Just when I thought my Tuesday evening couldn’t get any
more impacted by series that I just cannot stand to miss, SyFy gives me the Jim
Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge. To say
that Jim Henson was a huge part of my childhood would be the understatement of
the century. I was brought up in a
family that whole heartedly adored the Muppets, the Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal
and so many others that solidified creativity and wonder as a cornerstone of my
very being. So naturally when they are
going to run a challenge inside the Jim Henson Creature Shop I was practically
jumping up and down with excitement.
Which quantified exponentially when I saw who would be hosting, none
other than Gigi Edgley from Farscape. My
god that woman is beautiful, even without the makeup and white wig! Damn you Chiana!
The first judge the 10 creators meet is Brian Henson,
Chairmen of Henson Studio’s and he explains the premise. These 10 creature creators will be competing
in weekly challenges that will be screen tested on the Jim Henson Sound Stage
and the winner of the challenge will receive employment with the Jim Henson
Creature Shop. So this is basically a
long application process, how awesome is that?!
The first challenge sets off with more of a fizzle than a
bang. The 10 are split into teams of two
to create under sea creatures that have never been seen before. They must completely disguise their actor but
to not hinder the actor’s movement as it travels across the floor of the sound
stage. Despite the fact that they are
working in teams, in the end they are judged individually and eliminated individually. This is a test, not only to bring a creature
to live in 3 days, but to also work together because in this industry they are
always going to be a part of a team.
Now as for the creators themselves, I have to say this is
a very well rounded group of ten. They
all come from backgrounds that vary from Disney to machine shops to having
their own creator studios. But, that is
not the only variance; they also differ greatly amongst their skill sets and
comfortable mediums. With creators who
have never touched a foam piece to artists who start using tinfoil and mattress
foam.
The team that was given a lot of focus this week was Tina
and Russ, unfortunately for the amount of discord between the two egos. Tina has a very dominating personality, and
quickly takes the reigns of this project which wouldn’t be a knock to her if
she had taken the opportunity to include Russ in the design. I know it might be that I’m only shown one
side but it really looked like whenever Russ opened his mouth Tina was more
than happy to shut it for him. These two
were just hard to watch.
What was also hard to watch was Robert and Chaz struggle
with an overall lack of foam construction.
They don’t seem to grasp how to mold and shape it to fit a performer
while allowing him the ability to bring the character to life organically.
The most creative out of all the groups had to be Lex and
Josh. Lex seems to have a taste for the
artistic which helps in overall design but, it is Josh’s knowledge of more
creative mediums like tin foil and upholstery foam that bring their “baby” to
level of difference that the other teams just don’t hit. As a viewer I love to see these kinds of
teams. They clearly understand that this
is greater than their own egos and they need to embrace each other’s knowledge for
support and fuel of the most important part of this show, the creature.
Each week the show will provide a mentor and this week
the mentor comes from the Jim Henson Creature Shop itself, Pete Brooke. He is the mater creator for Jim Henson
studios and basically who would become your future boss. He sets to work giving out advice, not only
on design but stresses working on story as much as the sculpt of the creature
itself.
After the three days of creation, the teams are given an
hour to work with their actors and it’s clear that there are several
issues. First off is Tina and Russ’s
fish is literally falling apart in front of them as their tail begins to break
apart. Robert and Chaz have been
basically suffocating their actor in a tomb of foam. Neither looks that promising as they all line
up for their first screen test.
The screen tests themselves had mixed reviews, first off
the clear top looks of this build where Lex and Josh’s devil prawn and Melissa and
Jake’s scuttle-slurp. Both of them stand
out by clearly hiding the actor but also bringing to life a wonderful
performance training of the actor.
Giving the actor enough room to expand and grow while also giving it
little tricks to be able act through. A
great example is the arm fabrication and the bright red belly of the devil
prawn that gave it the ability to give the character a real sense of life. On the other end of the spectrum is “Floyd”
designed by Robert and Chaz who are critiqued as being overly cartoony, even
for the people who created the Muppets.
The other massively huge mistake is the actor’s inability to breath
under the design of this sluggish disaster.
At first it looked like everyone was going to take the judges words in
stride but then Russ can’t keep it together any longer and unloads all of the
blame for “Ethel” on Tina. Even if I
agree, pushing someone right in front of a speeding bus like that is not how
you handle that kind of dysfunction.
Clearly in an environment that demands high levels of team work and low
levels of ego, these two obviously don’t understand first impressions.
In the end, the obvious winning build was the devil prawn
and it was incredibly well earned with Josh’s molding of tin foil taking top
honors this week. As always the next
part is devastating for one hopeful as “Floyd” becomes just too “toonish” and
puts an actor at risk, which is one of the biggest sins of a creator. Thus with a heavy heart this week we say good
bye to Chaz but with a strong warning to Russ and Tina to shape up.
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