S09.E04: Frightful Fiction

[Tara Ariano]

The artists have two days to create and apply a clean, detailed face makeup based upon literary mash-ups.

[Quilt Fairy]

I guess everyone forgot this show was on tonight. Or, maybe you were getting battered by tornadoes and thunderstorms like I was, and your electricity went out. It is somewhat appropriate to be watching FaceOff while lightning is crashing down outside, your floor is rumbling from the thunder, and tornado sirens are going off.

 

On to the episode. I liked the idea of a Focus Challenge. It's something the show should have introduced a long time ago. Of course, you'd think that if people are being told to focus on the face they would, you know, focus on the face. And yet we still get at least one guy making a cowl, and people wasting time airbrushing hands and feet. I was expecting a lot more beauty makeup (or beauty-type makeup) instead of the sculpted monstrosities we got. The only one I liked was the winner. That was well-done and fit the challenge.

[GaT]

What was the point of holding off on showing us last week’s elimination until this week? All that did was take away time from this episode.

 

Of course, you'd think that if people are being told to focus on the face they would, you know, focus on the face. And yet we still get at least one guy making a cowl, and people wasting time airbrushing hands and feet. I was expecting a lot more beauty makeup (or beauty-type makeup) instead of the sculpted monstrosities we got. The only one I liked was the winner. That was well-done and fit the challenge.

I was expecting a lot more beauty makeup too. Too many contestants on this show are really limited, if your job is to put any kind of makeup on someone, why wouldn't you also learn beauty makeup? Just because you're making an alien doesn't mean it has to be ugly.

 

When Brittany got eliminated my first thought was "There's somebody named Brittany?", so once again, I don't really care.

[azshadowwalker]

It was obvious who the safe artists were, since they were ignored the entire episode.

 

I didn't hate the vegetable Scarlet Letter make-up. I thought it was really creepy and kind of cool. I would have put that awful King Arthur old man monstrosity in the bottom instead. It was horrid.

[Richness]

The eliminations in this episode were such contrasting opposites of each other. Missy was this incredibly colorful individual with a wild choice of attire, and Brittany was dressed in a rather boring professional style that would work on casual Friday. Glad Missy is gone though, as she depressed me. Brittany seemed like she was totally expecting to go home and was fine with it for the most part. However, I don't think I agree with the judges. I liked her extremely flawed, but overly ambitious work, more than Meg's boring, bland, ugly affair. I suspect they took into account Meg's slightly better track record and her win two weeks ago.

 

I also agree with the others who didn't like the 100th episode elimination was saved for this episode. It served no purpose other than to prevent something "bad" or "depressing" from marring the celebration of their 100th episode and the occasion of the weddings. If that was their reasoning, I'd rather they have moved the non-elimination of the season premier to the 100th episode, though I will admit the non-elimination gave the contestants a chance to warm up, get in the groove, and shake off their starting jitters. As it was, I was almost expecting a Face Off face off between the bottom looks to see who would have went home. Sort of like a miniature Foundation Challenge. Granted, there's still way too many contestants to waste airtime on something like that though, and it's a bit of a cop out by judges who can't make a decision.

 

Also not sold on the specialness of a Focus Challenge as opposed to a Foundation or Spotlight Challenge. Whatever. Just say that the Foundation challenge has some special rules.

 

While I liked Scott's Frankenstien's monster and am glad it won, I didn't see what was so good about Jasmine's red headed Frankenstien's bride. Yes, I know that's not what it was, but that's what the big hair "horns" reminded me of. And I just had a flashback to that girl that always did big hair creations a few seasons ago. While I did like the unique silhouette that it provided, the high eyebrows reminded me of a baked on overly done Divine drag queen.

 

Finally, it was sort of fun having Lois back for an episode, thought I still like Ve better.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I, too, thought that this challenge would be all about the face (meaning not bothering with elaborate costumes, hair, cowls, etc). Like I really thought the judges were only going to look at the actual face. When all the models came out in full head to toe costumes, I started wondering how this focus challenge was really any different from a regular old spotlight challenge.

[Red Bridey]

I am a relatively new Face Offer and I have a really basic question: who actually creates the costumes and backdrops for the models?  Do they have a room full of costumes that they reserve, or do they have costumers running up the dresses the day the contestants are sculpting and molding?  It seems like the contestants have a lot of decisions to make in addition to the actual makeup choices.

 

Oh, and I am also surprised that there is so much use of masks, etc.  Why can't they just use makeup on the faces for a change?  I guess I am just unclear on the concept.

[Quilt Fairy]

Oh, and I am also surprised that there is so much use of masks, etc.  Why can't they just use makeup on the faces for a change?  I guess I am just unclear on the concept.

As are the contestants, quite frequently.

[Rosieroo]

I was disappointed by all the same old monsters.  I feel like the show has recently (not soon enough for me) tried to get them to move on from having a blood dripping, scabbed scary monster in every challenge but the contestants just don't know how to do anything else.  Remember how refreshing it was when cake decorator (I forget names unless they're pounded into me like Laura, Roy, Anthony) came with the beauty makeups.  We need more diversity at least since we've apparently used up all the experienced makeup artists willing to apply for the show and are having to hit up recent graduates.  

[Lorimac]

It seemed that some of the choices provided more clarity than others - vampires require teeth, and demons require horns - so it was amazing that any of the facetestants with an early pick would choose serial killer (what? Jeffrey Dahmer in beauty make-up?) or poltergeist.  My son was particularly offended by the idea that anyone would try to render a poltergeist considering (IHHO) that the whole point of a poltergeist is a spirit who is not seen.  He pointed out that in Paranormal Activity one never actually sees the poltergeist, and that later in the PA series, they decided the poltergeist was actually a demon so they could try to depict it.  He thought anyone who chose that except as the very last pick was just asking for trouble.  Couch Hubby disagreed, arguing that it gave the facetestants complete artistic freedom.  So goes the level of discourse in our house.

Anyway, I would have been happy with either Scott or Stevie winning, so yay!

[Maelstrom]

Love the idea of a Focus challenge - it's nice to see them do one thing right all the way through (theoretically at least) instead of having to do everything slapdash like normal. Hope to see more of them.

 

Scott and Stevie's looks were my favorites. While I can totally understand why Scott won, I sort of wished Stevie would have to boost her confidence for the future. That, and it was a really cool dragon-human hybrid makeup.

 

Honestly surprised they sent Brittany home instead of Meg. Brittany overreached and couldn't pull it off - Meg had a fuzzy concept, an unclear sculpt and a poor application. Plus, she was on bottom looks last challenge. Didn't Brittany win one, with Nora, earlier in the season? … OK, according to Wiki she was a top look the second week, which was when Meg won. Boy, it's been three weeks and I already forgot Meg won. Does that say more about the show or my memory?

 

I wish we could've seen the safe looks a little closer and heard the judges' comments. I thought Libby's Monte Cristo makeup looked pretty cool from far away - too bad we didn't get to see it close. I thought Jason's (I still want to call him Bilbo) makeup would've been a really cool alien makeup - a demon child, not so much. Very cool, just not for this challenge.

[Primetimer]

Each of the designers -- more than a dozen -- presents a face. One of the faces is even made of multiple faces. It's face overload!

Read the story

[90PercentGravity]

Bottom three guy's drawing was really interesting, but his sculpt didn't match it at all.

 

What was up with Meg's hands? That was freaking me out. I've never seen someone's hands get that red.

[CherZ]

It was nice to see Lois back for an episode, she was so sweet on Twitter, thanking people for the warm welcome and nice messages. Neville was also a hoot too as he live-tweeted the show.  Ve will usually tweet now and again. Glen never does - he's too cool for that I guess.

 

LOVED the winning look, so subtle and so organic. The Sherlock Holmes daughter look was very good but as a Holmes fan, I can tell you he wouldn't have a daughter as he was every inch the confirmed bachelor.

 

I like Meg but she's been in the bottom these last two times, we'll see if she gets better because hers was pretty bad last night. Although I hate to say it, Brittany did deserve to go home, even the skin tone she used looked horrible,

[Ananayel]

Was it me, or was McKenzie way more emotional than usual during Brittany's elimination? I was only half paying attention to the whole episode, because there are still far too many people to keep track of.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

I liked her extremely flawed, but overly ambitious work, more than Meg's boring, bland, ugly affair. I suspect they took into account Meg's slightly better track record and her win two weeks ago.

I liked Meg's better and think it would have taken less to fix (important IRL). The judges also appreciate when a contestant knows when they've screwed up, and Meg didn't have to say a word for them to know just how thoroughly she did.

[bobbyjoe]

I, too, thought that this challenge would be all about the face (meaning not bothering with elaborate costumes, hair, cowls, etc). Like I really thought the judges were only going to look at the actual face. When all the models came out in full head to toe costumes, I started wondering how this focus challenge was really any different from a regular old spotlight challenge.

 

If they're going to do "focus challenges," why not really make them focus challenges and have the models wear plain black outfits, so the audience also has to focus just on the face?  Tonight, by just shoving them into a costume loosely associated with whatever book they were doing, it just made things look like there were all these unimaginative or unfinished total looks.

 

Frankly, with the more limited time frame for the challenge and the lame-o undeveloped costuming, it seemed a whole lot more like the "show needs budget cuts" challenge than a "focus challenge."

[CherZ]

Was it me, or was McKenzie way more emotional than usual during Brittany's elimination? I was only half paying attention to the whole episode, because there are still far too many people to keep track of.

No, not just you - she sounded like she was on the verge of tears when she announced it. I was wondering if it was because Brittany was crying, or that McKenzie really didn't want her to go for some reason.

[Kaoteek]

The only make-up I really enjoyed, this week, was the winning look. All the other ones, including "plastic vampire daughter of Sherlock Holmes" (WTF ?), were different shades of mediocre, at best.

 

Tbh, I would have prefered a Focus Challenge dedicated to fantasy beauty make-ups or something like that, instead of the same old creatures & monsters.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I noticed that McKenzie's voice was wobbly and she was holding back tears so I was trying to figure out if she had been sneaking into the house and had becone BFFs with Brittany unbeknownst to us or if she's just a sympathetic cryer.

It was nice to see Lois back for an episode, she was so sweet on Twitter, thanking people for the warm welcome and nice messages. Neville was also a hoot too as he live-tweeted the show. Ve will usually tweet now and again. Glen never does - he's too cool for that I guess.

I imagine that Glen is at home watching each episode while petting his cats and therefore has no free hands to tweet.

[Rammchick]

What was up with Meg's hands? That was freaking me out. I've never seen someone's hands get that red.

 

 

I saw that, and I assumed that it was from the paint she used, that that purply color had red as an undercoat.

Edited August 19, 2015 by Rammchick

[starri]

Was it me, or was McKenzie way more emotional than usual during Brittany's elimination? I was only half paying attention to the whole episode, because there are still far too many people to keep track of.

Part of me wonders if it wasn't just because Brittany had such a good attitude about the whole thing.  I mean, she knew her elimination was fair (although, like many of you, I felt Meg's makeup was weaker), was disappointed in herself, but chose to be emotional but still upbeat.

Contrast that to Missy's tirade on Twitter, I might have given Brittany a sympathy-cry too.

 

More broadly, though, I appreciated them trying something different.  I wouldn't mind the Focus Challenge becoming a regular feature, if for no other reason than it breaks up the monotony of who's going to do the best cowl/chest piece/fabrication.  I'm almost wondering if Jordan hadn't decided to scrap the cowl if he might have ended up in Bottom Looks just for so completely missing the point.

 

I didn't hate Jason's makeup.  Frankly, I thought Ben's was worse.

[Richness]

I imagine that Glen is at home watching each episode while petting his cats and therefore has no free hands to tweet.

 

Just great. Now I have an image of Glen as a goth version of Dr. Evil.

[Delwyn]

I would have put that awful King Arthur old man monstrosity in the bottom instead. It was horrid.

 

I can't have been the only viewer who assumed that Ben lifted his character entirely from the King of the Dead in Lord of the Rings.

 

Edited August 20, 2015 by Delwyn

[sourpickles]

Yeah, I can see the King of Dead thing, but the first thing I thought was the last knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Sue me, I'm old. Overall though, I have to say yay to Face Off! This was the first episode I truly loved and got in to. I loved the ideas, and I loved the make ups. I even loved the Shallot/Red Onion Red Riding Hood. I'll agree Meg should have gone, but I guess she'll be there now for personality effect. I have to admit being surprised Missy went, not that she shouldn't have, but she was one of those that I figured would be around to add color to the show. Maybe she was too much even for them, goodness knows she needed some confidence, if not a talent boost. I know that's mean, but really they need to cut down the number of contestants each season back to maybe twelve. She had a Twitter meltdown? That I have to read. So glad to see Lois, she always makes me smile with her comments. Relieved there was less drama and more makeup and go on now Face Off, invest me in the rest of the season!

Oh, and I'll swear a few people had new hairdos or colors, and I've never seen that happen before on a show...usually the roots are showing by now, along with the occasional awful personality.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

What was the point of holding off on showing us last week’s elimination until this week? All that did was take away time from this episode.

My big fear is that EVERY competitive reality show will start doing this now, since they all borrow gimmicks from each other all the time.  Seemed completely pointless.

 

I agreed completely with the winner for once.  I liked Sherlock Holmes' Daughter in the sense of it being pretty and well done -  but I could not see anything other than the magnifying glass that would identify her as Sherlock Holmes' Daughter.

[LittleIggy]

Sancho-stein was incredibly subtle and well done. I didn't like Ms. Vampire Holmes. She was ugly. Why did she have to have such a piggy nose? And she really did look drag queenish. The smiling Onion head girl made me laugh.

Edited August 20, 2015 by LittleIggy

[LittleIggy]

I'm new to Face Off (have binge watched Seasons7-8). Do they ever do realistic make-ups as opposed to creatures, monsters, etc. I know they said Mary Burwell worked on "Lincoln." Have they ever done anything that could be in a movie like that?

[starri]

It's been a very long time since they've done a challenge like that.  Usually it's more fantastical stuff--horror, aliens, monsters, etc.

 

The Foundation Challenges for immunity will occasionally do something realistic, like wounds.

[mlp]

 

What was the point of holding off on showing us last week’s elimination until this week? All that did was take away time from this episode.

 

That made no sense at all.  I can understand not doing the elimination immediately in real time so all the contestants could attend the party but both the judging and the elimination were long over by the time the TV audience saw them so they could have showed them sequentially -  with a disclaimer if they felt that necessary.  I think they must have needed the extra minutes for the episode and judging.  Whatever their reason, I was so relieved not to have to look at Missy any more that I didn't care how or why or when they got her off my screen.

[call me ishmael]

Is it just me or did Jordan's makeup just look like Darth Maul but with different coloring?

[Nutjob]

From Monty's Watch/Skip Index:

 

Scott's stitched-together Sancho Panza has turned out to be very unsettling. It's also suspiciously similar to the regular face of Tommy Wiseau.

HEE! And SO DEAD ON.

[staphdude]

The right person went home but what annoyed me the most was the neither Nora nor Jasmine got called out for failing on the Mash-up. Essentially they but said we want to do X character and I'll just say they live in the story's universe. NO! DO the damn challenge. That was what was so great about the Don Quixote Dragon...Well executed and a clever spin on the story. 

[azshadowwalker]

The Sherlock Holmes daughter look was very good but as a Holmes fan, I can tell you he wouldn't have a daughter as he was every inch the confirmed bachelor.

 

I originally thought she was doing a sort of rip-off of Elementary, but with a female Holmes instead of Watson. When she mentioned daughter, I wondered why she went that direction.

[snakenax]

I originally thought she was doing a sort of rip-off of Elementary, but with a female Holmes instead of Watson. When she mentioned daughter, I wondered why she went that direction.

The usual Face Off answer would be either 'All the male models were already taken' or 'i'm more comfortable working with female models'.

[azshadowwalker]

The usual Face Off answer would be either 'All the male models were already taken' or 'i'm more comfortable working with female models'.

 

You can use a female model and have it be a female Holmes. There's no reason to have it be a daughter. That's what I'm getting at.

[WearyTraveler]

I can think of a few of reasons for doing a daughter / female character in the Holmes universe (off course, I'm only speculating, to know why this particular artist made that choice, someone would need to ask directly):

 

1) Doing Holmes himself might be read as too literal. Many artists actually chose a sidekick or a supporting character instead of the protagonist.

 

2) If the artist is really a fan of the character, maybe he/she considered that changing the gender would be too much of a change.  As a Holmes fan, I know it's very difficult for me to see him as anything other than Doyle's physical descriptions. Tall, gaunt, aquiline nose, etc.

 

3) Doing a male vampire could very easily turned into Dracula, particularly in a Focus challenge where the face would be more important than the costume. The only thing one could use to differentiate Dracula from a vampire Holmes would be to give him a pipe, and I can't see a vampire being scary if he has a pipe. 

[ratgirlagogo]

I just couldn't see this character as Holmes-related.  She looked more like Dracula's daughter.

[WearyTraveler]

I just couldn't see this character as Holmes-related.  She looked more like Dracula's daughter.

 

To be fair to the artists, some of these were very difficult to convey.  How can you make a vampire fit into Holmes' world when the challenge is supposed to focus on the face?  Holmes is a private detective, and there are some things that are distinctly his: the pipe, the looking glass, the hat, the turn of the century clothes, a walking stick... A vampire using any of that would just be a vampire dressed up as Sherlock Holmes, plus they were not being judged on the full character, just on the face.

 

Even the winner (which I liked, FTR); how is that Sancho Panza, other than he tried to make the model look like a stocky guy? There wasn't another model, thinner and taller to portray Don Quijote and give us a reference.  The guy wasn't riding a donkey.  What, specifically, made him Sancho and not a run of the mill monster dressed as a peasant in medieval Spain?  If you saw a picture of this guy outside the context of the show, would you think it was a FrankenShancho or just a Frankenstein-looking monster?

 

Honestly, given that this was supposed to be a Focus challenge where only the face would be judged (or would at least be the most important aspect of judging), I think they should have done away with the literary characters and just tell them to do their best monster face (vampire, zombie, Frankenstein, etc.).  I don't even know how you're supposed to design a poltergeist, let alone a Scarlet Letter poltergeist. My best approximation would be to have the model wearing a red hood and a beautiful human mask and when she removed the mask, all we see is a black hole under the hood, perhaps two points of blue-green lights where the eyes would be.  But I don't know that you can do that with makeup  alone and not using some special effects digital technology. I mean, the paint job would have to be spectacular to totally erase the face, and it would have to be done in such a way that it would work under the harsh lights of the reveal stage.

Edited August 23, 2015 by WearyTraveler

[staphdude]

 Even the winner (which I liked, FTR); how is that Sancho Panza, other than he tried to make the model look like a stocky guy? There wasn't another model, thinner and taller to portray Don Quijote and give us a reference.  The guy wasn't riding a donkey.  What, specifically, made him Sancho and not a run of the mill monster dressed as a peasant in medieval Spain?  If you saw a picture of this guy outside the context of the show, would you think it was a FrankenShancho or just a Frankenstein-looking monster.

To me this assessment is unfair. The challenge was a mashup of the story and the genre. That meant not only should they be technically proficient but creative as well. The weaving of the story about sanche panza's origin made that contestant's character so good while fitting the challenge. The Holmes vampire was the result of imo-laziness. It seemed like Jasmine was comfortable with the vampire portion but couldn't be bothered to go that extra creative mile.

[WearyTraveler]

To me this assessment is unfair. The challenge was a mashup of the story and the genre. That meant not only should they be technically proficient but creative as well. The weaving of the story about sanche panza's origin made that contestant's character so good while fitting the challenge. The Holmes vampire was the result of imo-laziness. It seemed like Jasmine was comfortable with the vampire portion but couldn't be bothered to go that extra creative mile.

 

How was the origin of Sancho weaved in the make up?  He was a servant, but a cursory look a wikepedia tells us that as Quixote's squire, Sancho "provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs, and earthy wit".  I didn't see any humor, irony or wit in the makeup, and I don't think the model was instructed to portray any of that physically.  He was rather serious and stoic. 

 

IIRC, the artist explained the technical aspects of what he was doing, having patches of skin of different colors and ages, but I don't think he explained how that fit into the world of Don Quixote.  What were the patches supposed o represent? A fragmentation of reality? Because that was Quixote's thing, not Sancho's.

 

I thought the makeup was the best of the bunch and deserved the win, but I'm basing that on the technical aspects and execution of it.  I don't think anybody actually managed to weave the story in the actual face makeup (not the costumes or the props, as those were not supposed to be the focus of the challenge).  I think the woman who did the dragon face (sorry, can't remember her name just now) was probably the closest.

 

I'm curious, what are some of your (everybody on the thread) ideas on doing the different mashups with face make up alone? Other than turning the protagonist into the monster requested? I mean going further than "zombies + King Arthur = zombie with a crown", which, as someone pointed out on this thread before, was done for LOTR and I could point to GOT's Night's King as another example.  If we take a random person who hasn't seen LOTR, GOT or Face Off and showed them the three photos of these zombie Kings (faces only), what would the King Arthur makeup need so that it's instantly recognized as King Arthur?

[mlp]

If we take a random person who hasn't seen LOTR, GOT or Face Off and showed them the three photos of these zombie Kings (faces only), what would the King Arthur makeup need so that it's instantly recognized as King Arthur?

 

 

Good point.  I understood from the instructions that the competitors were to do faces only so I was surprised when the models all showed up in costumes.  That made me start thinking about who would be generally recognizable to most people if all they could see was a face.  Certainly not King Arthur.  Medieval king, yes.  Particular king, no.  I'm sure there must be others but the only fictional character I can think of offhand whom I would recognize instantly is Hercule Poirot.

 

I should have added recognize without props, by face alone.  I think most people could identify Sherlock Holmes if the face was topped with a deerstalker cap and had a pipe. 

Edited August 24, 2015 by mlp

[staphdude]

How was the origin of Sancho weaved in the make up? ... I didn't see any humor, irony or wit in the makeup, and I don't think the model was instructed to portray any of that physically.  He was rather serious and stoic. 

They were never required to weave the origin into the makeup. For me the creative spin was to remain in that world, of which SP is essential, but due to the horror component of the mash-up strip the humour from the character and make him an unwilling creation of DQ.

Some of the contestants may have been a bit simplistic but they stayed true to the challenge. If it had been "set a vampire in Victorian London" then good for Jasmine. However, she simply chose to ignore the book. She could have made a vampire Holmes because simply making a male vampire doesn't necessarily evoke Dracula.

YMMV but to me straying as far from the stories as Nora and Jasmine did was disappointing.

[WearyTraveler]

They were never required to weave the origin into the makeup. For me the creative spin was to remain in that world, of which SP is essential, but due to the horror component of the mash-up strip the humour from the character and make him an unwilling creation of DQ.

Some of the contestants may have been a bit simplistic but they stayed true to the challenge. If it had been "set a vampire in Victorian London" then good for Jasmine. However, she simply chose to ignore the book. She could have made a vampire Holmes because simply making a male vampire doesn't necessarily evoke Dracula.

YMMV but to me straying as far from the stories as Nora and Jasmine did was disappointing.

 

I only mentioned the weaving because you said this:

 

The weaving of the story about sanche panza's origin made that contestant's character so good while fitting the challenge.

 

So, I was asking how the character we saw had that weaving included.

 

In any case, I'm not saying his make up was bad.  I'm just saying the mash-up aspect of the challenge doesn't make sense to me, given that the judging was supposed to be only on the face makeup, which makes it practically impossible to say, just looking at the face, that the character is supposed to be Sancho Panza, or King Arthur, or anybody.

 

Also, all the explanations for stripping the character of its humor come from you.  The contestant himself never explained why Sancho was Frankestein-like or how that came to be within a horror-infused Don Quixote world.

 

I get it that you liked it, so did I and I'm not trying to dent the artist.  I think they all failed to some degree because to see the makeups as part of the literary world they were supposed to represent, one had to look at the entire character, not just the face, plus we probably needed a verbal explanation as well, and the challenge wasn't about that.  That's my point.

[Quilt Fairy]

I'm new to Face Off (have binge watched Seasons7-8). Do they ever do realistic make-ups as opposed to creatures, monsters, etc. I know they said Mary Burwell worked on "Lincoln." Have they ever done anything that could be in a movie like that?

Check out the early seasons 1-4. especially season 1. Even though it was much shorter than current seasons, they did a lot of 'normal' makeup, including turning triplets into young, middle-aged and old versions of the same person and disguising themselves so their parents or SOs would not recognize them. Also in the early seasons (don't remember if they did it in 1) they had challenges where they had to paint a model 'into' a background picture. The results of some of those were awesome. hard to pick one I liked best.

[staphdude]

I only mentioned the weaving because you said this:

 

 

So, I was asking how the character we saw had that weaving included.

 

In any case, I'm not saying his make up was bad.  I'm just saying the mash-up aspect of the challenge doesn't make sense to me, given that the judging was supposed to be only on the face makeup, which makes it practically impossible to say, just looking at the face, that the character is supposed to be Sancho Panza, or King Arthur, or anybody.

 

Also, all the explanations for stripping the character of its humor come from you.  The contestant himself never explained why Sancho was Frankestein-like or how that came to be within a horror-infused Don Quixote world.

 

I get it that you liked it, so did I and I'm not trying to dent the artist.  I think they all failed to some degree because to see the makeups as part of the literary world they were supposed to represent, one had to look at the entire character, not just the face, plus we probably needed a verbal explanation as well, and the challenge wasn't about that.  That's my point.

Sorry for the confusion. You're right that I extrapolated the neo-origin from the description. Maybe less is more because that resonated with me while having the others simply makeup characters to suit their vision annoyed me terribly.

I agree that focusing on the face and then forcing the literary aspect on them was difficult. It is rare that a face itself can evoke a specific character. I suppose that is a failure on the part of the person that designed the challenge.

Perhaps a true FOCUS challenge would be to have them do a face and then shroud the rest of the model so the judges just have one thing to examine.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Face Off Presents Too Many Looks
Each of the designers -- more than a dozen -- presents a face. One of the faces is even made of multiple faces. It's face overload!

[carrps]

It seemed that some of the choices provided more clarity than others - vampires require teeth, and demons require horns - so it was amazing that any of the facetestants with an early pick would choose serial killer (what? Jeffrey Dahmer in beauty make-up?) or poltergeist.  My son was particularly offended by the idea that anyone would try to render a poltergeist considering (IHHO) that the whole point of a poltergeist is a spirit who is not seen.  He pointed out that in Paranormal Activity one never actually sees the poltergeist, and that later in the PA series, they decided the poltergeist was actually a demon so they could try to depict it.  He thought anyone who chose that except as the very last pick was just asking for trouble.  Couch Hubby disagreed, arguing that it gave the facetestants complete artistic freedom.  So goes the level of discourse in our house.

Anyway, I would have been happy with either Scott or Stevie winning, so yay!

I agreed with your son!

[Vicky8675309]

So far this season there have been very few creations that I have liked and almost all the contestants seem to be worse than usual. No wonder they had TWO DAYS just to do a face when usually they do face, cowl, chest, etc… Then Mackenzie harping on them about the seams before the challenge…yep, they realize they have a really weak group this season!

WTF, they could do anything and it didn't have to relate to the mash up or they could create some BS story to make it "fit". Demon = poltergeist (ghost), demon goddess escorting gulliver, dragon/lizard in some unrelated story…yep, they suck. I bet the one pick the dragon lizard idea because she probably did it in school. It turned out so-so but I didn't think it related to the challenge.

Nora and Meg (should have gone home imo) and Britanny (she went home I think) all sucked imo as did most of them on this TWO DAY FACE ONLY challenge and some of them just created the usual monster mask. The winner was the best of a sad lot.

I couldn't stand Missy but did feel sorry for her obvious anxiety and insecurity. I wasn't happy they blamed her for again having crappy painting and said it was twice in a row. Last week she has a killer colorful paint job until the other one sprayed it black. If only she had been more confident/secure she could have told the other one not to f*ck it up with the black paint. Well at least now I can hope the others can't open their molds (the girls who didn't want to work with her but then again I wouldn't wanted to work with her--her depression/anxiety/etc would have bugged me.

So far the contestants seem so bad they had to create a 2 day focus challenge just to see if they could do anything---can you sculpt a mold and make 1 piece correctly and paint it? NO for most of them. Maybe they can bring in some mentors.

There are a few that have some skill and/or talent but they have not been consistent which makes me worried they can only do 1 or 2 genres.

The show is edited (check out unreal) so I just judge on the final creation and some scenes like not knowing how to open mold (that one popped open really easily--Missy is obese and that doesn't mean strong--I think she just knew how to open molds whereas the other two didn't. Missy was nice to do that for her competition. I'm not a missy fan and it is just that I also dislike many of the others.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Vicky8675309