On Face Off contestants battle it out to see who has the imagination and technique to become the next big thing in Make-Up Effects. Tune in to Face Off to see some amazing make-up starting tomorrow night at 10pm on Syfy. To give you a look behind the scenes and some hints as to what is coming up this season we have a special treat. Back in October Syfy had a Digital Press Tour with panels from many of their popular shows, including Face Off.
Here is that transcript:
MARK STERN: All right. Let’s talk about “Face Off.” So
“Face Off” is one of my favorite shows. It is a breakout
reality-competition show that involves makeup-effects artists.
We are in the middle of shooting Season 2. So we don’t have any
footage to show you, actually, but we have something better,
which is, we brought with us as — it kind of ruined my intro —
Ve and McKenzie here to talk about it. “Face Off” premieres —
the Season 2 premiere is January 11th at 10 p.m. I don’t know
that that’s news, but I’m going to play my little — I’m going to
play my horn anyway. Okay. I didn’t prep. Like, during the
break, I kind of screwed myself over. I’m sorry. Let me play my
horn.
(Telephone app played of sounds of an FBI agent.)
Anyway, so that’s the news. Please welcome multiple
academy-award winner and one of our judges, Ve Neill, and our
host, McKenzie Westmore.
(Applause.)
VE NEILL: Good morning.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Hi everybody.
MARK STERN: Good to see you.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Good to see you, too. Hi. How are you?
MARK STERN: I’m great. So, first of all, thank you guys for
coming down here today. I know you are in the midst of shooting.
So tell us, I think, first of all — well, actually, before we
get into the new season, I’ve got to talk about — you watch a
lot of these competitions and reality shows, and the winner wins
money, or you win some other things. But in the case of some of
these, you always wonder what happens after it, and I really have
to — I wanted you to talk a little bit about what happened to
the winner of Season 1 because, obviously, it was very much
involved with you being —
VE NEILL: Right. Yes. He — it worked out really well. Conor
McCullagh, who was our winner last year, it just so happens that
he is a resident of North Carolina, and I just finished shooting
the film “The Hunger Games,” which is a very, you know, exciting
project for all of us because it’s probably going to be the new
set of films that’s going to take over from the “Harry Potter,”
you know, the “Twilight” series.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Right.
VE NEILL: It’s a really exciting young adult book series. So I
just happened to run into Conor at Monsterpalluza, and I said, “I
just found out you live in North Carolina. Would you like to
come be my third on “The Hunger Games”? So, needless to say, he
was really excited about that. So that was kind of cool. And
just prior to that, I was shooting the film “The Amazing
Spiderman,” and while I was in New York, I hired two more of our
contestants, Tate and Anthony. And they came and worked with me
on “Spiderman” while I was in New York. So it’s really — it was
really neat to be able to hire these gentlemen, you know,
post-show, and it was very exciting for our show as well, I
think. So it was — it was really cool.
MARK STERN: Yeah. I thought that was awesome that they had that
exposure.
VE NEILL: It was neat, yeah.
MARK STERN: So tell us a little bit about what we can expect in
the new season.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Oh, my goodness. Season 2 —
VE NEILL: It’s pretty exciting.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: — the challenges are just — the ante has
been upped so incredibly: the foundation challenges, the
spotlight challenges, a lot more women this year, which I found
very interesting, which, with our first challenge, we break them
off into two teams, the men versus the women.
VE NEILL: Yes. We actually have equal amounts of women this
year. Like, last year, we only had a few women. This year it
was — we started off with 12. Was it 12 contestants?
MARK STERN: Fourteen.
VE NEILL: Fourteen? So we have seven women and seven men. And,
yes, our first challenge —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yes.
VE NEILL: — was the men against the women, which was kind of
cool.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: It is neat, especially in this industry. As
you know —
VE NEILL: Yeah.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: — it’s a predominantly male industry. So to
see the women kind of breaking through the industry is nice to
see. So we started off with — it was a “Wizard of Oz” theme,
and it was reinventing “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the original
book, and they had to reinvent the three main characters. So it
was fascinating to see the choices that they made as far as doing
whatever they wanted with the Tin Woodsman, the Cowardly Lion,
and the Scarecrow. And then we moved into — our next challenge
was then —
VE NEILL: Well, the important thing to mention about that was we
really didn’t want them to do anything that was in the movie —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yes.
VE NEILL: — because we were actually going off only the book.
So they really — and it was a themed challenge. So the women —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Which they got to choose.
VE NEILL: Yeah, which they got to choose. I think the women
picked the most popular “Wizard of Oz,” which was really
interesting.
MARK STERN: Yes. You know, a little cliche if you ask me. I’ve
seen it so many times.
VE NEILL: They rocked on that one.
MARK STERN: It really tests me to see a post-classic (ph)
“Wizard of Oz.”
VE NEILL: Yeah. The girls really rocked that one. They did a
great job, and the guys did kind of like a horror —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: A dark horror.
VE NEILL: — dark horror, scary thing, yeah.
MARK STERN: There’s not a lot of songs in — yeah.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: It’s kind of hard to sing those tunes.
MARK STERN: Right.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: So then we went into — next was the aquatic
creatures. I took them down to the Long Beach Aquarium, and they
got to travel through the aquarium and take a look at all of the
different animals and create a human aquatic creature. And the
fun thing about that — and they always love when they hear my
heels clicking because they know that there’s some twist coming.
VE NEILL: Yeah.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: They are starting to not like me now. So I
told them last minute — not last minute, but I told them that,
on top of having to create this creature, it now has to be
waterproofed. And they then had to figure out how to make their
entire makeups, head to toe, waterproof so that their models
could be submerged in a tank for five minutes.
VE NEILL: And they also have bits and pieces of, you know,
fabric or clothing on them as well because, obviously, they are
not going to be nude, but — and then they were completely
submerged in a giant tank that we had right on stage.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yes.
VE NEILL: And they had to be able to stay in the water for five
minutes, each one of their creations.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Uh-huh.
VE NEILL: So that was kind of really cool and interesting.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: That was interesting.
VE NEILL: Yeah.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: To see it beforehand, to see it in the water,
and then for the judges to see it after, to see how the makeup
has held up —
VE NEILL: Exactly.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: — because that happens. That happens on
set.
VE NEILL: Uh-huh.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: After that, then we had our infamous
nude-body-painting challenge, which also increased this year
because the models were doubled. Each contestant or teams of two
had to do two models. They had to choose a background, and one
had to blend, and one had to be a character. So that was also
really interesting, had a little drama that day as well, which
people will find out.
MARK STERN: Yes. Actually very interesting, like, what happened
that day —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yes.
MARK STERN: — which we are not going to talk about.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: We are not going to.
VE NEILL: I don’t —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: You will have to wait and see. You don’t
know. I was the only one there.
VE NEILL: Oh.
MARK STERN: The judges are kept —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: No. The judges are kept quiet. They are
kept out of everything.
VE NEILL: As a judge, we really only get to see what comes on
the stage. So if it’s not shown to us while we are on stage or
if we get to do a walk-through, which I’ve already done — I’ve
done two walk-throughs already.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yes.
VE NEILL: I’m getting to do more walk-throughs this year, which
is kind of cool. And, yeah, so far, these few challenges that
we’ve done have all been in teams.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yes.
VE NEILL: So our next challenge —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: The next one after that was I took them to
Linda Vista Community Hospital in downtown Los Angeles, which
is a —
VE NEILL: Which is a really creepy, scary, closed-down place.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: A very haunted landmark of hospitals in
America.
VE NEILL: Yeah.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: And they had the challenge of taking a phobia
and incorporating it into their own thought of a horror one. So
they were then individually locked into rooms, not locked, put
into rooms for 30 minutes —
VE NEILL: Locked up.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Locked up. All right. To inspire —
inspired them to create their horror (unintelligible). So it was
fun. It was a really interesting, fun challenge. And then they
got to see them as individuals and the talents that would start
to emerge, broken away from team challenges. Up until then, this
was the first —
VE NEILL: Yes. Up until then, we got to see — up until then,
we really couldn’t tell who was, you know — I mean, we’d get to
ask them questions —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Who was going to break through.
VE NEILL: — “Who does what?” You know, “Who did this?” “Who
sculpted?” “Who molded?” “Who did most of the application?”
But, up until this challenge, we never really got to see what
they could do individually. So this was really kind of a
breakthrough challenge for us as judges to really be able to see
their accomplishments.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Uh-huh. That’s very true.
VE NEILL: Uh-huh.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Then we had dangerous beauty, which —
VE NEILL: Do we have any more challenges in between there?
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Well, we had foundation challenges. Each
time we had foundation challenges —
MARK STERN: That’s okay. You don’t need to do that. They have
the catalog. Somebody you want them to watch.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yeah. These foundations challenges were —
MARK STERN: They were very good.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: — were extremely fascinating this year —
MARK STERN: Yes.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: — with a lot of our guest judges. Those
were to be just as fun this year as the spotlight and just as
daunting for the contestants to try to get through that two hours
as opposed to their full-on, you know, dinner —
VE NEILL: And we have lots of really great guest judges this
year.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Oh, gosh, yes.
VE NEILL: And so it’s really going to be fun, some from our Syfy
family.
MARK STERN: Indeed there are.
VE NEILL: Yes, there are, which is kind of cool.
MARK STERN: Talk a little bit about — I think what’s really
fun — and you mentioned how many more women (unintelligible) you
were able to get. There’s no question that Season 2 — and being
part of the casting process on the other side, we — I felt like
we got not only more applicants, but a higher caliber of talent.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Much.
MARK STERN: Did you find that?
VE NEILL: I think so. I think we have really a lot of people
this year that have a lot more experience and perhaps a little
bit — I don’t want to say more talented because we really
haven’t — we really can’t tell yet, funny enough. I mean —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Well, even some, though, that aren’t quite so
talented, without naming names, there are a few that really
aren’t even so familiar with what was even in their box to begin
with.
VE NEILL: Yeah.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: So it’s really interesting to see. Across
the board, they are very — it’s a pretty level playing field,
I’d say, this year.
VE NEILL: Yeah. And even, you know — even a couple of the
contestants that weren’t really familiar with the products that
they were going to be using are using them in a really —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Ingenious, inventive way.
VE NEILL: — ingenious, inventive way.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: I was shocked.
VE NEILL: And they are actually doing some techniques that I
haven’t seen in a really long time, you know, like
construction-type techniques, which, you know —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: I remember you even saying — you are like —
you are going to have to remember that one.
VE NEILL: This one did this thing that I couldn’t believe. I
said, “That is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” You know, it’s
like even — Glenn didn’t even realize. He says, “How did that
kid know how to do that? That’s so cool.” He said, “We use that
all the time.” It like something that was a little-known
technique, and it worked so great. It was so simple.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yes.
MARK STERN: So has that stepped up your game in terms of the
challenges or how you are judging or what you are making them do?
VE NEILL: Well, you know, we don’t really have any control over
the challenges, per se, you know. I mean — and they said,
“Well, do you want to know what you are doing this year?” And I
said, “No.” I want to be surprised when we go into the
challenges, and I want to — I want it to be, you know, a
surprise to me when I go to see it and to judge it. I don’t want
to have to think about it ahead of time because I don’t want to
have any preconceived ideas, you know.
MARK STERN: Yes.
VE NEILL: So I don’t know what the challenge is until the day we
get there.
MARK STERN: Okay.
VE NEILL: And I, like, would kind of like to leave it that way.
You know, I said to the other guys, “Do you want to know?” And
they go, “Well, maybe.” And I said, “No, you don’t want to
know.”
McKENZIE WESTMORE: See, I don’t want to be surprised. I want to
know everything. I want to go in knowing everything.
VE NEILL: Well, you have to know everything because you are
there every day. We just kind of come and go.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: I want to know way ahead of time.
MARK STERN: Is it harder — has it been harder this year to be a
host? because, obviously, everything has been stepped up more.
And now we are going some more places, and we are doing more
things. Has that been more of a challenge?
McKENZIE WESTMORE: It’s interesting because it’s harder in some
ways but easier in others because, you know, coming from a
theatrical background and having hosted last year, it was like,
“Wow. Okay. This is a learning — a little bit of a learning
curve for me.” I mean, knowing the makeup world, knowing how to
run a lab with my dad, and knowing all of that side of it made it
easy for me to speak as a host in this realm, but the hosting
genre itself is a whole other beast. This year, coming into it,
it’s so much easier because now I know what I’m doing. Now I
know how to host. Now I know I have a — I’ve gotten into a
groove with the challenges and the foundation challenges and the
spotlight challenges and how to deliver them and what they need
to know, the specific information that each contestant needs to
know.
The only thing I would say that’s — and it’s not even difficult.
I don’t want to call it “difficult,” but it’s been different
going to all of these different locations. I mean, 2 a.m. at
Linda Vista Community Hospital —
VE NEILL: Oh, yes.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: — which is one of the most haunted hospitals
in America —
VE NEILL: They woke the contestants up.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: — we woke the contestants up at 1 a.m., got
them there at 2:00 to deliver the challange to them. And, of
course, I’m there wanting to explore around and “Where is my
flashlight so I can go ghost-hunting?” “Oh, no, no. We are not
doing ‘Ghost Hunters’ on this show. We are doing ‘Face Off.'”
“Sorry. I forgot.” It was so much fun, though. So that would
be the only, like, major difference for me is getting to travel
all over and getting to see all of these fun places. And, too,
for me, I love to see the contestants’ faces light up as soon as
they walk in whether it’s we are in a location, and they are
looking around like, “Oh, my goodness. Where are we? What’s
happening?” And now, when they find out the challenge and how
extremely difficult it is — God bless you, by the way. When
they find out how challenging it is, they just, like — I can see
either their faces light up, or their faces drop in complete and
utter fear. So it’s fascinating to watch them and see, okay, who
is freaking out this week?
MARK STERN: Great.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: That’s always fun.
MARK STERN: That’s great. All right. Well, let’s open it up to
your questions.
QUESTION: Thank you. There’s a lot of appreciation for makeup
now, especially with Greg Nicotero taking over as co-exec
producer, “Walking Dead,” and guys like Tom Savini getting
interviewed at conventions and things like that. So I’m kind of
curious about people that are, you know, your colleagues or
people that have inspired you. What are they saying about the
show? Do they like it? And, also, what ideas are they coming to
you with for challenges?
VE NEILL: Are you speaking to me, personally?
QUESTION: Both of you.
VE NEILL: I — you know, nobody has actually come to me with
challenges because I’ve made it very clear to them that we are
not involved in that. And I think it probably might be a
conflict of interest. I’m not sure. But, for me, I think it’s
better to let — they have a really great team figuring out the
challenges, and for me, every time I hear a new challenge, I am
totally mind-boggled. I’m like, “Oh, my God. How did they
figure that out? I never would have thought of that.” So I
think they are really doing a great job of initiating the
challenges and all of that. And all of my colleagues, as far as
what they are saying about this show, they think it is really
fabulous.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: They love it, yeah.
VE NEILL: And they are really excited about it. I mean, every
time I talk to a makeup artist, they are going, “Oh, my God. It’s
so cool” —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: They love this show.
VE NEILL: — “that they are finally showing everybody how this
works.” My only fear is that the producers are going to think
now that we can do everything in 15 hours.
(Laughter.)
McKENZIE WESTMORE: That’s true.
VE NEILL: They have to remember that that stuff falls apart the
minute those guys are off camera.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: It is true, though. It’s really nice to hear
from the industry, from an insider’s point of view, the
appreciation and the love that true industry people have across
the board at all levels, really do love the show because it does
show a true look at behind the scenes of what goes on.
QUESTION: I’m going to preface this by saying this may be a
stupid question, but I’m going to ask it anyway. How important
is funding for proper makeup? I mean — or how important is
money to creating, like, real proper makeup? And my second
question is how has digital technology affected how you approach
door makeup?
VE NEILL: Well, those are really two different, completely
separate questions. First of all, you know, depending on what
the makeup is, yes, some makeups are much more expensive to
create than others. You know, it depends on how elaborate it is,
what technology you are using, what type of product you are
using. So it just depends on what is required, how long it has
to be — how long — the longevity of it, how many times it has
to be applied. All of these things are taken into consideration
when you are budgeting for a prosthetic makeup. I hope that
pretty much answers your question without going into anything in
detail.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Unless you are looking for, like, Halloween
ideas.
QUESTION: Yeah, because I just always —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: That’s a whole other ballpark.
VE NEILL: As far as the digital technology, I believe that we
can really work together in a very symbiotic way —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yes.
VE NEILL: — because when I was doing the pirate films, I worked
very closely with the guys who were doing all of our digital
technology. And they actually took pictures of our makeup,
Bootstrap Bill, which we did, and they actually applied that to
the actual digital characters that they were building so that
they looked like our makeup. And I think as long as we have our
digital technology working with us, you know, in conjunction with
us, I think we can really find really clever ways of making this
work.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: There’s room for both.
VE NEILL: Yeah, I think so. I think everything has its place.
I don’t think it’s ever going to really replace an organic
makeup, which I feel is really important because — and also, for
the actors —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Yes.
VE NEILL: — it’s really difficult for actors not to be able to
have —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: — that tangible feeling, yeah.
VE NEILL: Yeah. They — I mean, a perfect example is as I was
speaking about Bootstrap Bill, he went through six or seven
stages of makeup, and he was only really supposed to be in the
makeup for two stages, and then the digital technology was going
to take over. And he liked being in the makeup so much that we
continued on with the makeup as opposed to turning him into a
digital character. So it really is helpful for the actors as
well to have that organic matter on them, you know, for their
character.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: That’s very true, which I’m actually getting
to experience for the first time now because I just had my first
lifecast done —
VE NEILL: All right.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: — ever, which is odd. Everybody’s says,
“Well, you are a Westmore. You should have had it done when you
were one. What’s wrong with you?” So I actually got to
experience it for the first time as we are going to change some
of our campaigns being the face of “Face Off.” So I got to have
my first cast done and experience that and what it’s like to do
all of this covered in goop and rubber and everything. So —
VE NEILL: Are you claustrophobic?
McKENZIE WESTMORE: I am. Yeah, I am. So that was really fun.
MARK STERN: So what was that like? Was there a lot of
visualization of, like, calm summer nights?
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Oh, I so went to my happy place. I was
humming in my head. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” And I got through
it. I think there was a split second where Greg —
VE NEILL: Did anybody hold your hand or anything?
McKENZIE WESTMORE: No, nobody held my hand. No. I was like
this the whole time. I didn’t even realize —
VE NEILL: They missed their window of opportunity. What a bunch
of dummies.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: You are so cute.
MARK STERN: Other questions?
QUESTION: Hi. You have had a lot of experience being on the
makeup chair when you were on “Passions.” How was it different
when you were doing it this time? Was it more intense for you
or —
McKENZIE WESTMORE: As far as?
QUESTION: Being in the chair. When you just said you were doing
a body cast and everything.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Right. This was definitely more intense. I
mean, I’ve had prosthetic pieces put on before but very
minimally. I mean, on “Passions,” my goodness, I did a lot of
past-life things, but they were more about the beauty makeups,
whether it was “Cleopatra,” whether it was being on “The
Titanic.” There was one time where I did play a man. So there
were more prosthetic pieces that went into that. Then, when I
was on “Star Trek,” the extent I had of that other than being
Starfleet was being a Vulcan. So the ears weren’t too bad. This
was definitely a completely different realm for me to have all of
this done and to see the cast now afterwards and to see — to
know what’s coming up as far as having the application of the
specific makeups, which I’m not going to tell you, to knowing
what’s coming up is going to be really exciting. I’m so excited
to have all of this done, everything from contact lens to
prosthetic pieces, to teeth, to everything being done. Yeah.
VE NEILL: You are telling them everything.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: No. But they don’t know what it is. I’m
just saying what’s coming up.
QUESTION: One more, if I’m allowed. You did hosting and acting.
What’s next for you as far as your celebrity bucket list?
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Well, I’m loving doing “Face Off” right now,
and we’ve got a lot of stuff coming up on the pipeline. I’m
working on some product lines. I’m doing — working on a couple
of different projects on more of the production side as well. So
I’m definitely always looking back into the theatrical world. I
never want to step away from that, but I am absolutely loving
hosting right now. So I’m happy where I’m at.
VE NEILL: Are you going to cast her in a movie now and take her
away from us?
QUESTION: We can work something out.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: I am Canadian as well. So —
MARK STERN: We have time for one more question.
QUESTION: Well, you have a plateful of things like “Pirates,”
The Hunger Games,” “The Amazing Spiderman.” What’s the appeal of
going from something — the appeal of going from all of those
kinds of big projects to serving as a judge on “Face Off”? I’m
just curious what the appeal was for you.
VE NEILL: It’s fun. I mean, I love my job, and I love being on
the movies, but this is like a completely different thing. I
mean, it’s so much fun not to have the pressure of actually doing
the makeup but sitting back and watching somebody else getting to
do it.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: That’s true.
VE NEILL: And, you know, it’s kind of great. It’s almost kind
of like a mentoring thing. I mean, I know sometimes the way I’m
edited, I’m kind of like the Simon Cowell of the show even though
Glenn is the one scowling. I actually, you know, eventually talk
to them a little bit. You know, as I said, I’ve hired several of
the makeup artists. So it’s actually quite fun. I really — I
really enjoy it.
MARK STERN: Great. Well, thank you very much for being here —
VE NEILL: Thank you.
MARK STERN: — for coming down here.
McKENZIE WESTMORE: Thank you, everybody.
MARK STERN: They’ll be here for the next 10 minutes or so to
chat with you. Thank you.
(Applause.)
Face Off airs Wednesday nights at 10pm only on Syfy.
