S07.E07: Judge Match

[Tara Ariano]

Judges Ve Neill, Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page compete against each other for charity. Their challenge is to create a pair of living chess pieces—one pure and pristine, while the other is evil and twisted. Helping them in their endeavor are former contestants and champions, including Roy Wooley, Miranda Jory, Wayne Anderson, Conor McCullagh, J. Anthony Kosar and Laura Tyler. The winner is determined by Michael Westmore and Lois Burwell.

[Portia]

Wheeeeeee!

[hincandenza]

This should be a fun show, I'm looking forward to this!  I was wondering who was judging, and I think Michael and Lois will be interesting; I'm most interested to see what they pick at for the judges themselves as falling short.  And while I'm excited to see the show, someone else here has pointed out it's a no-win situation for the judges: they've never had to compete with these time constraints, since in their real work they'd just stay late if something wasn't done, so if they put out crap they'll lose some luster as judges, but if they put out something amazing then... well, it's expected with multiple Oscars between them!

 

I'm curious if they'll have the exact same time/lab constraints as the regular contestants (I think during the teaser clip, Neville mentions something about how "Oh, I finally see how difficult it is getting done in time") and if they'll get the topic description ahead of time, or if they'll be surprised with it just like a regular show.

 

The one thing they can surely prep on is their supporting help: more so than typical finale contestants who pick from the pool of that season's contestants, they should already have a very good idea of the strengths of each former contestant, and thus can defer a lot of work to people in their specialties- Roy fabricating, Anthony sculpting, and Laura painting, for example- while jumping in to finesse specific elements or color choices. 

 

Actually, Ve has already worked with some of the helpers, thanks to the Hunger Games franchise: Ve and Conor on HG1; Ve, Conor, and Laura on HG3a; and Ve and Conor worked on the final HG movie.  Given that, it would seem unfair if Ve got Laura and Conor on her team.  Or for that matter, in my opinion if any two of Roy, Laura, and Anthony are on the same team that's almost unfair for the competing judge who gets them; from what I'd seen, those three are head and shoulders above Conor, Miranda, and Wayne.

[drmka9]

I'm interested in seeing how Neville works compared to both Glenn and Ve. It looks like Neville hasn't had a huge amount of experience in makeup and his educational background is in industrial design. I know that Ve has worked on films steadily for the past few decades and I believe Glenn has a good amount of makeup experience as well. Seeing what each bring to the table skill-wise should be fun.

[Toaster Strudel]

I don't want to miss this, when?

[hincandenza]

No worries, it's just the regularly scheduled show this Tuesday; the contestants basically have the week off while the episode focuses on the "Judge Match" special, which apparently runs like a typical finale would: three contestants (Ve, Glenn, Neville) with two assistants picked from previous contestants, and some kind of two-costume challenge with time constraints.

 

And as I mentioned elsewhere, with this one-week break from the regular competition, I'm confused as to what this means in terms of eliminations on the show going forward; there aren't enough episodes left to get down to a final 3 or even a final 4 for the finale.

[Canada]

Weird, my local TV channel is showing a new episode for tonight called Killer Instinct, not the judge match.  I wonder what it will end up showing.

[hincandenza]

I'd record/watch it in the usual time slot; SyFy sure seems to think it's airing the Judge's Match tonight:

http://www.syfy.com/videos/Face%20Off/Promos%20&%20Trailers

[Canada]

So annoying.... they are showing the next episode, not the judge match episode.  Grrrr!!

[Ananayel]

That was a delight to watch. One of these every season, please. Glenn - big, tough, tattooed Glenn - has two kitties that are the center of his world? He can sculpt his facial hair any way he likes in my book from now on. I called the winner in my head, even though I spotted a few application problems. It was the best concept. And I like the voting, and how the assistants got to vote as well. Just a lovely show.

[leighdear]

VERY fun to watch.  All of the judges were just SO appreciative and supportive of the returning contestants.  I hope they decide to do this again.  I loved seeing Glen laugh and smile so often.  It really humanizes him a lot.  I've always loved him, but now I like him more. 

 

I agree, the voting was done the fairest way possible.  And that Pawn just amazed me.  I'll have to go online & look at it a few hundred times. 

 

Neville: "Faceoff is HARD!".......*LOL*

[nottopbravo]

Wow.  One of the  strangest episodes of Face Off in a long time.

 

I loved the judges f**ing with McKenzie.

[Rhetorica]

That was fun! Ve really seemed to enjoy sculpting and has a little girl voice, who knew? Neville had a great design and appreciated his team. Glenn loves kittens and seemed to rely on his team the most. They were all very gracious. I would've given the win to Ve. Loved her Queen.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Rhetorica

[Portia]

In addition to seeing the softer side of Glenn --he was so generous with his teammates and complimentary of his opponents!--my favorite thing about this ep was Mackenzie letting her hair down and hollering her head off. Also, Neville in jeans and a t-shirt. My tall, bespectacled nerdy boyfriend.

[GinevradiBenci]

This was so much fun! Half the appeal of this show is that by and large, I like everybody on it - Glenn and his weird facial hair and all. I loved seeing the approaches to the challenge and how supportive everybody was of each other. There was so much to love with each team, too - the gorgeous horse sculpt, the really elegant evil king, Vee's lovely beauty makeup on her queen (wish I had gotten a better look at the rook, although his face was great), and Neville's concepts walked the line of gorgeous and creepy really brilliantly. His bishop was fabulous but his pawn...so shuddery and creepy and wow.

 

In  other news, Neville, uh, looks pretty great outside a suit.

[bilgistic]

Glenn - big, tough, tattooed Glenn - has two kitties that are the center of his world? He can sculpt his facial hair any way he likes in my book from now on.

I make fun of Glenn a lot, and still will, but his kitty-lovin' ways made me like him a whole lot more. I still think there's an awful lot of tryhard going on there, but I can forgive a lot for kitties.

I appreciate that he gave up the ghost on styling his Sonic the Hedgehog 'do on days two and three. Those "summer toboggans" were kind of ludicrous, but I guess better than clay in the hair.

[April Bloodgate]

(wish I had gotten a better look at the rook, although his face was great)

 I, too, was disappointed to not see more of the rook. It almost felt like they were hiding it.

[Maelstrom]

This was the most fun that Face Off has ever been, IMO. Loved seeing the tables turned on the judges, and my faves were back! Anytime Laura, Roy and Anthony are on my screen I'm thrilled. (I was hoping that Laura and Anthony would get paired together, because I'd LOVE to see what they'd come up with). It was a lot of fun seeing a more personable side to the judges (I was so entertained I didn't snark on Glenn's hair even once!), as well as seeing how they work.

 

I do wish we'd gotten to see more of the finished work - I'd have loved a 360 view of each character, or at least some closeup of the faces and details. But I suspect there was far more footage than normal that the editors just couldn't fit in. Still, wish we could've seen Roy's castle contraption in action.

 

I'm surprised Neville won - I would've given the win to Ve, or possibly Glenn. But they were all pretty impressive. I hope they do this challenge again in the future.

 

Raise your hand if you think the clip of Neville saying "Face Off is hard!" should be added into the opening credits from now on! *raises hand*

Edited September 3, 2014 by Maelstrom

[AlliMo]

That was great! The way that the contestants are so supportive of each other is actually the main reason that this is the only competitive reality show I ever watch. It's all about the actual work, not manufactured drama, and I love that so much. I was loving how the judges were flabbergasted at how fast their assistants were. It had to be fun for the judges, too, to have a chance to be involves in every aspect of a creation. At their level, they're probably not doing a lot of hands on work any more.

 

Poor Neville, so flustered. How did I not notice what a silver fox he is before now?

[GaT]

What a great episode, now I know why they're the judges, they did some really wonderful work. I thought Ve's queen was just gorgeous, & I'm surprised it didn't win. If I remember correctly, I seriously disliked Miranda when she was a contestant, I'm glad she didn't bug tonight. What I really don't understand is how Roy was chosen last, I would have grabbed him as soon as possible.

[mlp]

I loved it too.  It was great seeing the judges just be themselves.  I've always liked Glenn despite his horrific grooming habits but I would never have guessed he has cats.  Very endearing.  I liked all the creations but I thought Glenn would win for the horse.  I hope Face Off does this again next season.  Depends on how traumatized the judges really were I guess. 

[Demented Daisy]

I haven't had much to say about this season (really, anything) but I loved this episode and would absolutely vote to have them do it again.  Maybe next year it could be the new judge, Mr. Westmore, and the original male judge.  (Sheesh, I am so bad at names.)

[Ketzel]

What a wonderful show! I only wish they had made it half an hour longer and given us more time to really look at the work the judges and their teams produced. So much creativity and skill! I hope the current contestants got to watch, because everything was at such a very high level, I'd hope it would push and inspire more from them than we've seen so far this season.

[chris]

Fantastic episode - I found this much more fun than a lot of regular episodes, because:

 

(a) Really cool theme, that didn't automatically imply or enable everyone should do a monster character

(b) Seeing the judges NOT be judges and kid around with each other, and compliment each other

© NO DRAMA! Just awesome teamwork, no manufactured team issues or whining

(d) Great all stars - am always glad to see Laura come back, but I was surprised they didn't have Rayce as well since they had other winners

(e) Beautiful work - I don't think there was really a bad piece in the entire set

 

===

 

I was pulling for Neville the minute I saw his concept, and boy did his final pieces deliver. I have to admit I generally appreciate sculpting over fabrication, and Neville's team TOTALLY delivered on that. Those forms were absolutely incredible - I couldn't believe some of the lines and shapes they achieved. I also thought they did the best job with relating the two characters, having the best backstory (loved how Neville described it as a high powered evil religious figure corrupting the altar boy), and really reflected their two characters the most. They were also the two most striking characters to me - they did a great job of a really dark gleaming bishop and a super light and pale pawn. I'm babbling now... off to go look at the pictures on the site.

 

Can we just have Judges week EVERY WEEK?!

[jbrecken]

That horsehead  was really masky, Glenn.

[Iguana]

Well, fuck you Space for not showing this episode. It sounds like so much fun, dammit. Can anyone give me the details of Glenn and the kitties?

Edited September 3, 2014 by Iguana

[Rammchick]

And now we know why the atmosphere of this show is so unlike other competitive reality shows - it's the personalities of the judges. I loved how stoked they were about each other's work, so complimentary and supportive. And even Glenn showed us he's not the cartoon he presents himself to be. Anyone who loves animals is more than OK in my book. Great show. I hope they do it again.

[90PercentGravity]

As soon as they said how the winner would be chosen I knew Neville would win because everyone tried to vote for the worst in order to reduce the direct competition's tally, which then backfired.

[Pestilentia]

Well, that was fun!

Joining the chorus of "kitties rule" and anyone who is ruled by them is OK in my book.

 

I would have given the win to Glenn, I think.

True the Knight was a mask, but then IMO the Bishop was, too.

I loved Ve's Queen as well.

 

IMO the most interesting part was seeing the thought processes of the judges and how they worked.

Neville's approach was very interesting to me- the way he started the one figure and let the other roll around in his head a bit before finalizing the design.

[paramitch]

So much fun!  I loved this episode and was smiling the entire time. I agree with everyone who loved the friendly, supportive interplay of the judges, the humor and palpable ease they had with one another, as well as the praise and appreciation each judge had for their teammates and for each other.

 

This is easily one of my favorite "Face Off" episodes ever, and definitely a competition I hope they'll repeat again. For me, it was especially such a treat to see the judges do what they're famous for, and true to form, each concept said something about the judges -- Glenn with his cool, haunting, larger than life interpretation, Ve with her stunning beauty makeup, and Neville with his elegant Sci-Fi take.

 

I loved everything everyone created, but for me surprisingly, Neville had the best story and in the end, I felt his was the most unique. The only thing that bugged me was that it looked like some of his edges were unsticking on the pawn figure's forehead -- did anyone else see that?  Other than that, I found both figures riveting and easily the best costumes and storyline of the contest.

 

I've always liked Glenn -- especially after Season 1, when everyone stopped trying to look grim all the time (ultra-reality-competition-style) and eased off to become the sweet-natured competition "Face Off" is today. I find him entertaining week to week, and here it was a treat to see him so humble and down to earth. Loved his cat conversation too:

 

Miranda: So you have a cat?

Glenn: Two cats. (pause) And they are the center of my universe.

 

My heart grew three sizes right then and there.  I also loved it when Glenn stopped Laura from going her usual perfection route (because her work is always so finished and stunning), sweetly telling her, "I know you don't want to let this go yet but you can go back to it after you do the cobwebs and slime." Or when Miranda started to look more and more unglued because she wanted to win for Neville's charity so badly:  "We have to help the orangutans!"

 

I always love seeing returning contestants, and thought Wayne's horse sculpture was a knockout. The only thing about the design was that I agree it was a bit 'mask-y" and thought for some reason that the plan was for the human to be somehow still visible. I loved seeing what sets Ve apart -- not only the beauty makeup on the Evil Queen, but the shading and subtlety on that headpiece and cowl were absolutely gorgeous. I liked Roy's Rook (what we could see of it) but while I always like Roy and admire his creativity, there's something about his creations that always feels kind of rickety to me, and that was the case here with the Rook, like it was going to fall apart at any moment. However, looking at the pictures over at Syfy, I liked it more than I did in the episode, and the shading on the face and breastplate are beautiful.

 

Great, great episode. And it was so much fun to see the joyful reactions of Michael and Lois -- I wish the season's competitors could have seen them (I hope they got a chance to watch, off-camera). I also got a kick out of seeing McKenzie get nonplussed when she couldn't get Neville to hear her. For me, this is the cherry on top of this season's sundae thus far -- I'm loving that we're seeing so many unique and creative challenges (not just a succession of monster makeups).

 

Meanwhile, here's hoping Glenn and Ve got the word out about their charities, the North Shore Animal League (http://www.animalleague.org/) and A Window Between Worlds (https://www.awbw.org). Also, here's Neville's as well -- The Orangutan Foundation International (http://orangutan.org/).

Edited September 3, 2014 by paramitch

[seacliffsal]

I was surprised that the pawn and bishop won.  I agree with 90percentgravity that Neville's team benefited from the voting format.  I think it was probably the assistants who tried to strategize too much with the vote by voting for who they thought wasn't the strongest competition.  Whenever people use that strategy, the vote almost always goes to the underdog and they outstrategize a win for themselves.  I thought Glenn would win, but with Ve a close second.  The reality for me though is that it was a great episode and I was impressed by all of them.  It was fun to see the returnees.  Conor looked really pale and serious to me.  Interesting how many of them have worked for Ve.  Wayne though didn't seem to have professional experience on his bio card.  His horse was beautiful, so I hope that he gets work out of this episode.  Hope they do it again!

[Reishe]

It seemed to me that every time Glenn opened his mouth, he led off with the contributions of his team. Just. Wow.

I think this was the perfect point in the history of Face Off to do this kind of challenge. We've grown to know and love the judges, they had enough of a bench of former contestants to pick a lineup with solid team-player and execution skills, and the result was eight kinds of fun.

[Primetimer]

The Face Off judges leave the comfort of their thrones to compete against each other for charity. It's fun!

Read the story

[Monty9]

As someone else whose life is pretty much centered around two cats (and there is this husband guy)...I relate Glenn. I relate. Adorbs.

 

But this was pretty great to experience. As others have mentioned I'm still not sure where makeup ends and big mask ends. Although plenty of contestants have also done big foam heads as well. Plus it was pretty clear that all three of them deserve all of the accolades they are given. But about makeup, I am not very knowledgeable about movie makeup but Ve's makeup, even to someone like me, was clearly so majorly superior to most of the jobs on the show. The Rook and the Queen were both spectacular.

 

And talking about a spectacular Rook. The model Matt who was the Rook? I'm calling dibs. We do respect the ancient and traditional right of dibs on this board right?

Edited September 3, 2014 by Monty9

[Portia]

Poor Neville, so flustered. How did I not notice what a silver fox he is before now?

Excuse me, @AlliMo, but I claimed Neville long ago because DIBS!

 

I try not to snark on Glenn's looks, but for the love of God, brother, put your jacket back on! (He looked fat, right?)

 

I enjoyed this episode immensely, but I'm afraid it would lose its specialness if it were an every season thing.

[Ananayel]

Good point, since they're doing what, three seasons a year now? Maybe every other season.

 

And, back to monsters next week. Sigh.

[libraryone]

I loved this episode! We get to see why the judges are judges--all of their work was great. And this show really emphasized how important teamwork is in their profession, because they all were clearly experienced at working as team leaders to get their best of their people. Anybody who hopes to work in the industry should really take note of that. And all of the judges just seem like really nice people, too.

 

I think Neville may have won in part because his work was so unexpected. The other looks were awesome (loved Ve's beauty makeup) but more traditional in scope. Neville really thought out of the box. The voters on the other teams might have been responding to that.

 

Anybody who loves their kitties (and as a man, isn't afraid to say so--the whole "manly men don't like cats" stereiotype is so tiresome) is OK with me. As you might guess from the picture attached to this post.

[tv echo]

I think the winner should've been picked by the two guest judges, but maybe they didn't want to ruffle any feathers among industry peers.  I would've ranked the final work with Glenn first, Ve second and Neville third.

[Ketzel]

Just a gentle note to the editors: please don't fall victim to competitive show clichés. By the third or fourth time you showed Neville wringing his hands and wiping his brow and moaning about how much he had to get done and how worried he was that he had started molding much too late, I knew he was the winner. Especially when Glenn and Ve were shown doing stellar work and being all pleased and excited about it.  It's been done so often on every show from Project Runway to Top Chef to America's Next Top Model that it does the exact opposite of increasing the suspense and tension of the reveal.

[zxy556575]

Pretty chintzy on the prize money, FX. Otherwise, it's all good although. I would have voted for Ve's team.

[Nutjob]

Well, if their intent was to make me like Glenn, it worked. TOTALLY. As noted by many others, he was more than generous with the praise and credit for his team, and yes... the cat thing won me over as well.

 

I would have gone with Ve for the win, but that's because I thought her makeups displayed the most diversity of techniques. And Roy. I love me some Roy. That said, I don't think I would've had a problem no matter who won, because it was such a fun episode.  Yay! for reality competition shows nearly devoid of manufactured drama.

[green]

I was surprised that the pawn and bishop won.  I agree with 90percentgravity that Neville's team benefited from the voting format.  I think it was probably the assistants who tried to strategize too much with the vote by voting for who they thought wasn't the strongest competition.  Whenever people use that strategy, the vote almost always goes to the underdog and they outstrategize a win for themselves.  I thought Glenn would win, but with Ve a close second.  The reality for me though is that it was a great episode and I was impressed by all of them.  It was fun to see the returnees.  Conor looked really pale and serious to me.  Interesting how many of them have worked for Ve.  Wayne though didn't seem to have professional experience on his bio card.  His horse was beautiful, so I hope that he gets work out of this episode.  Hope they do it again!

 

Yeah I really think the weakest of the three won.  I liked the knight/king the best.  The queen/rook was good too and I could have lived with that win as well. 

 

But I don't see how the bishop/pawn ever won.  Pawn was a blank white thing.  Couldn't see any features at a distance and just looked like they spray painted the whole thing white at the last minute.  So much for highlights and details.

 

Painting on the bishop looked poor too and they always emphasis the model being able to move mouth and see the eyes and this was just a solid, glorified chess piece stuck on the model's head.  Period.

 

I'm was totally stupefied it won.  But reading the above?  Maybe indeed that is how it won.  Not cause it was good but that it was a strategy vote that backfired.

 

And voting the way they did was bogus.  Too many egos involved that the producers didn't want the judges to vote on a show that featured the three "contestants" as regulars probably.  They certainly didn't let them critique any weaknesses on any of the three offerings.  Just a fluff filler episode as a result.

Edited September 3, 2014 by green

[green]

Just a gentle note to the editors: please don't fall victim to competitive show clichés. By the third or fourth time you showed Neville wringing his hands and wiping his brow and moaning about how much he had to get done and how worried he was that he had started molding much too late, I knew he was the winner. Especially when Glenn and Ve were shown doing stellar work and being all pleased and excited about it.  It's been done so often on every show from Project Runway to Top Chef to America's Next Top Model that it does the exact opposite of increasing the suspense and tension of the reveal.

 

Their editing always gives away too much.  They always show the person eliminated or the person who comes through to win or both in confessionals at the beginning of every episode.  Nice show but their editing totally sucks.

[drmka9]

I think Neville benefited from having to present two characters. I loved Ve's Queen, but didn't care much for the Rook. Similarly, I liked Glenn's King, but the Knight was too much of a mask. I don't think either of Neville's characters surpassed the Queen or King, but as a whole presented a much stronger front and better developed backstory. I also loved his "I'm trying to make a thing with a stick!"

 

It was great seeing all three judges actually work, though. I had seen some of Ve's techniques in a DVD feature a few years back, but it was fun to see Neville and Glenn. While I like all three of them, I realized what puts me off a bit about Glenn when he's judging: He comes across like the kid left in charge of the classroom when the teacher has to step out for a minute, way too serious and 'in charge' about the whole thing. It was great seeing him let loose a bit.

 

And I loved that just about everyone, including McKenzie, was out of their element a bit on this one.

Edited September 3, 2014 by drmka9

[Black Knight]

What a wonderful episode! Probably my favorite ever - can't wait for a rematch.

 

I'm really curious to see if this experience will affect the judging in future. I know they often acknowledge the limited amount of time the contestants have, but still, I think it's one thing to know that in the abstract and to actually experience it.

 

I was not surprised that Neville's team took the longest to get to molding, since he had Miranda on the team and that's what she was notorious for, spending forever on her sculpts.

[GaT]

I was not surprised that Neville's team took the longest to get to molding, since he had Miranda on the team and that's what she was notorious for, spending forever on her sculpts.

Ah, you just reminded me of why I didn't like Miranda, she took forever to sculpt, & then cried about not having enough time. Every. Week.

[Kaoteek]

Loved that episode, even though I'm still wondering why Miranda was brought back amongst the all finalists/winners format of this episode. Oh, wait, I just remembered that she was somewhat the teacher's pet, during her season (Glenn seemed to be fond of her, back then, IIRC). I guess this explains that.

 

Anyway, fun episode. I would have given it to VE, though : Neville seemed too rough, to me (yes, great sculpt, but uneven paintjob, and in the end, not too memorable), and Glenn's felt just too "gray" &, when it came to the horse, mask-like.

 

But I'm glad Neville won, if only for the orangutangs. And he's really likeable.

 

Now, more of that, please, cos next week's serial killer/boogeyman challenge won't cut it, imo.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Kaoteek

[aradia22]

LOVED this episode! I would watch this all the time. This is what All Stars should have been like. I didn't love Neville's concept because I think it fell back on what he's good at but I can see why it won. I liked Ve's queen and Glenn's knight character but the king was a bit of a mess with the cobwebs and the goo drooling out of the mouth and I never got a great look at Ve's rook character. Oh, and I forgot how attractive I used to find Connor. I remembered tonight. ;)

[aradia22]

 

Also, Neville in jeans and a t-shirt. My tall, bespectacled nerdy boyfriend.

 

In  other news, Neville, uh, looks pretty great outside a suit.

 

Poor Neville, so flustered. How did I not notice what a silver fox he is before now?

 

 

YUP. I'm glad I wasn't alone on this. He also had some of the best moments and lines this episode. If he were a contestant I think he'd be one of our favorites. He has the personality that a lot of the contestants are lacking.

 

I haven't had much to say about this season (really, anything) but I loved this episode and would absolutely vote to have them do it again.  Maybe next year it could be the new judge, Mr. Westmore, and the original male judge.  (Sheesh, I am so bad at names.)

 Patrick Tatapoulos. That's what I was thinking, too, but maybe he was working. Also, I've probably spelled his name wrong.

 

Neville's approach was very interesting to me- the way he started the one figure and let the other roll around in his head a bit before finalizing the design.

I was interested in the way he was manipulating the image on the computer while they were sculpting. Do the contestants have that available to them in the lab? I wonder why more of them don't try that out when they're having trouble getting the sculpt the way they want it. 

[drmka9]

I was interested in the way he was manipulating the image on the computer while they were sculpting. Do the contestants have that available to them in the lab? I wonder why more of them don't try that out when they're having trouble getting the sculpt the way they want it. 

 

IIRC, last season the contestants used 3d modeling in one of the challenges, each working with someone trained in the software. It's worth noting that a lot of modeling programs aren't exactly intuitive and many of the contestants likely wouldn't have a lot of experience with it.

 

If anyone's interested, though, Autodesk (a pretty prominent modeling software company) has a few free apps for iOS that offer barebones sculpting called 123d sculpt and 123d creature. Definitely not as advanced as what the pros use, but a lot of fun to fiddle with.