been packed off, rather than Gwen. I understand about no Vikings at Stonehenge, but at least Gwen had a concept - I thought her look had more of a Celtic/Druid/Bravehearty feel to it, whereas Doc's....well, just stunk, conceptually as well as technically.

I was so happy to see Ve again... only Ve could warm up the new British schoolmarm by completely cracking up at her Easter island witticisms... please let's have a contest where the prize is to have drinks with Ve - I would SO enter that.

[EricJ]

I thought Stella's was really spectacular. Hers looked like she had two or three more days to work on it than anyone else.

[Nutjob]

I honestly couldn't believe Sasha's was in the top. Yes, structurally it was great, but the seams were terrible around the top and sides of the head! I thought she'd be in the bottom for that alone, and when they called her in the top I was completely surprised. The head of Doc's looked like a malformed beluga whale.

[snakenax]

Overall I really agreed with the Judge's opinions. Sasha's was just gorgeus, Stella's was just amazing and Kahlen's was good and within the challenge framework(I thought Dina's was probably better, but it barely registered the challenge). The rest were somewhere between 'meh' and 'get that off my screen right now'. I kind of wish Mr 'I just threw a Easter Island head on this guy and called it a day' had been on the bottom just so he could be called on that.. especially since he couldn't even be assed to color the hands the same as the head.

[morakot]

I am delighted that we did not have a lot of gross bloody monsters and instead were given creations that required a little thought.

And I loved seeing Glenn get the giggles!

[LoneHaranguer]

Mr. Silly Putty looked like an unfinished G'Kar.

 

I preferred Sasha's alien, but have no problem with the judges giving Stella extra points for the difficulty of accomplishing what she did.

[drmka9]

I love that a lot of the contestants are doing brighter makeups, but the technical skill doesn't seem to be there for a number of them. Stella's alien was phenomenal. I felt bad that everything basically fell apart for Gwen, but she didn't seem to prioritize. Why work on the chest piece for hours if it'll only be covered up by the costume? I had Doc pegged as a bottom look from the time he said the Moai are known for their "fish lips" which isn't what I think of at all with the Moai. 

 

Unless I'm blanking on something, have they shown any of Mr. Westmore's conferences with the guy who worked with him? It seems like they're deliberately having him fly under the radar, or at least trying to under-emphasize his previous work. I don't think we even saw the judges' up-close look with his alien.

[Zanne]

I wish the pinker alien had won.  I really liked that one.

 

 

And you are right about the models being part of the deal on this show - getting a particular model would seem key...

 

 

The pink alien was fantastic, but I think what put it over the winning edge for me was the model. The model had naturally large eyes that could be utilized well for this challenge. I kept wondering how the red alien would have been different if that person had the pink alien model to work with because the main fault I had with the red alien was that its eyes seemed too small with all the stuff going on around its face.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Zanne

[snakenax]

 

Unless I'm blanking on something, have they shown any of Mr. Westmore's conferences with the guy who worked with him? It seems like they're deliberately having him fly under the radar, or at least trying to under-emphasize his previous work. I don't think we even saw the judges' up-close look with his alien.

I think that guy is probably mid season cannon fodder which is why we're not seeing anything about him. He's not early season cannon fodder, so no reason to spend time on his creations when you have total disasters to spotlight, and he's not a late season contender, so no reason to build him up.

 

Right now i'd put him, beard guy, red hair girl and dude voice guy as the ones likely to only get a spotlight mid season when they start getting bumped off.

[Shannon L.]

Coming out of lurking:

 

 

Gwen made some very bad choices and compounded it by wasting so much time trying to fix that pointless chest piece.

What's even worse is that her model had a great physique, so I couldn't understand why she didn't just ditch it and paint his chest with some nice shading.  Sure, having a chest piece would've been better, but I'd rather take my chances sending out a good body paint with a good face piece than sending him out with that.

 

Also, I'd have stayed far away from Stonehenge because it seemed to me to be the most difficult one.  And, unless there's a theory that involves water, I was confused as to why that one girl's story was about an aquatic alien being the reason for a large stone structure in the middle of England.

[Kaoteek]

Yeah, lots of misses, this week. Out of the top 3/bottom 3, I would have switched the two Egyptian ones (really didn't like that weird, pastel cat that didn't look at all egyptian to me), and, just like the judges did, I would probably have given the win to Stella, over Sasha's rough application. No surprise as to who was going home, though.

Edited August 7, 2014 by Kaoteek

[Shannon L.]

 

I would have switched the two Egyptian ones (really didn't like that weird, pastel cat that didn't look)

Oh yes...forgot to mention that we thought it looked like an alien version of The Cat in the Hat.

[Richness]

Sasha's alien looked fine, but her giddiness really rubbed me the wrong way. Enough with the pandering to the judges with the bowing, etc. Keaghlen alien was gorgeous, but again, her own personal crayola looks irritate me. Stella's third eye demon looked rough and unfinished to me. Can't believe the damn thing won. Are we just not going to comment on the nose piece vulva?

 

Doc's looked like a gray blob, but at least it sort of looked like the Easter Island statues. Lois can STFU and go away now. So glad to have Ve back however briefly. Gwen's alien was just a train wreck from beginning to end.

 

I really liked Damien's alien despite what the judges said. At least it wasn't a gray blob. Why did he get knocked for doing a pointed chin when Sasha's Egyptian alien gets praised for it? Yet another inconsistency from the judges. How exactly would Glenn know what makes  anatomical sense on an alien? Then again, Glenn *IS* pretty alien, so he may be more qualified to speak in that area than anyone.

 

I don't think any of these makeups would work in an actual movie, everything reminds me of the original Star Trek aliens, nothing is realistic. 

 

Funny you should mention that. As much as I love Michael Westmore, I was really hoping Doc would do his own thing and just disregard Michael in this case. After all, Star Trek was *NOTORIOUS* for really bad nose piece aliens, even in the latter series. Even if you try to attribute that to Gene Roddenberry always wanting to be able to see the alien's eyes for better relating to them, there were still plenty of bad, repetitive nose and forehead appliances.

 

Unless I'm blanking on something, have they shown any of Mr. Westmore's conferences with the guy who worked with him?

 

I've been wanting to see that since I found out about it in the premier.

Edited August 7, 2014 by Richness

[Merneith]

I wish someone had said something about the sad little set of fake arms on Cig's "Vishnu" alien. I thought that deserved to be in the bottom over the blue/gold Egyptian. I liked the winning look a whole bunch. The new judge, Lois, is a treat.

[Zanne]

How exactly would Glenn know what makes  anatomical sense on an alien?

 

 

This is the one thing about this show that annoys me the most. If they are creating monsters and aliens, it would be more effective (in my opinion) if there was something "off" about them. Limiting them to human proportions and structures takes away what makes something horrific. When I think of movies like The Grudge or Alien, what scares me are the things that don't look human about the monsters - the fact that their arms are on backward or their heads are at an angle that screams wrong. Heck, who's to say the aliens would be carbon-based? Go crazy!

Edited August 7, 2014 by Zanne

[niklj]

It's really bad. Between the guy who was there because he took a makeup class and liked it, the guy who just does stuff for fun in  his basement, and the girl who had never made a mold before, it's rough.

Serious scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel going on here. They really should have just stuck to 1 season per year because if I were some of the more top contestants I'd be feeling pretty insulted that I was competing against someone that didn't even know how to make a mold. What the heck. Makes it a lot less fun to watch, more like watching for the train wrecks (that Easter Island head was just sad).

[hincandenza]

All in all, fully agree that while we had some great work in week 1- I guess, technically before the show "started"- the last two weeks haven't really shone much, barring a couple of well-executed pieces.

 

Totally agreed that we need more Michael Westmore moments; my favorite times in this show are when people are “talking shop”, because it feels educational and interesting.  I loved the grin on Mackenzie’s face when her dad started talking about “the Borg queen” with the guy who did LEDs in the head; she was so proud of Papa there!

 

From the writeup, there is this line: “Glenn Hetrick has to say the phrase "movies like Stargate and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull." Is that really the best you can do?”.  But this makes sense to me, since the challenge wasn’t just “Aliens” but “Ancient Aliens”, of which those two movies are examples of films that explore the idea of ancient aliens influencing human culture.  This is also why a totally alien look would not quite have fit the challenge; something *too* alien, such as say the xenomorphs from “Aliens”, or even George's squid creature, would never have been worshipped as gods by primitive ancient humans.  Feared, hunted, perhaps, but inspired to create religions or giant temples?  I have my doubts.

Using the pictures at SyFy here (http://www.syfy.com/faceoff/photos/face_off_s07_e0703_spotlight_challenge) to recall each makeup:

 

 

Sasha: I really liked this, my absolute favorite of the week- it’s a great example of “less is more”.  The sculpt did have a visible seam, but otherwise blended so well into the face that it didn’t look like a mask.  I think that facet is weighted heavily by the judges without necessarily making it through the editing room, but this look had great color- if you looked when she was in front of the green screen, you could see that her character's colors tied into the masonry of the temple- nice accents, and blended beautifully into the models’ existing head, face and features.  Zanne says it well above: the model had gorgeous huge eyes, and she worked *with* her model to make a creation that looked like an alien, but humanoid enough that you can see an ancient people worshipping her, and capturing her elements in their religious sculptures.

 

Still baffling, as Quality pointed out above, that we have people who’ve taken a makeup class, or never made a mold, somehow on the show.  But I think Sasha showed promise to pick things up quickly.  You can go a long way making decent, well-executed makeups on this show; the first few weeks are full of boots for people who bit off more than they could chew (*koff* Gwen *koff*).

 

 

Damien: I disagree that his blue/gold creation was in any way “regal” as Ms Lark expressed; it felt like a bad mask, and I took a moment while watching to pause the DVR, close my eyes, envision the blue painted first, *then* the gold, as an approach to painting… and in my head I totally agree with Ve that it would look better; we've heard this come up as advice on previous seasons, where the idea is you want your base coat to set the stage, and then accent it.  Plus, the overall look was pretty anemic; one head piece, some mediocre body painting, and call it a day.  And contrasted against the smooth flow of Sasha’s- who apparently never had done a mold before- his head piece looked like, well, a bad head piece.

 

I also get what Glenn meant about “not making sense”: the idea is that any facial or body features should speak to an implied evolutionary purpose, not just whatever doodling angles and shapes someone sketched during the brainstorming session.  Just because something is "alien" doesn’t mean it sprung up fully formed without any biological history of that alien’s development on its home planet before it became a space-faring species.

 

 

Doc: That “silly putty” abomination was goddamn terrible on all counts: lousy idea, lousy mold, lousy colors, and lousy paint job.  If Gwen hadn’t shit the bed with both an abysmal chest piece *and* an incoherent story, he’d deservedly go home this week.  I think he missed a golden opportunity to be creative here.  The EI heads have elongated heads and pronounced noses, so he could have designed an alien with a more "alien" head… but wearing some kind of rebreather gadget (to survive in earth’s atmosphere, natch) that created a silhouette that *looked* kinda like a pronounced nose on an EI head.  That would have won creativity points in my book, and possibly rescued a bland *and* poorly executed piece.

 

Ha, no, not really, his work was unredeemable this week. :)

 

 

Dina: Dina’s creation was decent, but unremarkable;   She had a great first week, but I’m starting to think that might have been a fluke since her last two weeks have been meh.  Even the previous season, just a few months ago, seemed like we had more exceptional work showing up from a few key people by this point.

 

 

Gwen: Oof.  The less said, the better; I don't think I've ever seen a contestant have that kind of mold disaster, and not either a) ditched it as unworkable, or b) re-run it in polyfoam to try to get something workable.  A total fuck-up, and the whole “vikings” thing was hilarious.  These people *do* have iPads- we’ve seen them- so a simple Wikipedia browse would have schooled her on the Vikings v. Druids situation. :)  As a total non-sequitor, her style of speaking and presence reminded me heavily of “Kima” Greggs on the excellent HBO drama of last decade, “The Wire”.

 

 

Jason: this is the one Westmore talked about LEDs in the crown, and I’d have liked to have seen mnore of it because what little I did see, looked well done.  From the pictures on SyFy, the color palette is strong without being overdone.

 

 

George: I like his squid/non-human creation; the busy “African” wardrobe was a bit odd, but I appreciated his voiceover about how his aliens certainly aren’t going to have any human features- and he succeeded. Would have liked to have seen this be more than just “safe”, for that reason alone, although I already said that something too non-human wouldn't have been worshipped- so I guess I'm just a big hypocrite. :)

 

 

Rachel: Wish I'd gotten more to see of this, because I don't even remember it from the episode, but I like the picture on SyFy.  Nice scalloped headpiece, good colors with the use of pink.

 

 

Cig: Man, I cannot STAND this guys pieces of flair.  That said, regardless of my feelings about his forced wacky wardrobe... he’s done another competent piece, although the cowl felt more “human wearing headdress” than alien, and the secondary arms were too small to really work; they looked quite bad, as Merneith observed above.

 

 

Drew: The face on this looked constipated, and it was a bland, monotone piece. He was safe only because others were even worse.  this is a theme as others have noted: some pretty sub-par work that passed because it wasn’t a total train wreck.

 

 

Stella: She won for the level of detail, so I’ll give her kudos for that, and loved the feathers, but the facial elements shouldn’t have worked… and in my opinion they didn’t, not really, since that omega symbol on her face could fall to the same criticism of Damien, namely "the fuck did *that* come from?".  But the colors and detail were exceptional, so other than Sasha she didn’t really have any competition this week.

 

 

Vince: This was a phoned in piece if ever there was one.  Honestly, he could have been and maybe should have been in the bottom three: bland colors, utterly predictable “Easter Island” head, and nothing else but a monotone shawl.  That said… I mean, it *did* fit the challenge, and looked appreciably “alien”.  If this is his best work, he's not making the halfway point this year.

 

 

Keaghlan: Still can’t stand her vibrant turquoise eyebrows, but like Cig she *is* certainly competent.  This felt “camera ready” for the most part, looking like a Star Trek style alien (in the good way), and the visual cues that would have inspired the local native religion were well executed.

[Rhetorica]

This is the one thing about this show that annoys me the most. If they are creating monsters and aliens, it would be more effective (in my opinion) if there was something "off" about them. Limiting them to human proportions and structures takes away what makes something horrific. When I think of movies like The Grudge or Alien, what scares me are the things that don't look human about the monsters - the fact that their arms are on backward or their heads are at an angle that screams wrong. Heck, who's to say the aliens would be carbon-based? Go crazy!

But Star Trek explained this in "The Chase". Aliens seeded the multiverse so we are all have the same DNA! Loved that episode! 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chase_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)

[LoneHaranguer]

 

Still baffling, as Quality pointed out above, that we have people who’ve taken a makeup class, or never made a mold, somehow on the show.

Somebody who works for a supplier commented in another forum a couple of years ago that the industry is a small community where everyone knows everyone else and everybody is too busy with work to compete on a show like this. That makes it tough to come up with more than a dozen fresh contestants season after season. Half the cast of S5 had already competed in a prior season.

[snakenax]

One thing I find funny in a 'the people who get the contestants their props aren't very good, are they?' kind of way is that looking at the photos of this challenge on the website, Keaghlan's Egyptian alien's robe is covered in crysanthemums and lotus flower symbols.

[MrsClaus]

I checked out the gallery and realized I seemed to have blanked on some of the aliens.  Did they show the judges doing closeup views of all of them?  If they did, I somehow missed some of them.

[hincandenza]

They didn't show them all; if I recall they inspected maybe half of them; the perils of having 13 individual efforts in one episode.

[CherZ]

Sasha's alien looked fine, but her giddiness really rubbed me the wrong way.

 

I actually didn't expect hers to come out as well as it did. You go on this show and you don't know how to mold? Seriously? But it was great and really well done. That being said she is ANNOYING. My gosh, stop with the giggling and the flirting and the bouncing and the bowing. It gets tedious REALLY quick.

 

In my opinion, Stella's was the best. Tons of detail and a super eye for design.

[drmka9]

 

A total fuck-up, and the whole “vikings” thing was hilarious.  These people *do* have iPads- we’ve seen them- so a simple Wikipedia browse would have schooled her on the Vikings v. Druids situation.

The sad part is, her basic idea is kind of intriguing. There was a period of a few hundred years where Vikings invaded and settled in Ireland, so the thought of them really being an alien species invading unnoticed is kind of cool. The issue there is that Stonehenge was completed a few thousand years before any Viking invasion. A massive fuck-up on her part, unfortunately.

 

 

One thing I find funny in a 'the people who get the contestants their props aren't very good, are they?' kind of way is that looking at the photos of this challenge on the website, Keaghlan's Egyptian alien's robe is covered in crysanthemums and lotus flower symbols.

 

One of the contestants last season got screwed in the wardrobe department, I remember. The planned paint scheme clashed horribly with the clothing supplied, and he didn't adapt the paint job to it at all. Everything wound up looking pretty bad and he wound up going home.

 

 

That being said she is ANNOYING. My gosh, stop with the giggling and the flirting and the bouncing and the bowing.

There are times when Sasha seems really young. I know she's one of the younger contestants, but she really comes across as someone who hasn't worked in the industry at all.

[Kromm]

The dividing line between the good and bad makeups (as usual with Alien makeups) seemed pretty sharp.

[bilgistic]

When I see Keaghlan's name, my brain pronounces it "coff-lin". I hate the stupid spelling.

[minirth]

I really wanted to see more of Dina's alien -- the paint job looked great -- and the alien with the small face and big headpiece!

[Whodunnit]

V's suggestion of starting with a blue base would not have worked with the Egyptian alien. It was pretty clear to me that the reason the paint got so muddy when he tried to sponge it was because the base paint was only half dry. In fact, a darker base (like the blue accent he used) would have looked even worse once it got the gold sponged on. The judges have talked about that very fact on previous episodes of the show. Even without the paint issue the Egyptian guy was not a good entry though. The face looked like a helmet and--leaving aside evolutionary issues-the triangles on the cheeks needed to have been repeated elsewhere on the body for it to make any kind of aesthetic sense.

Poor Gwen, I was rooting for her because of our shared name; but she lacked the wisdom to chunk the mangled chest piece and the skills to fix it. I do think they should have done a double elimination and gotten rid of that Easter Island face putty guy; it was disaster in conception and sub-par in execution.

I'm sorry, but the red look that won had an interesting sculpt and all but still looked blotchy to me as the difference in the two reds she used on the face was so faint that you could not read it well. (Yes, I realize that the cowl had a third discernible shade of red) In summation, I actually did prefer the one by irritating Sasha or even Keaghlan's.