# Face Off on SyFy season thread w/spoilers



## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

http://www.syfy.com/faceoff/about
_"Face Off is a competition/elimination series exploring the world of special-effects make-up artists and the unlimited imagination that allows them to create amazing works of living art."_

Anyone else watching this?
It's pretty good- some of the effects these people pull off in their challenges are amazing. 
A train wreck or two as well, but we're really enjoying it.

Episode #1 contestants create an animal/human hybrid costume/prosthetics/whatever they want.
This week (ep #2) they were asked to body paint models to coordinate with a supplied backdrop.
So it asks for a wide range of skills and clearly some contestants are more diversified than others.
Fun show.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Yeah, I'm enjoying it, although some of the artists they included were clearly simply cannon fodder. Take the one that departed during episode 2... what was he even doing in this contest? He had no chance, and I'm surprised he even made it to episode 2.


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

Watching here as well. I was glad to see the earring hole girl redeem herself in the second episode. That second elimination challenge was pretty impressive by a few of them. Except for that a-hole that was rude to his model. I would like to see him go next.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

Watching also - thanks for starting a thread.

It is really formula reality competition show but a great spin from clothing designers and hairdressers and chefs.

Very enjoyable.


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

I thought that body painting winner's work was outstanding- I would buy a print of that. All top three were exactly how I would have ranked them.
I'm a little uncomfortable with their asking a winner to weigh in on who should be eliminated- one would think they have footage of everything that goes on and not need that opinion. 
For me Sergio was a no brainer- he had zero time management skills and that would be a major factor on staying in budget on any production.

And the done in 30 minutes guy (Frank?) would be the next to go. That smacks of just doing enough to get by- surely there are details he could work on.
He just annoys me.


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## tiassa (Jul 2, 2008)

I'm liking it as well, I'm more interested in the challenges than the people, although after 2 episodes it is tough to get any feelings about them.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Episode 3! And what a trainwreck it was. I would've been embarrassed to show Michael Westmore just about any of those. The only one that was passable was Conor and Jo's, and they had to get help from the rest of the teams to clean out their mould. But - they got it done. If anything, Conor needs to be a little bit less of a control freak. Yeah, Jo's new, but she clearly has some skill with the painting.

Frank and Anthony's was by far the worst. That thing was a giant bag of FAIL. 

(Although as an aside, I laugh at Michael Westmore telling the contestants to make the aliens less recognizably humanoid... please. While Westmore is a legend for his work on Star Trek, quite a lot of his aliens fell into the "rubber forehead" category.)


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## tiassa (Jul 2, 2008)

Yeah, from his reaction it is pretty clear that Frank had a "Death Wish" from not long after he started the show, but that was really bad!


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## DouglasPHill (Feb 10, 2005)

So glad they got rid of who they did. Been a loser all along. I can't believe that one contestant is only 21, she looks like she's 35.


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

I also hated Frank's reaction to being eliminated. SyFy or Face Off isn't the biggest thing on TV, but you gotta think the way you're coming off can hurt ones career?!!


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

I was also surprised at Conor's pick on who he thought should be voted off. It was so clearly motivated by his desire to get in that chicks pants. 

He's probably the best designer there but dude you're 40 - you are old enough to be her father.


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

I know they are very time limited but we were severely disappointed on all but the crab walking/ mud skipping thing. They specifically asked that they not be humanoid but then all but one were bipedal, totally symmetrical humanoids.
How about something that could armadillo/armor itself up to escape lava, or at least have heat resistant skin, or a slugs body, or be creeping moss or something different.
It just seemed as if they all rushed to sketch a humanoid where I would have spent at least 30 minutes or so brainstorming forms.
At least spend your chit chat dreaming up some cultural uniqueness to feature instead of worrying so much what everyone else is doing. Even bizarre mouthparts to ingest an indigenous fruit or something.
It wouldn't have taken much IMO- very little creativity in that room.

Frank got on my last nerve to the point I could hardly watch- I would have been in jail if I had been partnered up with him.


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## Test (Dec 8, 2004)

Cainebj said:


> I was also surprised at Conor's pick on who he thought should be voted off. It was so clearly motivated by his desire to get in that chicks pants.
> 
> He's probably the best designer there but dude you're 40 - you are old enough to be her father.


I get why he picked who he picked, but why didn't he pick Frank from the other team that did poorly. Was he not allowed to pick from that team? Why was he so shocked when Frank came back and said he was going home? Did he think he had that much clout with the judges or is he really friends with Frank?


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Episode 4 - Villains!

Not too many real train-wrecks, at least not as bad as last week, and there were quite a few really good concepts. I do think they sent the wrong person home. I think Tom was right, Megan should have gone home. Her makeup this week was pretty lame. I think they kept Megan around simply for the drama of it all.


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## tiassa (Jul 2, 2008)

I think Megan had some built up "cred" from her previous efforts, and Marcel's villain was conceptually lame. I think the judges even mentioned the fact that they thoght Tom had it in for Megan from the last challenge.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

LoadStar said:


> I think they kept Megan around simply for the drama of it all.


+1

I enjoyed getting to see each person's work individually. I know team challenges in all these reality shows create reality drama but it was nice to see them each having to work it on their own.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Episode 5 - Gender Swap!

- Gage/Sam - back to the train wreck again. The appliance was very plastic looking. They really needed to go with silicone, not foam, and they needed to work on their makeup application big time.
- Conor/Megan: not bad at all, but from what we saw, Jo had a point. Conor is a control freak, bar none. He's amazingly experienced and talented, but he doesn't seem to know how to actually be a team player. Still, Jo really was out of place to make a fuss about it during the interview. I thought the bride had a bit of a drag queen vibe, but not as bad as Tom/Jo's was.
- Tom/Jo: The bride was very drag queen, since there were no appliances, just beauty makeup, and like the judges pointed out, not very good makeup at that. As for the groom, the judges nailed it - the groom looked like an animatronic creation, not an actual person. Jo shouldn't have been making a fuss about Conor/Megan when theirs looked like it did.
- Tate/Anthony: I thought they were easily the best, although they had it somewhat easy getting a guy who was already very androgynous from the start. I disagree with the judges big time.

Jo shouldn't have put all the blame on Megan at the end. Anyone who has paired with Conor so far has had to deal with his perfectionist, control freak nature, and this week it just happened to be Megan that benefited.

Edit to add: I would've really liked to have seen one of the teams do a more natural makeup, no "theme," just swap the genders as believably as possible. It would've been extremely challenging, I'll admit, so that's probably why no one did that.


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## DouglasPHill (Feb 10, 2005)

Glad they bounced Jo, hope they bounce Megan next.


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

To be fair Megan did an excellent job disguising that mans jaw- that was excellent work. 
And IMO the Megan/Connor couple _were_ just makeup/no theme. What theme was there? A bride and a groom as asked for, nothing more.

I too would have given it to Tate/Anthony. Their attention to detail was easily the best IMO- the Adam's apple and the nick from shaving were hilarious.

Jo spent way too much time worrying about what other people (Megan/Connor) were doing. They have such limited time to accomplish anything that I would think worrying about your own task would prove more helpful.
And Tom's leprechaun looking monstrosity was hideous.
I would have eliminated the both of them. If they are doing a double elimination next week, same difference, and both of these people deserved to be run out of town for what they produced.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

Cearbhaill said:


> I too would have given it to Tate/Anthony. Their attention to detail was easily the best IMO- the Adam's apple and the nick from shaving were hilarious.


what she said. +1


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

Keebler Elf! LOL!!


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## sieglinde (Aug 11, 2002)

I liked Jo until she interrupted the interview and gave the finger at the end. What an immature brat. She needs to grow up. I did not want to see her go until she acted out at the interview.


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## tiassa (Jul 2, 2008)

I thought earlier that Jo was way too concerned with what everyone else was doing and not spending the time/effort on doing HER project.


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

Can't believe Megan survived another elimination. Are they afraid to make it an all male contest?! And BTW, I thought ALL the zombies were awful. Especially Megan's!


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

I think the judges were too harsh on Tom. I thought his was pretty good, and his makeup read pretty well on screen. I don't know if they were seeing something that we couldn't see at home... but does that matter?

I did NOT like Tate's at all. It was an interesting concept, but it was way too over the top, and I was not a fan of blocking the entire face off with a non-movable appliance. I also think that for his concept to be executed better, he would have had to apply body makeup as well. As it stood, the face was all zombie-grey but the rest of the body was still very pink flesh tone.

Sam's was more of a success at a fat suit than a successful zombie makeup, IMO. The face only had the chewed up lower left cheek/jaw... the rest of it was just fat suit type makeup. The arm appliances were an epic fail though, with the clear and undisguised line at the end of the appliance. Sloppy.

Gage's was the best unique concept, IMO, and pretty well executed, although as the judges pointed out it could have used a bit less of the warm colors. If he was going for a "fresh kill," though, it works.

Megan had a pretty good concept as well, but I wasn't as impressed by her execution. I didn't think the face really demonstrated the musculature under the skin. It just looked very rough. I disagree with the judges though... it seemed like a realistic amount of blood with a flaying, even if it hides a lot of the detail. (What they should have said is something like, "it's a good concept and accurately done, but not one that works well on screen because you can't see the detail with that much blood.")

Anthony was probably among the worst for me this week. The face was blobby, and the coloring was very monochromatic brown, and it didn't sell the "hooker" concept as much as it could have.

Conor's was easily the best. It was traditional and therefore not original - but brilliant execution. Again, no one is disputing that he's arguably the most talented makeup artist left here. I still maintain he's a bear to have to work with.

No way that Tom's was worse than Sam. Not a chance. I can't believe that Sam didn't even end up in the bottom with those sloppy arm appliances. I think my bottom three were Sam, Anthony, and Tate.


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## sieglinde (Aug 11, 2002)

Only two episodes left. I hope the best one actually wins. On the artist show with the same format, the best artist did win.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Second to last episode... self-disguise!

Again this week, I thought Conor did the best makeup, and I don't know what the judges were smoking. I wonder if the judges all slammed him to make it seem to be less predictable. In "real-world" disguises, less IS more to a certain point, and I thought Conor added just enough to believably disguise himself in the real world.

I didn't care too much for either of the two that the judges raved about. Of the two, Sam's was arguably better, but there was still something definitely "off" about the whole thing. As for Gage's, that was one UGLY lady.

Tate's wasn't a believable "real world" person. It only worked because of just how far over the top he went in trying to be so offensive that no one would want to look too closely at him. It's a shame, because even if he had toned down the concept a little bit, it still would have been a very successful disguise idea.

I was totally unsurprised to see Megan go home. I was, however, somewhat surprised at how definitively they sent her home, even so far as to call off the generally rather pointless "advise the judges" bit. I'm not saying any of that was unwarranted, she was way out of her league in this competition. The fact that she just gave up on her prosthetic and tried to go with a beauty makeup? Yeah, right. Good luck with that one.


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

I thought Conor looked just like Conor and they were right to call him on it. His may have looked more believable, but as a "disguise" it was a definite fail.


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## Test (Dec 8, 2004)

Cearbhaill said:


> I thought Conor looked just like Conor and they were right to call him on it. His may have looked more believable, but as a "disguise" it was a definite fail.


True, but his sisters reaction was the only believable one.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Cearbhaill said:


> I thought Conor looked just like Conor and they were right to call him on it. His may have looked more believable, but as a "disguise" it was a definite fail.


Eh, I thought he looked just different enough to throw people off, which in my book is a successful disguise. Frankly, (almost) no one in the real world looks like any of the other disguises. I was watching some documentary on real-world espionage, and they actually had ex-spies on there who have to actually do believable real-world disguises, and they said the same sort of stuff that Conor did. You never want to over-do it, because the last thing you want is to attract attention, You want people to think there is nothing unusual going on.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

I LOVE this show.

But I disagree with you - 
I don't think he was slammed by any means - I think it was true you could tell it was him - or as that one judge said - his creepy cousin - 

so while the makeup job and application was great 
- he failed the assignment. No disguise.


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

So glad Megan is gone. Long time coming IMO. How can you say you're tired (even if you are)? Isn't being in a movie set long hours?


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

gossamer88 said:


> So glad Megan is gone. Long time coming IMO. How can you say you're tired (even if you are)? Isn't being in a movie set long hours?


I don't think she was talking about exhaustion, but probably mental fatigue... she just didn't feel like she could effectively compete anymore. She was just in over her head.


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## tiassa (Jul 2, 2008)

LoadStar said:


> Eh, I thought he looked just different enough to throw people off, which in my book is a successful disguise. Frankly, (almost) no one in the real world looks like any of the other disguises. I was watching some documentary on real-world espionage, and they actually had ex-spies on there who have to actually do believable real-world disguises, and they said the same sort of stuff that Conor did. You never want to over-do it, because the last thing you want is to attract attention, You want people to think there is nothing unusual going on.


I agree, a friend who has some knowledge of these things said that the best disguise isn't "Wow Fred, I didn't know that was you" but rather "Doesn't that guy look like Fred? It isn't, but it does look like him", of course that is the real world not the Movie world. The amount of prosthetics to make Tom Cruise look like Philip Seymour Hoffman (ala Mission Impossible 2) would be obvious to anyone talking to him.


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## sieglinde (Aug 11, 2002)

A co-worker who did "beauty makeup" better than Megan did in the show, was able to fool us into thinking she was a man. It was Halloween and she came in as a cowboy. Well, the western attire was not terribly unusual so we just thought she was somebody coming in for help on their computer. The only prosethic if you want to call it that was a false mustache. Her Beetlejuice makeup (just makeup not prosethics) made her face seem to have a completely different shape. Megan could get a job on a set doing regular makeup for people. Megan was expected to do prosethics and just couldn't do it. I am glad she is gone. I felt the other four makeups were fine. I really liked it that the one remaining woman finally won the competition.


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

No surprise that Connor won. He was more consistent than the others. But in the last challenge my favorite was the Red Riding Hood/White Werewolf. Thought Sam's Little Mermaid was terrible. And she had first dibs! And how does Connor pick Frank to help him?!


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## sieglinde (Aug 11, 2002)

My favorite was the Red Riding Hood one but I am biased towards stories like that. The Frog Princt was just plain beautiful. I feel that this show was a good addition to their portfolios and most of the contestants should be able to find work in the field.


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## Swirl_Junkie (Mar 11, 2001)

I loved this show and was glad to see they were casting for season 2. The eyes of Gretel were so freaky, and thought that was the best of the night. But Conner did deserve the win overall. I think I liked Tate's designs the best over the whole series though.


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

sieglinde said:


> My favorite was the Red Riding Hood one but I am biased towards stories like that. The Frog Princt was just plain beautiful. I feel that this show was a good addition to their portfolios and most of the contestants should be able to find work in the field.


This.
The party with all the honchos gave each contestant a real showcase. I would think that there is enough work in this field that they could each go onto some great opportunities. I have no idea how well they were each doing previous to the show, but exposure like that has to help a great deal.
I liked Tate overall throughout the series, but because his ideas were so unusual and his backstories so well developed. Connor technically, sure, but otherwise he's not for me.
I did like that they left Tate and Gage as virtually tied for second place because the Witch and Gretel were awesome.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

I wasn't surprised Conner won either - but I had a few moments of hope that Nate was going to take it.

In terms of that final challenge - I think Gage won that.


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