S11.E07: Puppet Masters

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

The conclusion from last week's elimination challenge; the immunity challenge has the teams create magical marionette characters.

Sneak peek:

[Quilt Fairy]

18 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

the immunity challenge has the teams create magical marionette characters

I wonder if 'whimsy' is in the offing......

[starri]

Yeah, that's going to end well.

[enoughcats]

Dare I suggest that whimsy is the "w word" and shouldn't be used without a lecture in what whimsy is?  Certain other letter words have destroyed careers and whimsy has done its share of damage on Face Off.

[Quilt Fairy]

OK, so maybe it's a marionette version of Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween or something. Or a zombie version of Pirates of Penzance.  I guess whimsy is NOT in the offing.  :(

Amazing how they can take any challenge and make it about monsters.

[Primetimer]

What if Pinocchio were made of metal or leather instead of wood? Turns out he'd be really creepy!

View the full article

[Frozendiva]

I liked all three of the top looks. Metal dude did need a better cobbled face. Surprised that the blacksmith one didn't think of horseshoes - what I associate with an Old West blacksmith. Leather dude was a bit creepy, but deserving of a high-place finish. The cowboy hat with the Viking type horns? Where does one find one? Not a good look unless you are a pro like Glenn, or some award-winning designer who is a tad eccentric. The tailor marionette was wonderfully executed and almost perfect. And wasn't a monster! Beautiful work on the face, makeup, eyelashes, hair, etc. Tyler and Emily may go all the way to the finish line.

The lower looks? Not so much. The stony mutant Popeye did not work. And neither did the weird golden ballerina. She could have used a trip to the blacksmith for some refining/shaping. Didn't get the neck brace. A couple of screws would have worked better and the hairline needed to be fixed.

[mjc570]

 I liked this episode a lot, too bad some of it was taken up with last week's leftovers.  I absolutely loved Tyler and Emily's ballerina, but I just didn't care for the others.  The blacksmith apprentice was a good idea, but something seemed to be missing.  While I thought Cig and George's cowboy was ok, I didn't realize leather was so hard to replicate that the judges would go into a tizzy over it.  That stone sailor thing was an abomination on a million levels, starting with the ridiculous backstory - a counter-maker whose wife left him?  I'm probably one of the least imaginative people around, but even I could have come up with something more aligned to stonemason (yes, I know they were going for contrast, which is not whimsy). 

Speaking of lack of imagination -I was surprised that Ben and Evan couldn't come up with something jewelry-based, or cloth of gold or something.  They had a lot of nerve, after all that talk that their work had to be of high quality to offset the simplicity of design, to produce that thing.  I think they should not only voluntarily leave the show, they should look for new careers. 

[annewithaneee]

My god, the hair on Bob and Evan's model. I'm a novice to this show -- do they factor that in, if it's not sculpted or wigged but simply a styling choice of the model's natural hair? Because it was a bad choice! Maybe a small thing in the grand scheme of the entire look, but I thought it was a glaring red flag of how uninspired and lazy their entire concept was. It was frazzled and badly sprayed gold; no human ballerina would have a bun that messy and full of fly-aways under the stage lights for a performance, and no gold-dipped toy would have human hair against an otherwise metallic and shellacked body. Maybe I'm really annoyed because Emily and Tyler's ballerina was phenomenal and had details (and the "hair" was gooorgeous), but I wanted to see them called out on that travesty of a bun.

[Frozendiva]

Gold = Midas. Lots of ideas there.

[GaT]

What was the point of having a TBC last week? They devoted a whole 5 minutes to it this week, it was a waste.

I knew Tyler & Emily were going to win as soon as she explained her moleskin technique to the judges, it was pretty imaginative.

[starri]

My husband turned to me last night and say "If Emily and Tyler don't win the whole thing, we're never watching the show again."

I guess I'm in the minority here, but aside from the weathered paint job, I really hated Team Smurf's look.  The helmet part just looked stupid.

Ben and Evan need to go next week.  I get that Ben has a slightly less outgoing personality than the rest of the contestants, but he seems to suck all the energy out the room.  I'm a fairly serious person in meatspace too, but I'd like to I don't quite look like hangdog.

No complaints about Cig and George's piece.  The detailing on the face was really good.

I'm not even sure what Adam and Logan were trying to do.  Make a stone Popeye?  What did they even have to do with their backstory?

[Eliza422]

Didn't Ben and Evan have that same conversation last week? That they had no ideas at all? They really suck.

 

The winning look? Sheer perfection!  I think I remember Emily having a few of these inspired moments in her previous season.

[badhaggis]

Emily is incredibly talented. I think working with Laura her last season was very helpful to her creative process. Laura is so unflappable I think that experience strengthened Emily's calm in the workroom. Emily was definitely our favorite on her previous season. The fact that she was only 19 then amazed us!

[Sister Spooky]

Tyler and Emily's ballerina may be the most beautiful piece I've ever seen on this show.

[LoneHaranguer]

5 hours ago, starri said:

I'm not even sure what Adam and Logan were trying to do.  Make a stone Popeye?

Ghoulish Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? It came off more like putty than stone and looked unfinished, especially the jaw. 

What Gage said on the way out is something I've heard many times before on other shows and generally translates into something like "I'm a one trick pony and you would have seen something really great if we'd gotten to that trick".

[Ruprecht]

I loved this challenge! I know every artist has a niche and different ones shine depending on the constraints of the project. Some of them live for these and others can't wait for sci-fi or horror themes. But I thought this really showed those with great imaginations and a commitment to the look they were trying to achieve and the others who are good but need direction (and those that suck). The fabric ballerina was stunning and one I will remember. It was a head-to-toe showpiece and I loved how clever Emily was to make the face appear as fabric. I did think the leather cowboy was very good (the actor really sold it) and I loved the fabrication elements on the blacksmith helper. Of all the options, I thought the stone mason concept was the hardest (I still really can't think of anything compelling). However, there is absolutely no excuse for the goldsmith. Filigree? Jewels? GAH!!! So many options and they came out with big fasteners on the joints and gold spray paint? This team is dead to me. Either they really do lack imagination or they coasted since no one was going home. 

[ratgirlagogo]

6 hours ago, Eliza422 said:

 

Didn't Ben and Evan have that same conversation last week? That they had no ideas at all? They really suck.

 

 

I don't think they suck, well Ben doesn't suck at least.  I remember liking his work before.  But yes, these two are not working at all well together for some reason and to have TWO challenges in a row where they were struggling to come up with even the most minimal concept is bad bad bad - they're not inspiring each other.

Emily and Tyler's ballerina and Cig and George's rodeo clown were SO much better than any of the other pieces.  Like, to a ridiculous degree.

14 hours ago, mjc570 said:

While I thought Cig and George's cowboy was ok, I didn't realize leather was so hard to replicate that the judges would go into a tizzy over it.  

 It's not so much that leather is so hard to replicate -  it's that they so beautifully replicated Western bridle and saddle leatherwork in a way that showed how well they understood their core idea. I'm a big rodeo fan and they got their point across beautifully - he was funny but tough as hell.  Clowns are generally referred to in the rodeo as bullfighters since (unlike the cowboys who ride the bulls for the eight seconds and then get out as fast as they can) the bullfighters go out on foot to calm down and herd in  the animals that get agitated and angry, so the bulls don't hurt people or themselves.  In fact now that I've said that,  I think that going for a character that a) wasn't an obvious one and b) they clearly knew really well was a big part of the judges' admiration of the piece.

Edited March 8, 2017 by ratgirlagogo

[mjc570]

ratgirlagogo:  Thanks for the explanation about the leather work.  I guess I do appreciate it more, now. 

[seacliffsal]

I really loved the leather puppet; more so than the fabric ballerina.  However, the skill levels on both of those was amazing and I think point to the final two teams.  I am pleased with the win for the fabric ballerina, but there was just something about the leather work that amazed me.

I think it was really telling when Melissa was perturbed over her partner's repainting her work.  I could not believe that Kaeleigh (?) would do that.  Unspeakably rude-especially as the paint job that Melissa did looked amazing.  This may be an issue down the road since the editors put that scene in the episode.  I thought Melissa's work saved that look and that Kaeleigh's 'helmet' was the weak spot for that team.

Also, isn't this like the third time that Logan and his partner made giant arms that absolutely do not work with the look or the challenge?  At some point they have to let that go as it has been perceived negatively by the judges (and some viewers...me) each time.  A stone puppet could be clever-i.e. it doesn't move because it's made out of, wait for it, stone.

[SnarkyTart]

The fabric ballerina was the most stunningly beautiful work I've seen on this show in all its seasons.  I agree with the judges' comments about wanting to see an entire film with her as the main character.  She was breathtaking!   I very much liked the leather rodeo clown, it was so well executed!  In any other episode this would have been a knockout punch.  I wouldn't mind incorporating that character into the fabric ballerina movie, I'd like to see them both again.  The gold ballerina was a travesty!  Not only was it horrible and amateurish, but Ben and Evan should go home just for being so uninspired by such completely open-ended challenges.  The lack of creativity they've been displaying the last few episodes is appalling on this show. 

[sourpickles]

Was not at all surprised to see Gage/Rachael go home.  That's been telegraphed for weeks, and we really didn't need a TBC episode for it.  That whole "go redo your stuff!" felt so weird, like out of nowhere.  They hadn't been featured too much, and when they were, well.........it would have been nice to see them get it together, since they clearly liked each other, but as noted above, you had six episodes...............best of luck to them.  Emily/Tyler's ballerina was way, way up on the awesome scale, like a throwback to much earlier seasons (like Laura.....).  Pleased they won, well deserved.  The sheer amount of work in that was mind blowing.  And that model nailed it, I wonder if she was ever a dancer in real life, being on your toes like that is no easy feat.  I wonder if those shoes were actually blocked?  Hm.  Cig/George.  Wow, they work well together but I too was not as impressed as the judges.  Maybe because the damn thing skeeved me out so much.  I will give them credit for sheer creativity with leather, which could have gone so very wrong.  Keighlan/Melissa were showing some cracks.  Like, how much work did K actually DO?  Seemed like that was M's baby.  It was a little Iron Giant for me and I felt that they almost skirted the marionette issue.  BUT the paint job was great.....someone here last week said they felt maybe K was holding M back a little bit.  Point was taken this week for sure.  Evan/Ben.  Gad.  Um......first off, I find it unreal that they sat there forever and just happened to come up with a ballerina while E/T were plugging away.  It was pretty awful.  That head was the worst.  First of my list to go home next week, but maybe they will pull a rabbit out a hat.  Need a serious creativity injection.  God, Adam/Logan.  I love them both and they seem to work well together despite having such wildly different personalities (or maybe Logan's just quieter about it).  The judges man......did not spare them one iota.  I was actually cringing at the way they were being taken apart.  It was really, really bad (I get the whole Popeye's stroke thing), but OUCH.  Ouch.  Adam looked ready to explode.  Or maybe implode.  Not sure, but they could also be next to go if they can't pull it out next week.  And on a final note for now, I loved McKenzie's dress.  Looked great as always!

[Arynm]

I thought both of the ballerina characters were played by women who had some sort of ballet training. No way does someone walk on pointe the entire length of the stage without that training. She definitely had on pointe  shoes. The tailor ballerina was hands down the best work I have seen in a long time. Simply amazing. I think this is their show to lose.

[badhaggis]

I love how excited Glenn was with Emily's moleskin technique. The ballerina Emily and Tyler created was one of the best make-ups on this show. Cig and George's cowboy was pretty awesome too. I think they will be the final teams. I really hope they are in the finale.

[hincandenza]

The remaining teams are reaaaaally starting to diverge at this point.  Emily & Tyler and Cig & George are the clear front runners, and everyone else is just sort of treading water until they go home.  E&T have won 3 of the last 4, with two other top looks, in just 7 weeks.  The only other team that looks remotely competitive at this point is C&G.

I'm kind of sad Rachael is gone, because she was so very pretty to look at, and honestly I think Ben & Evan would have been far more deserving at this point... but it's like arguing the mid-boot vote-offss in "Survivor": they weren't going to win anyway, so it hardly matters if it's a week earlier or later than otherwise.

 

17 hours ago, starri said:

My husband turned to me last night and say "If Emily and Tyler don't win the whole thing, we're never watching the show again."

Ben and Evan need to go next week.  I get that Ben has a slightly less outgoing personality than the rest of the contestants, but he seems to suck all the energy out the room.  I'm a fairly serious person in meatspace too, but I'd like to I don't quite look like hangdog.

 

16 hours ago, Eliza422 said:

Didn't Ben and Evan have that same conversation last week? That they had no ideas at all? They really suck.

The winning look? Sheer perfection!  I think I remember Emily having a few of these inspired moments in her previous season.

 

13 hours ago, badhaggis said:

Emily is incredibly talented. I think working with Laura her last season was very helpful to her creative process. Laura is so unflappable I think that experience strengthened Emily's calm in the workroom. Emily was definitely our favorite on her previous season. The fact that she was only 19 then amazed us!

 

10 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

I don't think they suck, well Ben doesn't suck at least.  I remember liking his work before.  But yes, these two are not working at all well together for some reason and to have TWO challenges in a row where they were struggling to come up with even the most minimal concept is bad bad bad - they're not inspiring each other.

Emily and Tyler's ballerina and Cig and George's rodeo clown were SO much better than any of the other pieces.  Like, to a ridiculous degree.

 

6 hours ago, SnarkyTart said:

The fabric ballerina was the most stunningly beautiful work I've seen on this show in all its seasons.  I agree with the judges' comments about wanting to see an entire film with her as the main character.  She was breathtaking!  

The gold ballerina was a travesty!  Not only was it horrible and amateurish, but Ben and Evan should go home just for being so uninspired by such completely open-ended challenges.  The lack of creativity they've been displaying the last few episodes is appalling on this show. 

 

Selectively quoting people, but we're all in kind of agreement: that fabric ballerina was fucking incredible, in particular the "oh, sure, I just thought up on the spot" flocking of the felt face.  There was so much detail- the little metal pins in the joints, the stuffing, the coloring, just beautifully conceived from head to toe.  That they left the model's clear blue eyes set like jewels in that felt face piece only enhanced the beautiful doll like quality; it was so camera ready and the judges simply couldn't avoid giving them the win.

It's clearly obvious the judges are kind of in awe of Emily, since she's still only what, 20-21 at this point?  She was my favorite in her original season and I was sad she didn't win in the finale, and clearly she's only gotten better even without apparently much post-FO work in the industry (I agree with @badhaggis that Laura probably had a lasting impact on Emily's maturity and calmness; she was prone to quick bouts of despair early on in season 8).  That said, I shouldn't give short shrift to Tyler, since he's holding his own.  His work is never in question either- if not as inspired at times as Emily- and they work fantastically well together, they have great ideas and brainstorming habits like Cig & George do, and their work is consistently well thought out and well executed.  Barring an epic stumble and collapse, they are cruising along while others are still at times trying to find their footing.

 

Also agreed on Ben & Evan; what the living hell was that shit?!?  I don't know that I'm an "idea fountain" like Cig & George myself, but these two guys are struggling to have any ideas about things, and then just sort of "meh"-ing it out with something that in the most charitable light could only hope to aspire to one day be called "failingly mediocre".  If they have a half-decent idea, the execution is usually iffy; if they have good technical execution, they have poor ideas behind them. And then some weeks... this fucking mess.  It looked amateurish and unfinished for a two-hour foundation challenge, much less an actual spotlight challenge.  While they've seemed to have not used the immunity week as a guide during the elimination week, if Ben & Evan aren't miraculously in top looks next week then I don't see how they aren't the clear boot.  They are far and away the weakest of the remaining 5 teams, and have turned in looks that deserved to go home more than once already.

 

7 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

I think it was really telling when Melissa was perturbed over her partner's repainting her work.  I could not believe that Kaeleigh (?) would do that.  Unspeakably rude-especially as the paint job that Melissa did looked amazing.  This may be an issue down the road since the editors put that scene in the episode.  I thought Melissa's work saved that look and that Kaeleigh's 'helmet' was the weak spot for that team.

Y'know, I was thinking that too!  On the one hand, that was good team work to not have some big dramatic spat, but... Keaghlan should really have been aware that she was stampeding through someone else's garden.  And then she didn't really ever apologize, just sort of kept on going and left it to Melissa to quietly fix it all after the fact.  I wasn't clear what contributions Keaghlan even made this week, since almost everything seemed like Melissa's handiwork.

[badhaggis]

Yes! Melissa's paint was gorgeous Keaghlan should not have just arbitrarily painted it! Cig and George had a moment when they were not sure they were on the same page. They quietly worked thru it and we're fine.

[LittleIggy]

I absolutely loved the sewn together ballerina! Did they know their model was classically trained when they picked her? The rodeo clown was great, too. They need to be in a movie together as star-crossed lovers. :-)

Edited March 9, 2017 by LittleIggy

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Cig & George's rodeo clown was less whimsical and more serial killer. The leather looking skin was great and the rivets in the face were cool. The hair was also really good. Major props to them for recognizing that the hat and the mustache wouldn't work. I know it's hard to decide not to use something that they spent time fabricating (like the hat), but as the Project Runway judges often say, sometimes knowing how to edit is the key.

From a distance, Ben and Evan's gold ballerina just looked like they painted their model gold. I'm all for realism but I need more than some joints and rivets. I hated the mask they created. There seemed no point to it.

Logan and Adam's looked like a cross between a gargoyle, Popeye, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. I hated that his hands were so big and immobile, but I guess that's okay for a puppet challenge? I'm glad that Glenn didn't care what about Logan and Adam's stupid story behind their character. Too many times on shows like Project Runway, the contestants get a pass on a subpar design because they have some ludicrous backstory for their decisions.

Keaghlan and Melissa's metal guy had a lot of pieces so I'll give them points for fabrication. I loved the lit up furnace in the back and the steam coming out of the pipe was fun. For how much they disagreed about how to paint the metal, it turned out really well .

Emily and Tyler's ballerina looked like something from a Tim Burton movie, and I mean that in the best way possible. Emily made such a smart choice to use moleskin on the face/mask. I'm glad she knew that using regular fabric would render the model's face immobile and that she came up with something else. The fact that she recognizes a problem BEFORE making a mistake and then comes up with an innovative way to work around that problem is a talent that you can't teach and makes her an asset on any job. The hair looked great too. Loved that Tyler thought to pull the cotton out at the joints so she looked like she was coming apart.

For me, any kind of art needs to stand on its own without explanation or back story or context. It's not just this show either - I have the same rule for Project Runway, So You Think You Can Dance, Great British Bake Off, Great Pottery Throw Down. If you need to explain what people are looking at, then you haven't done a very good job. For me, the finished product that we see on Face Off is like a Halloween costume in that if people look at it and ask, "What is it?" then you weren't very successful. What I've noticed over the many seasons of Face Off is that the most successful characters are the ones that you can see without knowing what the challenge is and immediately have ideas about what it is and what kind of movie it would be in (as opposed to seeing a character and having questions about it). Tyler and Emily's ballerina looked like something you could see on a movie poster and immediately want to see the movie. In contrast, Ben and Evan's gold ballerina looked like something that would make me scratch my head and think, "What the hell? Why?" Same goes for Logan and Adam's stone sailor thing.

[qtpye]

I have nothing relevant to add, beyond agreeing that Emily and Tyler's ballerina was breath taking.  Those two need to work together, because they are phenomenal.  They are heads and shoulders above the rest and the competition is theirs to lose.

Ben and Evan were annoying the heck out of me.  It's like they gave up before they even started.  There is so much you could do with gold.  She could have been a replacement daughter for King Midas, who accidentally turned his own child into gold...the possibilities were endless.  Instead, it almost was like they saw Emily and Tyler doing a ballerina and said "let's, do that, but make it suck".  They spray painted a model gold, gave her a thick ugly mask and called it a day (with a couple of cool things along her joints).

Another reason it was so bad, is that they, like a lot of men on this show, have no idea how to do a solid beauty make up.  Beauty make up is important, because it allows an artist to understand the plains and contours of a human face.  If you can do respectable beauty make ups, then you should be able to amazing monster make ups.

However, many of the men on this show seem to look down on beauty make up and it sometimes feels like they thing doing it will give them girl cooties.

This has been my favorite challenge this season.

[BusyOctober]

If they aren't already booking heavy hitter movie/TV jobs, Emily and Tyler will be in big demand after this season.  They have produced some of the most memorable, well executed works of art ever on this show. 

[Ms Lark]

On 3/8/2017 at 2:19 AM, GaT said:

I knew Tyler & Emily were going to win as soon as she explained her moleskin technique to the judges, it was pretty imaginative.

I could see the guest judge's wheels turning, "I'm totally stealing that effect!"

52 minutes ago, BusyOctober said:

If they aren't already booking heavy hitter movie/TV jobs, Emily and Tyler will be in big demand after this season.  They have produced some of the most memorable, well executed works of art ever on this show. 

Especially Emily, her work has been spectacular. Girl is going places fast. I'm sure we'll be hearing her nominated for various awards in the future. FTW.

Also, agree with everyone else, their ballerina was stunning. Awesome work.

[Mabinogia]

That ballerina is the reason I watch this show. It was awe inspiring. Just breathtaking. And it was the moment when Emily decided to try the flocking that make this show exciting. Seeing someone try something new is fascinating, understanding the reasoning behind her choice to do that. This is what I want in competitive reality shows. Moments like that. I was liking Emily this season (didn't see her previous one) but now I LOVE her! That was brilliant.

I also loved Cig and George's ability to edit their idea when they saw that their piece naturally veered into a less comical direction. It is that ability to change direction and be okay with it, to not be so deeply enamored with your own idea that you can't move past it.

I really, really hope these two teams are the final four, Emily, Tyler, Cig and George have made this season for me. I will miss Rachel. I liked her.

[LoneHaranguer]

4 hours ago, qtpye said:

Ben and Evan were annoying the heck out of me.  It's like they gave up before they even started.

Maybe they did. It's pretty clear they weren't going to win against C&G or E&T, and it wasn't an elimination week, so why put in a lot of effort?

[Rammchick]

What makes Emily and Tyler (and Cig and George's too, for that matter)'s work even more amazing is to realize that they only had one day to conceive/prep and another day to finish it.

[DEL901]

I was thinking about Ben and Evan's ballerina.  They could have had a story about how a goldsmith dipped his daughter in gold to preserve her as a ballerina forever or something like that to address the deficiencies.

[Richness]

Marionettes and puppets creep me out, especially of the ventriloquist variety. If it weren't for the Muppets, I'd probably never would have watched this episode. I was also a bit worried when I heard the W word (Whimsy) tossed around. It never goes well when invoked.  However, I'm glad I did since it produced some gorgeous results.

 

Unfortunately, the previous challenge's elimination cut into the time that could have been spent on this challenge in this episode. Please, NEVER do that again, SyFy. I was surprised how choked up Gage was to leave. And then, they turned the Spotlight Challenge into a shorter Focus Challenge. I wonder if not having that third day prevented them from over-thinking or second-guessing themselves as much?

 

While I agree with the judges top looks, I was really hoping Cig and George would win. I'm glad they edited themselves when they realized how serious the character looked. While Emily is truly impressive, especially with the technique she used, I'm sort of over hearing about her grandeur. If she and Tyler, or C&G don't win, it will be a shame.

 

On to the bottom atrocious looks. That sad stone sailor looked melted or deformed. Were they intentionally satirizing Popeye, or is that just the way it came out due to the forearm size and face melt? While I've liked when the contestants or judges have poked lighthearted fun at themselves or each other in the past, that story that Adam tried telling came off all wrong. But Glenn seemed particularly vicious as well in his critique. The not-so-golden child ballerina was just boring. It looked like a young kid's attempt at doing Dot Matrix from Space Balls cosplay.

[HunterHunted]

On Wednesday, March 08, 2017 at 9:23 AM, badhaggis said:

Emily is incredibly talented. I think working with Laura her last season was very helpful to her creative process. Laura is so unflappable I think that experience strengthened Emily's calm in the workroom. Emily was definitely our favorite on her previous season. The fact that she was only 19 then amazed us!

Besides her age, the most remarkable thing about Emily is that she has little to no knowledge about the movies, tv shows, and other references made on the show. It was a couple of weeks ago that they kept asking her if she'd seen things like Star Wars and she hadn't. It's crazy.

[enoughcats]

57 minutes ago, HunterHunted said:

 

On 3/8/2017 at 10:23 AM, badhaggis said:

Emily is incredibly talented. I think working with Laura her last season was very helpful to her creative process. Laura is so unflappable I think that experience strengthened Emily's calm in the workroom. Emily was definitely our favorite on her previous season. The fact that she was only 19 then amazed us!

Besides her age, the most remarkable thing about Emily is that she has little to no knowledge about the movies, tv shows, and other references made on the show. It was a couple of weeks ago that they kept asking her if she'd seen things like Star Wars and she hadn't. It's crazy.

 

I don't want this to make less of Emily's tallents, but I wonder if her lack of exposure to movies , TV cartoons, etc. makes her use her own imagination.  
She probably doesn't have the Face-Off equivalent of Brain worms....when somebody says ...Storm Troopers....she doesn't immediately think of men in white plastic suits.

I'd love to see her imagination version of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors if she's never seen it as imagined by someone else.

[Canada]

They need to send Ben home, just to put him out of his misery.  Every week, just when I think he can't look more miserable and unhappy, he manages to do it!  I feel really sorry for Evan, being stuck with him.  It must be a nightmare.

Loved, loved, loved Emily and Tyler's work.  This has not been an impressive season so far, but that was one of the best things I've ever seen on this show.  Emily has to win this season.

[call me ishmael]

I'm amazed that Ve hasn't simply stolen Emily away to work for her to be honest.  She is remarkably talented.

[hincandenza]

53 minutes ago, call me ishmael said:

I'm amazed that Ve hasn't simply stolen Emily away to work for her to be honest.  She is remarkably talented.

She probably will at some point; Ve used Laura and others on "Hunger Games" IIRC, and clearly all the judges like Emily's talent.  The only reason I think it hasn't happened might be a) age/maturity; the 18-year-old from season 8 might have seemed too young, when what you want in assistants is reliability and consistency, and b) Emily almost seemed to not want to go into this field.

After season 8- when she was runner-up in the finale- she... went back to being a hair stylist and selling wigs with her mom, and as @enoughcats mentions she freely admits to being unaware of so many classic movies (including/especially those with famous creature/costume effects).  She's not the only one like that (can't imagine season 3's Joe has been getting much work!), but I suspect almost every person who's made a finale has been at least trying to make a name in this industry.

[Black Knight]

9 hours ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Maybe they did. It's pretty clear they weren't going to win against C&G or E&T, and it wasn't an elimination week, so why put in a lot of effort?

It wouldn't have been clear before they even started that they weren't going to win against C&G or E&T since they hadn't seen those teams' work yet. If they're just assuming that C&G/E&T are going to outdo them no matter what, then they might as well not bother trying on elimination weeks either.

But that aside, the more important points to my mind are these: 1) The smart contestants recognize that they're better off treating the show as basically an extended job interview instead of a contest. There can only be one winner on the show, but there is more than just one job in the industry. We don't know who in the industry watches the show necessarily, but the judges themselves certainly work in the industry, and can hire/recommend people. Ve has hired contestants. There are also often guest judges who are in a position to hire/recommend, and with the guest judges you only have the one shot to impress them. So it's just a really bad move to shit the bed on a challenge. Putting out something creatively uninspired is one thing - I recognize the muse can be elusive sometimes - but it wasn't even competently executed. It's a missed opportunity to make a positive impression on the guest judge.

2) Smart contestants also recognize that if they aren't at risk for a challenge, whether because they have immunity or because it's a non-elim week, that's exactly when they should experiment, push themselves out of their comfort zones. Not only does it let them try new techniques or practice things they haven't done much, they get the benefit of receiving valuable feedback from Westmore and the judges which will help them in future. People who go on this show are so lucky - a huge lab with a vast supply of materials and machines to work with, and evaluations from serious industry professionals. It's their chance to get experience with things they may not have access to otherwise while receiving notes. For Ben and Evan, whether they can beat C&G or E&T should be beside the point. They are limiting themselves. They might do whatever it is that they actually do well enough, but they'll never evolve. That also limits the work they can get.

Re: Keaghlan and Melissa, this isn't the first time this season that one contestant has painted over the teammate's work. Logan screwed up the work Adam had done on their model's face last week, for instance, and I remember an instance or two from earlier in the season as well of one teammate turning the other's paint job muddy. It seems like people get so involved in their work that they don't see what their teammate is doing until it's been done, so if the teammate doesn't proactively check in first, these things happen. That said, Melissa and Keaghlan aren't a team that's equally balanced - I don't remember Keaghlan at all, but I do remember Melissa doing quite well on her original season. Keaghlan would be wise to learn from Melissa.

[LoneHaranguer]

16 hours ago, Richness said:

The not-so-golden child ballerina was just boring. It looked like a young kid's attempt at doing Dot Matrix from Space Balls cosplay.

I had to pull up a Space Balls picture to remind myself of what Dot Matrix looked like. This was more like Barbie dipped in gold paint.

16 hours ago, Richness said:

That sad stone sailor looked melted or deformed. Were they intentionally satirizing Popeye, or is that just the way it came out due to the forearm size and face melt?

It shouldn't have been so wonky. You're talking living statue, so it should have been true to form, even if that form was a fictional/mythical character, with a few clues to suggest it was carved from stone.

[Mabinogia]

12 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Smart contestants also recognize that if they aren't at risk for a challenge, whether because they have immunity or because it's a non-elim week, that's exactly when they should experiment, push themselves out of their comfort zones.

This is why I was so disappointed in the golden ballerina. Instead of looking at a non-elimination challenge as a chance to let loose and just have fun, they chose to basically give up because they wouldn't get eliminated.

[enoughcats]

IF you're going for "Barbie dipped in gold paint", go literal, as if the paint is dripping off of her, and have the head with streaks of gold, and her legs as golden puddles.

[qtpye]

14 hours ago, Black Knight said:

It wouldn't have been clear before they even started that they weren't going to win against C&G or E&T since they hadn't seen those teams' work yet. If they're just assuming that C&G/E&T are going to outdo them no matter what, then they might as well not bother trying on elimination weeks either.

But that aside, the more important points to my mind are these: 1) The smart contestants recognize that they're better off treating the show as basically an extended job interview instead of a contest. There can only be one winner on the show, but there is more than just one job in the industry. We don't know who in the industry watches the show necessarily, but the judges themselves certainly work in the industry, and can hire/recommend people. Ve has hired contestants. There are also often guest judges who are in a position to hire/recommend, and with the guest judges you only have the one shot to impress them. So it's just a really bad move to shit the bed on a challenge. Putting out something creatively uninspired is one thing - I recognize the muse can be elusive sometimes - but it wasn't even competently executed. It's a missed opportunity to make a positive impression on the guest judge.

I love everything you said.  This is an extremely hard industry to break into.  It can be very incestuous, with the same people being used over and over again.  The contestants on this show have once in a lifetime opportunity to actually get their foot in the door, by impressing the top people in the business.

With the sailor look, at least they tried to be unique.  I would rather see people try something new and fail spectacularly, then just half ass spray painting a model gold.

[Mabinogia]

35 minutes ago, qtpye said:

With the sailor look, at least they tried to be unique.  I would rather see people try something new and fail spectacularly, then just half ass spray painting a model gold.

Exactly. The execution of Popeye was terrible, but there was at least an idea there, there was some creativity and imagination. If this were an elimination round and those were the bottom two, I'd save Popeye for at least trying something. Golden Ballerina was the least inspiring thing I've ever seen on this show (granted I haven't seen all seasons, but of what I've seen this was the laziest effort both creatively and in execution. You need one or the other, at the very least.

Characterwise I didn't care for Melissa and Smurfettes (I cannot spell her name to save my life) but the work they did, the little details, were stunning. It didn't look anything like a puppet though.

[sourpickles]

I liked the way Tyler gave Emily credit for her innovative face flocking technique instead of nodding and taking the compliment for the team.  When Glen (?) said "What, did you just make that up on the spot?", he said "Yes, SHE did.  She did".  I found that very stand up of him. 

Smart contestants also know that being in the bottom one week in no way guarantees that you will go home the next, though sometimes it does.  And that being in the top one week in no way guarantees that you will stay there and not go home.  So therefore, you should try every week, elimination or not.  Why put yourself in the line of fire?  Because I'm damn sure the judges are going to be gunning for those really bad showing teams this week, there are so few people left.  E/B should have at least shot for the safe middle.  I'm still baffled at what A/L were thinking.  Oy.

[Mabinogia]

33 minutes ago, sourpickles said:

When Glen (?) said "What, did you just make that up on the spot?", he said "Yes, SHE did.  She did".  I found that very stand up of him. 

That was very awesome of him. They are a great team.

[Black Knight]

5 hours ago, qtpye said:

With the sailor look, at least they tried to be unique.  I would rather see people try something new and fail spectacularly, then just half ass spray painting a model gold.

That reminds me, why on earth wasn't the backstory Adam gave the judges the one they initially had about a stone puppet who wanted to be a sailor? I know that, as Glenn said, no backstory could save the job they did, but that backstory was actually amusing, unlike the convoluted mess Logan ended up spitting out at panel. I liked their original idea; they just didn't execute it, what with the weird arms, the face that wasn't at all like stone, etc. But if they had done the face and arms right, then all they needed to do was add a little seaweed to complete the joke.