S08.E12: Deadly Dolls

[Richness]

if they eliminated the last contestant from Rayce's, what would be the point of the season?

 

Oh, I don't know. Maybe crown this season's best artist like they have in all the previous seasons. As far as I'm concerned, the Return of the Champions aspect is just another reality show gimmick like the stupid Judge's Save. The returning champions aren't the actual competitors as far as I'm concerned. They're there simply to advise their apprentices. If their apprentice happens to win, then they win as well. Actually, did they ever say what they'd win? Will they be crowned the Super-Mega-Omni-Awesome-Champion or something?

[sourpickles]

We can only hope. I'll agree with the gimmick thing, I think I've even said that before. It seemed like a great idea, but there is just not enough time to get interviews/input with the judges as well as all the contestants without leaving a lot out or feeling very rushed. I think they did say something about the winning champions prize in a much earlier episode, but I've no idea what that was. I always liked the idea of the judges save, but much like that in Project Runway, it fell very flat. I just try to remind myself that on any show when someone seemingly deserving gets eliminated, it is all part of the game, and designed to cause controversy/reaction.

[mlp]

I think it is safe to say that someone from Laura's team is going home next week, if they eliminated the last contestant from Rayce's, what would be the point of the season?

 

 

Actually, that would more or less prove to me that the judges' decisions are based upon merit not "politics." 

[WearyTraveler]

Given Julian's performance so far, if he's eliminated next, I don't think it would be an indication of the show fixing it so that the coaches' competition stays alive for the finale.  I'd think it was way overdue, he hasn't shown anything good in weeks.  Emily, Darla and Logan have been more consistent and shown much better make-ups than Julian.

 

Honestly, unless Julian pulls a winner out of nowhere, I think it's a pretty good bet that he's the next one to go.

[RealityCheck]

The coaches chose their teams, but I don't recall how that went. Was Ben the final pick?

No, Ben wasn't chosen last.

 

Laura chose first, Rayce chose next, and Anthony chose last.

 

Round 1: Darla, Adam, Kelly

Round 2: Julian, Anthony, Allen

Round 3: Emily, Rob, Ben

Round 4: Gregory, Logan, Daniel

Round 5: Stephanie, Regina, Jamie

[hincandenza]

Given Julian's performance so far, if he's eliminated next, I don't think it would be an indication of the show fixing it so that the coaches' competition stays alive for the finale.  I'd think it was way overdue, he hasn't shown anything good in weeks.  Emily, Darla and Logan have been more consistent and shown much better make-ups than Julian.

 

Honestly, unless Julian pulls a winner out of nowhere, I think it's a pretty good bet that he's the next one to go.

 

Yeah, it does seem that Julian is still in this not so much for being in the top 4 of the season so much as not ever quite being as bad as the person sent home when he does fall into bottom looks.  Plus, in his defense while he's never won a challenge, he's been in top looks more times this season than anyone else (6).  The season is more balanced than it seems (since most of us would probably rank the remaining 4 as Emily, then whichever order of Logan/Darla, and lastly Julian as a fairly distant 4th):

 

Darla: 2 SW, 1 FW, 3 TL, 1 BL, 5 S

Emily: 1 SW, 1 FW, 4 TL, 2 BL, 4 S

Julian: 0 SW, 0 FW, 6 TL, 3 BL, 2 S

Logan: 3 SW, 0 FW, 0 TL, 0 BL, 8 S

(SW=Spotlight win; FW=Foundation Win; TL=Top Looks outside of wins; BL=Bottom Looks;S=Safe)

 

Logan has 3 wins in 3 top looks (although one of those is in the initial 5-person team challenge), and has never been in the bottom; only three past finalists (Rayce, Laura, and Kris) had gone without a bottom look all season.  By that metric, he'd be the most consistently "good"- whereas in terms of results Emily seems marginally "worse" than Darla- although obviously a win/top look out of 10-15 people is more impressive than out of 5, and there's certainly been plenty of safe looks that could have easily swapped out of top or bottom.

 

 

No, Ben wasn't chosen last.

 

Laura chose first, Rayce chose next, and Anthony chose last.

 

Round 1: Darla, Adam, Kelly

Round 2: Julian, Anthony, Allen

Round 3: Emily, Rob, Ben

Round 4: Gregory, Logan, Daniel

Round 5: Stephanie, Regina, Jamie

 

Cool research!  If we add their placement so far, we can see this:

 

Laura__________Rayce____________Anthony

Darla (4)________Adam (5)__________Kelly (8)

Julian (4)________Anthony (11)______Alan (14)

Emily (4)________Rob (10)__________Ben (6)

Gregory (15)_____Logan (4)_________Daniel (13)

Stephanie (7)____Regina (12)________Jamie (9)

 

So yeah... small sample size or not, I still feel comfortable saying that Laura has done the best coaching job.  Given what little they saw after that first foundation challenge when the teams were selected, she either has better instincts for evaluating talent, or is a better coach to help drag 4 average facetestants along as far as she did.  Anthony had just as much opportunity to pick people like Emily, Logan, or Julian as anyone else.

 

i wonder how much the mentors were allowed to see about their artists beforehand; do you think they let them see a bio/resume/portfolio, or was it purely and only on the results of the initial Foundation Challenge?

[WearyTraveler]

Don't you need to count the SWs as TLs?  Before a person is awarded the win, his/her look is considered a top look.

[paramitch]

Does anybody remember that old Karen Black thing from "Trilogy of Terror" involving the little doll attacking her? I was super-tiny when I saw it but it scared the pure crap out of me. I mean, I had nightmares for weeks and was maybe five or six (I used to sneak in behind my Dad's easy chair and peek around to watch movies he was watching after I went to bed, and this one certainly taught me a lesson). I kept thinking of that with this challenge. It has never left me.

 

I think Adam's could have worked with a few changes. First off, sculpt at least one oversize baby doll leg and have the hanging baby doll arms not be from regular size baby dolls but sculpted to match the proportion of the head. Pad the torso so it has that somewhat shapeless baby doll shape to it. Then have the tentacles coming through the mouth and jaw, rather than obliterating the head directly below the nose. That way you can keep the giant rounded baby doll cheeks and have it still come off as that doll. Then don't crack the head apart, leave it recognizable whole.

 

My main problem with Adam's (whom I loved and was sorry to see go) was that his execution just didn't resemble the sketch, which is troubling because it says something about skill level (although the time involved here does make that pretty moot). 

 

Adam's sketch was interesting and you could clearly see the upper-half babydoll head/face, with tentacles coming out below. His execution however was -- even at modeling stage -- straying from that and it looked terrible. Suddenly the babydoll head was no longer a babydoll head on top at all. Seriously. And the addition of a "mustache tentacle" and then his decision to paint them all black and in a clump was just so bad. It didn't even look like tentacles, either. Just a weird clumpy beard.

 

I adored Adam (and admit to crushing on him slightly, hey, it's TV), but he deserved to go. He just went way, way too far off-base with the concept and then execution.

 

The whole backstory thing has always bugged me. Actual make-up artists working on films get a script. They don't invent back stories for charatcers, they create characters based on information laid out by the writers/director/actors. They also don't do outfits or hairstyles as there is a costume designer who handles the wardrobe design, and a hairdresser who handles wigs etc.

(snip for space)

Aw. To me she just seems serious and reserved. So many artists are introverted. Not everyone can be adorable and bubbly.

I'm totally with you on Darla -- I like her a lot and actually find her very Laura-like. She's calm and centered, and very very technically proficient. I think she'll do very well in the industry to come.

 

On the issue of backstories, I don't mind them. As others have pointed out, in many cases the makeup person won't always get a lot of info for creatures, so they need to process, assimilate and even invent information to create looks that still feel individual and like characters. So I feel like the show provides a good proving ground for that, on the fly, even if (of course), in real life they'd just do the sketches, get approvals or revisions, and go from there (versus creating the whole creature in order to get shot down).

 

Aww, I like the backstories. I think it offers the designers another way to be creative with what they've been handed to do. And I think there have been a few times when a really creative one has saved an otherwise meh design.

I like the backstories too, and I don't mind testing the designers on their creative skills, when those in fact will come into play. And I so often really like to see the creative spark and then the execution -- did they have the technical ability? Did they have enough sculptural talent, enough knowledge of human anatomy, enough knowledge of myth and legend, etc.? These are all good things to be grounded in as a makeup artist.

 

Make-up artists aren't always doing lead characters, so what they get isn't always complete. Sometimes it's just a vague idea. Not saying you need anything elaborate for a character that's just going to be on screen for 30 seconds, but being able to hypothesize a thumbnail bio helps to make the character look good. People will notice a bad job.

Yeah, this. I think knowledge and practice can only help them prepare, so that even those side characters, or Orc #884, for instance, can only help them to become better at their work.

 

No matter who is the ultimate victor is, I think that it's pretty fair to say that Laura has absolutely won the season.  Whether she has two contestants in the finale or three, she coached rings around Anthony and Rayce.  By the end, it was clear Anthony no longer gave a crap and seemed to actively dislike Ben.  Rayce seems scattered.

I love Laura to death, and am thrilled for all her current success -- I interviewed her a few years ago for my performing arts column at the time, and she was courteous, thoughtful, and eloquent. She also has superb sculpturing skills that the show barely touched on (given the time limits) -- she sent me some stills of her sculptures and I was blown away by what she created. Now, I also interviewed the lovely and wonderful RJ Haddy, Rayce Bird, Ian Cromer, and Derek Garcia, but RJ and Laura were just especially warm, approachable, and generous with their feedback and impressions.

 

The problem isn't allowing them backstories.  The problem is judging their placement down for not having the best one.

I think judging is fair on this issue, because it's about maintaining vision and point of view. The artist MUST know what they are going to create -- who the creature is, and why it exists, and if they can't stick to their original visions, then I like that they're called on it.

 

Laura's always been the VIP of the entire series.  Remember how outraged people were when she lost her first season, and how right and frankly inevitable it seemed when she won her second one.  Plus if you look at her IMDB (as Laura Dandridge, not Laura Tyler), she's worked more than the others as a result (although still not as much as she probably should have).

Laura's awesome. I was so happy Ve hired her so quickly, which says something both about the wonderfulness of Laura as well as of Ve. (I'd love a distant day when Laura wins a makeup Oscar and thanks Ve, but of course this may also be due to the fact that Ve is so awesome and warm that I just want to have lunch with her and be her best friend. But Glenn and Neville can totally come too.

 

I didn't find anything to root for with Ben, but Anthony is the one who elected to come back and act in the coach role, and to try and steer his team toward victory.  Given his role in getting Dina on the show, I would have thought he'd be great in that part, but based on what we saw, he not only doesn't have the best eye for talent, he's also not much of a leader/manager.

I thought Anthony did a pretty good job with his team. I think however that his innate quietness may have actually harmed him, because for better or worse, he ended up with a team of people who (1) couldn't always execute what they envisioned, and (2) who seemed more resistant than most to mentorship. Many, many times we saw Anthony give feedback, and his team members just seemed to disregard it--and of course, in every single case, they were eliminated. 

 

I could argue that this points to Anthony as a good mentor. He knew what they were doing wrong, he tried to steer them, but if they would not allow themselves to be steered, he was toast no matter what. Ben, for instance -- aside from his distracting resemblance to the Buseys (that I kind of got a kick out of -- that slight perma-sneer) -- he was obviously roughly talented, but he just doesn't have enough technical experience or knowledge to do what he envisions, but he totally shuts down when he is criticized. I thought Anthony did the best he could, I just think he had bad luck in his pick of the artists.

 

The funny thing is, I think Rayce is the riskiest of the mentors, but so far it's continued to work out well for him. So many times, Rayce has actually given advice that takes his team completely away from the parameters of the actual challenges -- but it's a kind of creativity that does energize his team members and keeps them thinking creatively. He also backed away from going too far about midseason, as well, and I think that saved him too.

 

But yeah: Totally rooting for either Emily or Darla in the finale. I just don't think anyone else produces anywhere near their "finished" look and feel, and their technical abilities this season.

[rubinia]

 

Does anybody remember that old Karen Black thing from "Trilogy of Terror" involving the little doll attacking her?

Zuni fetish doll for the win!

 

Didn't they already do a steampunk-type challenge when they made characters from the video game "Dishonored" into real-life makeups?

[LoneHaranguer]

 

So I feel like the show provides a good proving ground for that, on the fly, even if (of course), in real life they'd just do the sketches, get approvals or revisions, and go from there (versus creating the whole creature in order to get shot down).

Isn't that the point of the Westmore walk-thru? They don't have the time for the back-and-forth that might happen for an important character IRL, but they're doing the sketches and enough work for MW to give them the feedback to get it right (or as close as can be expected so quickly).