face-off

Welcome to the Face-Off liveblog open thread! If you’re not familiar with a liveblog/loveblog/open thread, just hang out, watch the show, and comment away! It really is that simple, but I’m sure you already know that.

If you’ve been watching Face Off, you know the deal. Special effects “artists” compete by completing challenges under given time limits, and being ripped apart by a panel of judges. It’s a pretty awesome show, but the absence of Tim Gunn renders it inferior to Project Runway, which incidentally kind of started sucking, but hopefully will be back in awesome action during its next season, but I digress. Like, a lot.

So far this season, they’ve done nude body painting, created aliens from some planet that I guess was made of water, drew/painted/licked on fake tattoos, and something in the first episode that I didn’t watch, so fill in the blanks for me if you like (upon checking the website, it looks like they gave people bug heads). They also slept during challenges, made big boo-boos, bitched, flirted, and made cakes.

As for the contestants, they’re a pretty motley crew, which is to be expected for special effects artists I suppose. I’d love for the producers to throw us someone who is actually unpredictable like a guy who works in a bank and wears a tie to match his socks every day. However, our crew is a pretty colorful bunch and I wouldn’t trade any of them. Except for Tom.

Tom, aka Captain Ego has his own FX shop and I guess actually has somewhat of a career in indie film. Sweet. He has some other interesting things going on I think, but I can’t remember specifics over the sound of his massive ego.
Gage, the token gay cutie with the ear gauges apparently has awesome parents who bought him a special effects magazine when he was a kid because he was terrified of Freddy Kreuger, in an attempt to make him less scared. He was also a protégé of Tom, which Tom was sure to let the audience know in the first episode.

Anthony owns a studio called “Demonic Pumpkins Studio”, which is a pretty kick-ass name. He also won the nude painting challenge in episode 2 and claimed it was “Better than winning any Academy Award”. Aim high, Anthony.
Megan; a 24 year old Pittsburgh suicide girl, has a not-at-all subtle crush on Conor and hasn’t seen a penis in 2 years (true story). She attended Tom Savini’s Special FX school of Makeup, also in Pittsburgh. She’s also way high strung and I predict there will be the throwing or intentional exploding of something messy in the future from her.

Conor is the 40 year old that either likes them young, or is a gigantic tease – maybe both. He apprenticed for the makeup artist for Dick Tracy, although I’m not sure they had scary monsters. Other than Madonna, naturally. He also works on the Vampire Diaries and is an instructor at the Joe Blasco Makeup School. These schools get way creative with their names, don’t they?
Marcel, the 24 year old anti-Top Chef Marcel, already has a shaved head and has yet to use foam in anything. He’s a vet assistant by trade which… wait, what? He seems like a decent guy and actually has skill though, so is he the dark horse of Face Off? Am I even using that term correctly? It’s my first time.

Sam hails from Decatur, GA, where she practices and teaches “permaculture”, creates make up effects – for who or why, I’m not sure, and illustrates the chalk board at her local Trader Joes. I wonder if she’s frenemies with the chalkboard illustrator at Starbucks. She also does corporate art and custom prosthetics and has a hippie mom. Good for her.

Jo is Mila from PR’s hapless doppelganger. She not only fucked up in the first episode, but she painted her model in the nude body painting challenge with latex paint, which the audience learned both has a tendency to peel off of human skin, as well as feeling rather itchy and horrible. The judges liked it anyway though, so she was safe. More recently, she showed blatant jealousy of Megan and Conor’s “relationship” and wore a sour face pretty much the entire series so far.

Finally, there’s Tate, whose mom was an artist and his dad a boxer, which means he’s probably financially supporting them by now. He’s done a few cool things, most notably prop fabrication for Jim Henson studios, which is pretty high on the awesome meter, but he’s not standing out yet to me – the person who has no experience in this stuff beyond going to see movies with makeup effects.

Our host, one McKenzie Westmore has an illustrious career, seemingly due to her family being the Barrymores of the special effects world. Her dad created a whole shit-ton (Yes, that’s a unit of measure, per me) of awesome aliens for Star Trek and her great-grandfather was some other movie guy who was apparently successful enough to get the ball moving on getting the entire family on the Hollywood walk of fame. Also, her dad dresses exactly like my dad, therefore is adorable and by rights should be a republican from western Pennsylvania. Ms. Westmore also has a bit of an acting career, most of which seems forgettable, but apparently she was on NBC’s soap opera, Passions, so there’s that.

Finally, our shrewd judges include Ms. Ve Neill, the brains behind the looks in Pirates of the Caribbean and Edward Scissorhands. That might be a bit of hyperbole, but I like to think of her that way. She also won three Academy Awards, which I hear is kind of a big deal. Also, Glenn Hetrick of Heroes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the FREAKING X-FILES people, and Patrick Tatopoulos, who had a hand in Underworld, Independence Day, and Resident Evil: Extinction.

For tonight’s challenge, Friday the 13th director, Sean Cunningham stops by to see how the contestants do with creating their very own horror movie villains. Something tells me no one is going to make cute little satanic woodland creatures this week. What do you think the over-under is on a murderous clown being created? How about a SEXY murderous clown?

Ok kids, this is our first time and we want to be able to come back, so dispose of your cigarette butts, roaches, and beer bottles properly, leave the place cleaner than we found it, and be sure to write a nice thank-you note to the owners of the joint before you leave. The show starts at 10 Eastern Time on Syfy, so be there or be… well, just be there really. Enjoy the show!

*So the show starts off with the contestants discussing Frank.  Apparently, he’s one of those hate him or love him types.  Being that he slept during two challenges and openly slacked off, I’m not seeing the appeal, but maybe people like that kind of thing?

*Bates motel!  I think I’m seeing the problem with this show.  These contestants need to start wearing khakis and polo shirts.  This whole multiple piercings/tattoos thing clearly doesn’t work.  Except for with the judges, so… never mind.

*Is “Go big or go home” the new, “I’m not here to make friends”?

*Jo does not like Megan.  She really really super extra does not like Megan.  Ask her about it, I’m sure she’ll tell you.  She’s making a disfigured nun, by the way.

*Now Jo’s having her patented insecure time and fishing for compliments.  I’m a horrible person because I would have told her it was terrible just to shake her up.  As a wise man said, sometimes when you go fishing, you catch a boot.

*Now the contestants are pitching their ideas to the PR girl.  They have to come up with a movie name, tagline, and of course, the villain.  Some are good, some are not.  For example, one movie is to be named “HIM”.  You know, in reference to the guy the movie is about.  Alrighty then.

*Conor’s tagline; “Death is just the beginning”.  That’s been used before, hasn’t it?  In other news, Megan’s super annoying.  I’m starting to see Jo’s side.

*So Tom doesn’t know how to make a teddy bear.  Really Tom?  What have you been doing with your life?

*Marcel made a boo-boo.  He almost didn’t get get his silicone out of the mold, which I gather isn’t a good thing because a.) you kind of need it for your villain, and b.) I hear it takes a long time to set .

*So Nicholas Cage is the official go-to guy for shitty action movies now, right?

*Gage made the same boo-boo Marcel did, only his mold isn’t opening.  Megan comes over to “help” and rips the mask.  Gage is understandably not happy.

*Anthony states he’s re-creating things that have already been done.  As I said before – Aim high, Anthony.

*Ah, Tate’s “Him” is a chick.

*Jo’s proud of her nun, but I’m not sure I should be that impressed.  It’s basically a burned woman with buck teeth.

*Anthony threw his away – it blows.  He said it himself.

*Conor’s is just fucked up.  There’s no other way of putting it.

*Sam’s “Baby Doll” is terrifying.  Absolutely terrifying.  They need to make a movie about it.

*Megan has a creepy photographer guy who looks like Marilyn Manson.  Yawn.

*Marcel’s was pretty ok.  So was Gage’s.  He made some deformed fisherman, which looks like, well, a deformed fisherman.

*Tom’s is some sort of murderous teddy bear humanoid holding a human head.  I can’t wait to see how this turns out for him.

*Conor, Sam, and Jo are safe.  Being that Sam’s doll is going to give me nightmares, I thinks she should have won this challenge.

*Gage gets really good praise.  I guess they didn’t hear about the prosthetic that almost wasn’t.

*Oh, Anthony – “I’m more into mental horrors than a brute standing in a doorway hacking people up”.  The looks he got were priceless.  I’d feel bad for him, but I don’t.

*Megan and her floppy hat are being criticized because her scary photographer guy’s mouth can’t move, so basically, he’s useless.

*Tate got good reviews, and when you look at the creation, he really worked his ass off.  Good job, Tate.

*Marcel just made a reference to the limited amount of time he had to complete the costume.  He did NOT just say that after Tate was up there.

*Ok, Tom’s teddy bear axe murderer is pretty damn scary.  Disturbing, even.  He pulled off a win for this one.  Good job, Captain Ego!  Speaking of Captain Ego, he pontificates that Megan should go home (because the judges asked him).  I have a feeling she’s going down.

*You guys, I can’t imagine how Liam Neeson was able to make a movie about losing his wife after actually losing his wife.  My cold, blackened soul feels sad for him.

*Elimination time!  Poor Marcel and his shitty paint job and concept is out.  I’m never right about these things!  This is why I don’t gamble.

Next week on Face Off – a gender challenge of some sort.  May be interesting, it might be not – the only way to find out is to watch!  Or DVR – that works too.  Goodnight!