CMS Signs Off on Face Off

Face Off, television’s ultimate special effects makeup challenge competition, aired its second season finale last Wednesday.  Here’s our rundown of this season’s highlights.

 Each week on FaceOff, special effects make-up artists test their imagination and skills to create amazing works of living art.  Challenges incorporate all kinds of effects make-up, and include a wide range of skill sets including prosthetics, 3-D design, sculpting, eye enhancers, casting and molding.  In each episode we see the awesome results of the competitors' hard work, and contestants are voted off each week by the judges until it boils down to one competitor left with the grand prize of $25,000 in makeup supplies, the 2012 Toyota Camry hybrid, and $100,000!

This season on Face Off, Cinema Makeup School was proud to see graduates Tara Lang and Miranda Jory take the stage.  In the first episode Tara and Miranda re-imagined the classic characters from The Wizard of Oz.  

The scarecrow by Tara Lang, and the tin man collaboration done by Miranda and fellow Contestant Heather.

In episode two contestants created makeups that were a little bit…fishy! The models were also put to the test when they presented the makeups in an on stage aquarium.  Miranda and teammate Beki create an impressive sea creature, and Tara and her partner Matt took home the gold this week with their aquatic creation.

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In episode three the artists meet guest judge, and award winning makeup artist Jennifer Aspinall (Saturday Night Live, MADtv) during their foundation challenge. For the Spotlight challenge the contenders put their body painting skills to the test.  The artists were required to make their models become one with a wall mural.  All of the competitors struggled with this challenge, but unfortunately, Miranda was the one sent home.

In the fourth week of the competition the artists face some serious phobias when their spotlight makeups were inspired by some very real fears.  Tara was inspired by ommetaphobia, the fear of eyes.  Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13^th) and Glenn Hetrick (The Hunger Games, Heroes) visited the Face Off lab and weighed in on the competitor’s creations. 

Week five kicked off with guest judge, makeup artist Kim Green (Terminator: Salvation, Superbad) presenting the foundation challenge in which the artists must transform their beautiful models in to plains Janes.  The artists then found the inspiration for their spotlight challenge entries from dangerous wild animals and plants.  Tara and her partner, Athena, worked together to create a cross between a colorful snake and a stargazer lily.

In the 6^th installment of the competition the artists were tasked with aging a set of twins, but when a triplet is added into the mix it became a triple threat.  They worked hard to age their models to 50, 75 and 100 years old.  With his expert eye, artist, Greg Cannom (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) coached the contestants on this tricky challenge.

In the 7^th episode of Face Off the contenders put their own spin on the sketches of  celebrity judge Patrick Tatopoulos (I Am Legend, Underworld.)  The artists brought the aliens of this summer’s Total Recall to life.  

With just five contestants left the next episode took a turn for the Burton. The artists created Tim Burton inspired characters based on every day occupations.   Celebrity judge, Ve Neill (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands) weighs in on the different creations with her expert eye of a Tim Burton creation. 

Next, the Natural History Museum helped the artists crank up their creativity in their challenge entitle Dinoplasty.  The contestants create human- dinosaur hybrids in this challenge that brings the competition down to the final three. 

With only three competitors left at this point, we made it to the season finale.  Rayce, R.J., and Ian battled it out for the title of Face Off Champion.  The final three were tasked with creating three makeups inspired by the film genres: Horror, Sci Fi, and Fantasy.  Another twist in the competition brings back the fallen competitors to aid them in their final makeups.  Miranda joins Rayce in the Sci Fi category, and Tara joined Ian in horror to complete the final lap of the competition.  In the end Rayce was crowned the winner of season 2. 

 Congratulations again to all of the competitors. We are especially proud of our graduates, Miranda Jory and Tara Lang for their incredible work. We can’t wait to see what you produce in the future, and which CMS grads sign on to amaze us on Season 3 of the SyFy network’s hit show FaceOff