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Celebrating 1,000 NCIS-franchise episodes

S07.E04: Twisted Trees

Bella

By Bella
in Face Off [V]

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Rhetorica

Rhetorica

I loved the George & Keaghlan dance! The Pine/lightning strike was my favorite. Good for Jason. I also liked Banyan fungus. The White Birtch just didn't do it for me, muddy indeed. The Weeping Willow sucked. What happened between last looks and judging? I was surprised Vince went home. 

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Toaster Strudel

Toaster Strudel

(edited)

The fungus was growing in all kinds of unnatural directions, I didn't like that at all.

 

The willow's face was hideous, what was that green stuff  in the middle of it?  I can't believe the judges liked it.

Edited by Toaster Strudel
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Portia

Portia

(edited)

Couldn't help but wonder if this was a case of the judges deciding who they liked the best/least and then playing up the elements those people were responsible for to justify their choices for loser and winner. I really thought Stella or Sasha should win but can live with Jason's win, though I think it was a fluke. Glad the willow boys didn't go home, even though they probably deserved it--aside from his stupid costumes I just can't find much about Cig to hate, and I think Drew is super likable and as cute as a li'l bug.

Edited by Portia
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Sharpie66

Sharpie66

(edited)

The judges usually put a bad concept below failed execution of a decent idea, so I wasn't surprised when Vince went home. All that brown just looked horrible to me as soon as it was revealed.

I really liked the White Birch, but that is my favorite tree in the woods I grew up walking through, so I was delighted to see how well the women did with the bark.

Edited by Sharpie66
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roctavia

roctavia

In my house, we thought the birch tree looked terrible from a distance... up close you could see the birch-y-ness of it, but from just a short distance it looked muddled and not at all identifiable as a tree.

 

I don't know if I wasn't paying attention or if they didn't show it... but who's fault was the willow tree's missing branches? Was it something the model just couldn't handle or was it that big of a design flaw? I always feel bad for the designers when the model lets them down- remember way back when they did more than just monster challenges... I think it was an old age makeup- and someone's model had a bad reaction to the makeup? Then they were stuck with a brand new model with a much smaller face for stuff that had already been molded and no time to redo?

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GaT

GaT

Count me in as one of those that did not like the silver birch.  Those didn't look like burls, they looked like eyes all over the creature.  

That's exactly what I thought & didn't like it but..........

 

The eyes were intentional--the birch is also known as the watching tree.

Did someone explain that & I missed it? It still looks bad to me, but at least I understand it now.

 

In my house, we thought the birch tree looked terrible from a distance... up close you could see the birch-y-ness of it, but from just a short distance it looked muddled and not at all identifiable as a tree.

 

I don't know if I wasn't paying attention or if they didn't show it... but who's fault was the willow tree's missing branches? Was it something the model just couldn't handle or was it that big of a design flaw? I always feel bad for the designers when the model lets them down- remember way back when they did more than just monster challenges... I think it was an old age makeup- and someone's model had a bad reaction to the makeup? Then they were stuck with a brand new model with a much smaller face for stuff that had already been molded and no time to redo?

All they said is it was some kind of a weight issue, I guess it was too heavy for the model? If that's what it was, that was something they should have realized right away & came up with something different or less branches.

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MidnightFrost

MidnightFrost

 

Did someone explain that & I missed it?

Yeah, early on one of them came up with the idea of the eyes, allowing the tree to watch everyone around him.

 

I really enjoyed this challenge, mostly because I think even the worst trees weren't embarrassingly bad as some other recent entries have been [cough]Gwen & Doc[cough].  If it hadn't been for the boxing gloves on the birch, that would have been the clear favorite for me.  I agreed with the judges that they nailed the appearance of the bark, the incorporation of the malady (especially in helping to make a coherent character), and a story that seemed backed up by the work.  Because of the boxing gloves, though, I was ok with Doc and Jason winning.

 

In the very first episode when we learned that Vince had worked on ST: DS9, I decided I would root for him until someone else caught my eye.  Unfortunately, he never seemed to do too much, so I guess I can't complain about him going home. I'm so far pretty impressed with Cig and a few of the women.  Sasha's cutesy antics are irritating (and how do you not do a shit ton of research on molding before even auditioning for a show like this?), but as long as she keeps churning out quality work, I can live with it.

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Annetteboardman

Annetteboardman

I really liked this challenge.  None of them were horrible (although some were better than others).  And these were not monsters.  I think the sequoia might have been saved if they specifically conceived of it as a trunk with limited leaves, or if they specifically said it was a really angry tree because it had been cut down.  Or if it had been much more of a trunk only, rather than with all that foofy skirt on the lower part of the body.  It just wasn't though through very well.  I loved the birch tree and would have given it to the women, even though the hands were screwy.

 

I teach in an art department and several years ago one of my colleagues required her design students to construct giant flowers that would tower over everyone in the class.  I couldn't stand it.  Too much Day of the Triffids for my taste.  They set them up in the halls, and after the first year, the students were asked not to set them up at my end because I really had difficulty walking past them (I am shorter than many of our students and these were 6 1/2 to 7 feet tall).  Although people found it rather silly, they at least let me have my phobia.  You never know where one of those will arise. 

 

This challenge might have been easier, because at least these were recognizably people, not just giant plants.

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Lorimac

Lorimac

I am falling in love with George. The 'highest priority' conversation in the middle of all of the mold fails (drink!) was a delight, and if I am not mistaken, in the first episode, it was George who was dancing around in the fat suit in the background while someone struggled with their sculpt in the foreground. Please, judges, let George stay until the end so I get to see his happy dance.

Also - this is one of the frustrating F-O episodes where the editors decided to leave out what would probably have been an interesting footage. Why didn't the willow branches work? The model seemed to be OK leaving last looks, so was it just that they were too heavy? Drew and Cig seemed shocked to see their model walk out without them; it seems wrong that the production staff would have made the decision to take them off without consulting with them. Were they falling off? In Project Runway, they have no compunctions letting a model walk down the runway in a half-finished dress, I suppose on the theory that this shows the judges that there are time management skills, so why wouldn't the F-O staff let the willow model go out with a bunch of branches that were falling off so the judges could see where exactly the team failed. Even if a PA had to walk behind the model holding up the branches, that would have been better than leaving the viewer with the Mystery of the Missing Willow Branches.

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drmka9

drmka9

I'm not sure whether the willow branches broke (or were breaking the rest of the prosthetics/makeup) or whether they were too heavy for the model to support. What's kind of telling to me, though, is that we didn't see much of their fabrication. Normally a semi-big deal is made about constructing and testing any of the heavier/bulkier apparatuses or prosthetics (like the fat suit of a week or two ago). We didn't see Drew or Cig do much of anything with the branches beyond building them, so it isn't surprising to me that they just didn't work.

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Portia

Portia

I am falling in love with George. The 'highest priority' conversation in the middle of all of the mold fails (drink!) was a delight, and if I am not mistaken, in the first episode, it was George who was dancing around in the fat suit in the background while someone struggled with their sculpt in the foreground. Please, judges, let George stay until the end so I get to see his happy dance.

I agree completely, except that I won't use the terminology "falling in love."  (He looks almost exactly like one of my sons-in-law.)   Yes, that was him in the fat suit. Mr. Beardy has a silly streak!

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snakenax

snakenax

(edited)

Overall I was very pleased with the work this episode. Nothing was quite fall on your face horrible(even if the Banyan and Sequoia were pretty mediocre) and the two top looks were really good(and IMO, the Willow with the branches was quite beautiful as well, even if it lacked heavily without them).

 

I was a bit disappointed in Dina and Keaghlan this episode, while they both hit safe I felt they fell down in some of their previous areas of skill. Dina's form work was just sloppy and the paint job was muddy, while Keaghlan's was almost monotone forest green... which isn't the color of any part of the tree her team was using.

 

One thing I noticed about the losing Sequoia look, the paint job was /really/ shiny. I don't know why they did that since it looks both really bad and sells it as terrible fake.

Edited by snakenax
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CherZ

CherZ

I didn't care much for Stella's air of superiority/condescension towards Sasha. Sasha's been consistently in the top looks when working by herself, which is more than Stella can say.

 

Didn't Stella win last time?

 

I don't think it was an air of superiority, I think that Sasha wasted a ton of time doing hands that didn't turn out or looked bad. Her first hands didn't take and split open and the second were terrible and looked like boxing gloves. They would have won if it hadn't been for those hands.

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Aethera

Aethera

I think George is my favorite at this moment as well, except I didn't remember his name until I read it now so I've been calling him 'Beard Guy'. The dancing was awesome, plus I like his work and his attitude.

 

I agree that it was great to see something that wasn't monsters, and that no one's totally sucked, though I did not like the green makeup on the willow or the stump that lost.  I was amused that the whole 'and they should be angry or twisted' seemed forgotten to me.

 

I didn't think Stella was being a jerk, though it was weird when they argued about who wanted to keep the hands.

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Biosynth

Biosynth

I guess there was so much complaining about too many monsters that the powers that be actually listened and changed things up! 

 

Why do I get a feeling either the willow branches broke or that the model was being fussy?

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LoneHaranguer

LoneHaranguer

 

One thing I noticed about the losing Sequoia look, the paint job was /really/ shiny. I don't know why they did that since it looks both really bad and sells it as terrible fake.

There was a comment about the stump turning to rock. Petrified wood is shiny, but I think the idea conflicts with the basis of the challenge.

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aradia22

aradia22

(edited)

The judges are weird this season. I hated the birch. The sculpt was unremarkable and he looked more like a Frankenstein/zombie thug than a tree. 

 

I didn't like the strips of fabric in the sequoia costume but I liked the sculpt and I don't see what they were complaining about because they've had no problem with those kinds of looks in the past. 

 

It's unfortunate we didn't get to see the weeping willow put together because that was the one tree I was really looking forward to.

 

The tree with the flowers was a letdown. I was expecting something really feminine and elegant and I think just draping that (latex?) skin over the model was kind of a cop out. 

 

I'm happy the team who thought they were going to lose was able to work things out. 

 

I liked the fungus on the Banyan but nothing else about the makeup. To clarify, I didn't like where they were placed but I liked the way the fungus looked. I wish they'd been a lot more artful with it. 

 

Overall, I wasn't really impressed with anything. I think they could have done more. Or, perhaps better artists could have done more with a tree challenge. Also, I didn't really get the sense that they were "dark" trees. If we were supposed to be getting an evil vibe I think everyone failed.

Edited by aradia22
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LoLo

LoLo

Every season I get aggravated that the person who wins the flash challenge is safe. They should not get immunity by doing a quick competition, which is usually just make up. The winner of main challenge should win immunity for the following challenge. The main challenge takes days & many man hours. The winner of that deserves immunity. If you win the small flash challenge you should maybe get extra hours, or your pick of the model theme etc. Not immunity. 

  • Love 6
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Linderhill

Linderhill

 

The eyes were intentional--the birch is also known as the watching tree.

The problem was that the burls did not look like burls, it just looked like the tree had lumpy eyes.  I didn't read the shading that told me it was birch.  It was just an ugly, lumpy creature, not necessarily a tree.  

 

And, yeah, that stump was awful.  

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Florinaldo

Florinaldo

With the skirt of hanging strips of cloth on the sequoia costume, it would have been right at home on an episode of the old "Lost in Space" or "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" TV shows.

 

The bark on that  birch tree mask did not have a texture as diverse as the ones that grow around here (but it could have been inspired by any one of the several other varieties). The eyes were a bit too uniform in my view, like they were all stamped from the same tool, and they certainly did not look like burls.

 

I can't understand why the producers would not let the artists know in advance that there was a problem with their willow tree creation, except to create artificial drama; all the worse because I don't think they meant the tree portion to be so fully exposed, or else they would have worked more extensively on it. If the model had problems, they should have just told her "suck it up, this is a paying job", unless there were valid Health and Safety concerns.

 

The best make-up did win this week.

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minirth

minirth

I was honestly quite disappointed in the makeups this week, because one of my favorite Face Off episodes is Season 5's Mother Nature. Roy and Lyma did AMAZING trees, and I was expecting something on that level.

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minirth

minirth

But I love that the judges let the girls take the gloves off so they could see it without that distraction. They did the same for George's vampire fingers in season 5.

In general, I really like the judges' what the hell approach. There may be 3 top and 3 bottom. There could be 1 top and 2 bottom. Or 2 top and 1 bottom. They don't force themselves to stay in the same stupid formula, and that makes the show more interesting to me.

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Betelnut

Betelnut

I don't think any challenge involving animals or plants that have morphed should involve clothing.  Plants and animals don't wear clothes.  This was not a "make a tree/human hybrid" which I can see having clothes. But...trees just don't wear clothes.

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WearyTraveler

WearyTraveler

I don't think any challenge involving animals or plants that have morphed should involve clothing.  Plants and animals don't wear clothes.  This was not a "make a tree/human hybrid" which I can see having clothes. But...trees just don't wear clothes.

 

I agree but they don't have enough time to do full body make up

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