Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge (2014) s01e07 Episode Script

1 Previously on Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge One creature was particularly impressive, and that creature was designed by Melissa.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
Russ and Ben, the judges were least impressed with your creatures, and one of you will be eliminated tonight.
The eliminated creature designer is Russ.
This week on Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge This is beautiful Rygel.
I knew this was coming.
Your aliens have to travel incognito for their own protection.
I don't know how I'm gonna pull this off.
This is crazy.
And a special addition to our judging panel, Barry Sonnenfeld.
I wish that the reveal was more dramatic.
You can never add too much K-Y jelly to your alien.
Great advice.
This week the bar is set so high, and I'm so impressed by the creations that have come out of these people.
It's definitely a hard decision the judges have to make.
Cheerio.
Yeah.
- Ah.
- Oh, that's great.
I see the back of a very, very distinguishable alien head.
It's Rygel from Farscape.
Like, wha! You know, freak out.
No jokes.
Good morning, creature designers.
How are you this morning? - Good.
- Doing great.
And then there were four.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
Four of you are only one challenge away from being in the finale.
I'm sure you guys know this little man.
Yes.
I also have come to know him, in more ways than one, quite well.
Uh-huh.
This is beautiful Rygel.
He's one of the most infamous aliens of Farscape It's been so long.
- Or so he'd think so.
- Yeah.
The Jim Henson company made almost 100 episodes of Farscape, and it is definitely one of the shows that we are most proud of.
Rygel is here as inspiration for this week's challenge.
Your brief is to design and build a new alien life-form.
I knew this was coming.
I knew that we were gonna make an alien, and here it is, and I am so excited because aliens are awesome.
Your aliens are intergalactic diplomats who have to travel incognito for their own protection.
We want you to create an alien that has a large outer head that opens to reveal the inner head that is the true intelligent life-form.
Cool.
We have to make two creatures this challenge, and I don't know how we're all gonna do that.
Your aliens will be attending an intergalactic press conference.
Thousands of species have come together to hear a speech from these new creatures in their own language.
Wow.
Everything rests on this creature build, because only three of you will be going through to the final.
Hearing that there are four of us left and only three of us will be in the finale, I know that I'm feeling the pressure.
- This is an individual build.
- Oh.
But this week you will not be performing your own creatures.
You'll have three professional puppeteers to help you out at the screen test.
So we want to see a really clever transformation as your inner intelligent alien life-form is revealed.
We want you to fabricate the outer head that doesn't need to speak.
We want you to sculpt the inner head and add at least one element of mechanization.
You have a lot of work to do because the alien press conference is scheduled in three days.
So we'll see you then.
We've been doing three-day challenges to create one character, and now you have to create two.
And I don't know how I'm gonna pull this off.
This is this is crazy.
Your Creature Shop master this week is the Creature Shop's creative supervisor, Pete Brooke.
- Welcome back.
- Yeah.
- Hi, everyone.
- Hey, Pete.
As Brian mentioned, your inner heads are to be sculpted.
So you got until the end of today to finish that sculpture, and then our mold team are gonna work overnight to cast your final creation, all right? Oh, yeah.
- Good luck.
- See you in three days.
- Thank you so much.
- See you.
- Let's get to work, eh? - Oh, my God.
Looks like we're getting messy today, everybody.
Making it to the final four is huge for me, and being the youngest competitor, it's a really great self-confidence booster that I'm still here.
When we first started out the competition, I could have guessed at least Ben and Jake would be in the top, and Melissa has really surprised me each week.
And I'm super excited that she's here.
I'm proud to be a part of the final four.
It would be a dream come true, especially to work for Jim Henson, so it's all about keeping my eye on the prize.
Oh, I love yours.
- He's gonna be - he's gonna be cute once I start getting some stuff in there.
My inside creature I want him to be really old and kind of frail.
Like, there needs to be a reason why he's hiding in this big creature.
It's and it's because he can't defend himself, and that's what makes it so important for my creature to be well disguised.
I love white clay.
I think in the sculpting part of this, I'm the one to beat, because I sculpt aliens all the time.
It's my favorite thing to do.
It's easy for me.
I think I'm gonna make mine kind of dictator-ish Like, intergalactic mussolini.
The outer shell of my creature is disguised because he needs to get to this meeting safely and not have the other aliens try to kill him for blowing up their planets.
It's crazy to think how much work is left to do on this project after the sculpture is done.
God, don't say that.
I'm just kind of running through it in my head and crying a little bit.
Just thought I'd share the thought.
Last week was my first time on bottom, and, you know, it was a surprise to me.
I felt like I had a creature that looked really cool and was awesome, and it had me questioning myself a little bit my abilities and whatnot.
But this week, my inner character is kind of insectoid and all these spines all over him.
So he's very offensive-looking.
And I wanted to create the illusion that this alien has some kind of cool mechanical thing that actually allows him to create his disguise.
I was hating what I was doing earlier, and I'm just starting to like it.
I usually don't like my sculptures until the very end.
I automatically think, you know, regal.
That's kind of how I want to go with this creature.
There are really cool sculpts on every table in the shop today.
- It's great.
- Good job.
Ben has kind of a crustacean alien going on.
Robert's is kind of turtle-like, and Melissa has this very cute kind of chubby face going.
There are so many different possibilities, and everyone is utilizing a different one.
30 minutes left, guys.
- 30 minutes.
- Oh, crud.
This creature is really cool because it's gonna be sculpted out of clay, and they're gonna be giving us back a foam latex cast.
I'm so happy.
With foam latex, you get so much more movement and so much more translate, and it's really easy for your puppeteer to manipulate.
- Small eyes are the way to go.
- There's so much more room.
As soon as you get your cast foam latex back, it pays off to have your eye mechs done.
It would really suck to be eliminated this week.
There's only one more challenge left, you know, and then it's done.
My competitors better be doing a dang good job to make sure they beat me out in order to send me home.
It's time, guys.
The end of the day, and there's still so much to do.
The pressure's on.
We are all kind of a mess.
- Got a lot to do.
- Yeah.
- It's day two today.
- I'm done with my sculpt.
I'm done with my eye mechanisms.
I'm gonna pour all the time I can into creating the secondary shell that opens up to reveal my creature.
We've been provided a backpack.
The reason why it's beneficial to have this backpack is because you can bolt into it with aluminum flat bar or P.
V.
C.
Or whatever, and you can create a form that represents the creature that your actor can actually wear.
As always, there's something to tweak for the eyeballs, and I'm just connecting the lids and setting the bottom servo for the blinks.
Thanks.
Okay, guys, our heads are ready.
Should we go check 'em out? - Yeah.
- Sweet.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
- Yeah, this is good.
- Cool.
Head came out great.
It's a nice, thin skin, so it'll move good for the puppeteer.
Yeah, mine turned out pretty nice, I think.
They're pretty soft.
My biggest competition on this challenge, so far, it looks like Jake.
His sculpture is awesome.
He did a fantastic job on that sculpt.
It's a very cool, original character.
Building a creature within another creature is terrifying.
I'm choosing to go with a larger design so I have more room to incorporate movement and more space inside the head for the eye mechs.
Not only are we sculpting a head, there has to be one element of mech inside of it, then the whole thing has to get covered up by another head.
There is a lot of really tough, intricate elements to this challenge.
At this point, I'm just so stressed.
We're making stuff in three days that usually takes a month to do.
I just want to get through this.
Coming up on Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge How the hell did you do that? You're a good sculptor, Jake, but that's not the whole thing.
I want this job so bad.
I imagine you want to get through to the final.
- Yeah.
- Oh, no.
The judges' criteria this week is to create an original creature that is sculpted and mechanized inside and then another original creature that is fabricated on the outside that has to open up and reveal the inside creature.
So sca he looks so scary.
- I like it.
- Oh, cool.
It would definitely suck to go home this week.
I'm proud to be part of the final four.
I think they're all very talented people, and I really hope that I'm here for the final three.
Everybody else right now is putting their eye mechanisms into the head and whatnot.
I've done that.
We've done that a lot in other challenges, so I know how much time it takes, and I'm confident in it.
I haven't done this mechanism and created this head that comes apart.
So that's my focus at the moment.
I want to make sure I can figure that out because that is the top priority.
- It's ridiculous.
- It's so cool.
How the hell did you do that? This wire keeps all of 'em in, you know.
They're all spring-loaded, and then this goes up, and then I turn it here.
That's awesome.
I'm struggling hard, man.
Marklar.
That's crazy that you have that much done already.
Yeah, I haven't done anything else, though.
I still have to build the body and the costume and a completely other character, and all they have to mesh together and work.
The cool thing about the mouth is I sculpted it to be able to put each finger in a part of the mouth so that apart from this, you also get this kind of cool stuff, which is gonna be very insect-like.
I'm sculpting the palate for my creature.
That's the way I can get the most detail, and I want to have a pretty specific look to the inside of this creature's mouth and to his teeth.
30 minutes, guys.
30 minutes.
I have a lot to do detail-wise.
I just painted the outer shell of my alien head, and now I'm testing the movement on it and the mechanisms, and it doesn't work quite as well because the latex paint is sticking to the foam a little bit, you know, and so it doesn't want to open.
- That's it, guys.
- Time's up.
Let's get out of here.
I have no idea if my alien will work the way I want it to when other people are puppeteering it.
Okay, well, everything's still standing.
Yeah, that's a good sign.
Today is the last day of the challenge, and I wanted to have enough time today to troubleshoot the opening of the outer shell 'cause it's a lot that's happening, and I want to make sure it goes off without a hitch.
The judges are looking for a creative reveal.
They don't want to see just sort of an alien inside of an alien.
They want something more than that.
I want this job so bad.
I want to work here.
I want to work with this team and this crew and these amazing artists.
I am working a lot faster today than I have in the previous challenges.
I think it's just 'cause there's so much work, and looking at the clock and thinking, "oh, [Bleep.]
.
" - Hey, Peter, how are you? - Jake, how are you doing? - Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
Master sessions with Peter are always a really cool experience.
He is the man.
He does exactly what I want to do.
I'm interested to see what you've come up with, where you're deriving your inspiration from, like classic alien transformations.
My idea is that he's coming to this intergalactic conference and everything to announce which planets his race plans to destroy in the future.
Right, right.
I like the movement you've got going just by virtue of the fact that it's a foam skin.
I like the movement that you've got going in the upper and lower palate there.
That's quite nice.
You know, I mean, some of the best things I've seen are in films like Men in Black, for example.
Oh, of course, with the opening head and the little alien inside.
- I mean, just amazing.
- You know, and for the time I mean, when was that? '97, I think.
I mean, you must have been about four years old.
I was six, actually.
- Six.
- Six.
So how old are you now? I just turned 22 yesterday.
- Wow.
- Well, congratulations.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
- That's great.
When I started at The Henson company in the London Creature Shop, I was your age.
I would absolutely love to follow in those footsteps.
Obviously, you've got an innate talent for shape and form and so and so forth.
- Oh, thank you.
- That means a lot.
Yeah, well, you're a good sculptor, Jake, but that's not the whole thing, and once again, I'm just a bit nervous that you've got a lot of work to do, okay? Yeah, of course.
Challenge number seven, day three.
So how does the transformation how does this face link with this guy? Let me show you.
This is his suit that he's basically wearing, but the way it works is, this is on a pull cable that will lift up and out, and then there'll be a tie-down.
And you'll be able to see right into him, and you'll be able to see under here, and there'll be some nice detail and everything.
And then it'll come back down over his face.
And this is all gonna be spanned with some fabric and some skin and everything just to give it a little bit more of an organic look.
- All right, Jake.
- Are we man, are we gonna be able to see the alien in that? I imagine you want to get through to the final.
Yeah, that's very true.
There are four of us left, and only three of us will be in the finale.
Hearing these things from him isn't like hearing them from anyone else, and that's a little terrifying, and I'm not quite sure what to think about that.
Coming up on Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge - Paint it.
Paint it.
- Paint it.
Only three of us are gonna make it to the finale, and I have no idea what the judges will think.
It's tough to say who was the most successful and then who was the least successful because it gets down to real minutiae.
- Hey, Pete.
- How are you? - Doing good.
- Yeah? We are having our master session with Pete Brooke today.
He's the creative director of the Creature Shop.
So tell me what's going on.
Someone's coming to destroy his planet.
Right.
So he's coming up with a solution to get his people out.
Okay.
So then the head closes like that.
I was gonna have it a hand puppet, but even I was just trying to do just that without a puppet on my hand - It's tough, yeah.
- And it was killing me.
So I knew I couldn't have my performer do that.
The great innovation that Jim came up with was realizing the camera's the frame, and so Jim realized that that was all he needed to worry about.
And there's a reason that they puppeteer like this.
It's because it's infinitely better from a performer's point of view.
Doing this is a nightmare, you know.
And also, I know that the so what's the What was the solution? So what I did was I just put it on the run and then got it.
Okay, that's a great little creative solution.
And then I guess we just have to worry let's hope it doesn't wobble around like it looks like a head on a stick, you know.
Right, right.
I'm looking forward to it.
- Hi, Melissa.
- Hi, how's it going? Good.
So I'd like you to take me through how the transformation is gonna work Sure.
And how that kind of relates to the whole species.
This is a very small and slight species.
I wanted there to be motivation for him to have to hide, because he cannot defend himself.
Ah, good, so I can see that you've got a backpack - with the shape here - Yes.
Which is gonna be covered by the costume.
- Yes.
- Yeah, I got that.
Oh, my gosh.
Lots of lots of wardrobe.
I just hope you got enough time to pull it off.
So I think you got a good thing going, but you've got a lot of work to do.
Yes.
- You know.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
All right.
- Thank you so much.
See you, Melissa.
- Hey, Pete.
- Hey, Ben.
- How's it going? - I'm going doing well.
I'm glad you're in this challenge, 'cause you kind of nearly bit the dust last time.
- I know.
- How did that feel? - I was like, "whew!" - Really? It was a wake-up call.
You're super talented, but, I mean, one of the observations I've seen is that you are so talented, sometimes you kind of overachieve.
Yes.
Which, you know, can be a downfall, quite frankly.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you have to make sure that you at the very least give the client what they want.
Yes.
If you fail at giving them more than they want - Yeah, yeah.
- It's a failure.
I am an overachiever, and I'm just trying to do a step above and wow the judges, but it's possible that on all these challenges I could have just done what was required and done it really well and had a better outcome possibly.
I know that the main criteria was a clever transformation.
Right.
And I really wanted to do something cool with that.
This is how it's revealed.
Oh, wow.
Well, look at you.
Okay.
- This won't - this won't do that.
This kind of got tangled there.
Wouldn't you know it, the only time it ever messes up is when Pete sees it happen.
Tomorrow morning when we're at the screen test, the last thing you want to happen is for what just happened now, because if you're at the bottom this time around, I mean, that's it.
Dude, I'm freaking.
There's not many hours left on this build, and I still have to paint the inner creature.
I have to finish painting the outer creature.
I have to do all the costuming.
I think we're all just working double time.
One hour left, guys.
One hour.
Only three of us are gonna make it to the finale, and, you know, maybe earlier, I would have been a little more confident, but after the way things have been going, I have no idea what the judges will think.
If I had time, I would totally attach this somehow.
Let's see what I can let's see what I can do.
Paint it.
Paint it.
Paint it.
Five minutes left.
Five minutes.
Paint it.
Okay, guys, so your time is now up.
- Time's up.
- Ah! So it's time to pack up your creatures, and good luck for the screen test tomorrow.
- Good to see you.
- Nice to meet you, man.
- I can see your creature here.
- This is amazing.
Yeah, this is my alien.
It's the day of the screen test.
I don't know how I feel.
I know I haven't put as much detailing as Robert, my sculpt is not as amazing as Jake's, and I don't have a crazy mech like freaking Ben.
This determines who's going to the finale.
So the creature brief was basically to create a creature inside of a creature and one that transforms.
You know, so they come out as one creature, and it transforms and turns into this other one.
We have three puppeteers this week, and the first one will be operating the actual head, and the second one will be controlling the shell mechanism.
The third one will be on radio control.
In master session, everything Pete was like, "if this doesn't work, your whole creature goes to [Bleep.]
.
" Love how the whole eye socket moves - yeah, that is - that's great.
Being the only one in the final four that has not won a challenge definitely puts me at a disadvantage, but I feel good this week.
I'm really happy with the piece that I produced, and I have a good feeling about this one.
Do you want to do the head back here, and then we can do the walk on? - Oh, sure.
- Okay.
This is the first time that I'm actually gonna test this thing.
I'm just hoping that it's lightweight, it's balanced correctly, and that he'll be able to perform in it and not hurt hisself or break anything.
So I'm I have my fingers crossed.
Love it.
When you only have 30 minutes of rehearsal time with your performer oh, gosh.
I like it.
So start squatting with your legs wide.
Pete, in the master session, mentioned that I'm an overachiever, and it's true.
But just be real careful, 'cause if the head falls, it's done.
If it works, it's high reward, but if the reveal of my creature fails, I'm done.
Creature designers, welcome back to The Henson sound stage.
This week's creature brief was to create an original alien species that transforms and reveals an intelligent inner life-form that makes a speech at an intergalactic press conference.
We can't wait to see your performances tonight, but first, let's meet our judges.
A creature fabricator whose work covers franchises Jurassic Park, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Walking Dead, Beth Hathaway.
A creature designer and director who's worked on creations that have been featured in Star Wars Return of The Jedi, Gremlins, and perhaps the best-loved alien of all, E.
T.
, Kirk Thatcher.
Oh, please.
And a special addition to our judging panel.
We're honored to be joined by one of Hollywood's biggest names as this week's guest judge.
His directing credits include The Addams Family, Get Shorty, and Men in Black.
Please welcome producer-director Barry Sonnenfeld.
Hi, hi.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And, of course, chairman of The Henson company and head judge, Brian Henson.
- Hi, guys.
- Hey.
So first of all, I just want to say we are so honored, Barry, to have you here on the show with us.
I have to say I think you are the best director of directing creatures and comedy and Yeah, go on.
You are a hero of mine.
And when it comes to this particular challenge of doing aliens inside of aliens, you are the God.
I'm really thrilled to be here, and I'm looking forward to what you guys are gonna do tonight.
I was about six years old when Men in Black came out, and seeing that movie so young was a huge influence to me.
I was definitely the kid in school that drew aliens in his notebook all day.
The aliens are gathering for the press conference.
Please take your seats.
- Good luck, guys.
- Good luck.
Good luck.
Melissa screen test, take one.
Action, door.
Action, creature.
And it's a cut.
Thank you, Melissa.
That was a great screen test.
Can you tell us about your creature, please? This is my outer creature, and he's a big, bad, ugly, slimy dude that you would not want to run into, and that's very important for my inner intelligent creature because he's more of a peaceful type of creature.
Are we gonna open him back up again, or is he just gonna - Yes.
- Aw.
So this is Basithe.
First thing I'll say, Melissa, is I like the sculpture.
- Thank you.
- He has very soft eyes.
I would like to see just a little bit more neck or something going on in there.
Sure, you can raise him out pretty well.
- Just a little bit.
- Yeah, look at that.
Okay.
The one thing that bothered me a little bit is just that kind of floating head.
- You know what I mean? - Gotcha.
It doesn't look like there's a body there.
It's sort of a floating head in, like, a black void.
I might have put a little shoulders or something to kind of sell it that it's not just a floating head.
One thing that's true with puppeteers no matter how good they are, they're concentrating on what the head and neck does, and if you don't control their elbow, they can't create that illusion of connection with the body.
Usually, there's a strap somewhere or something Oh, okay.
That is constraining their arm so that that illusion of connection isn't an illusion - Okay.
- So it's real.
'Cause you've strapped it inside, so if they move the neck too far, the body is gonna react, and it creates that connection.
Yeah.
No, that makes sense.
First of all, Melissa, and to all the contestants, I am so amazed at how much work you can do in such a little amount of time.
Thank you.
For us on the Men in Black movies, that would represent five months.
So that's just shocking to me how much work you can do.
And I also really love where the head opened.
I expected it to open at a different place, so that was a real surprise for me.
So I thought that was great.
- Thank you.
- Terrific work.
Thank you very, very much, all of you.
Thanks, Melissa.
Ben screen test, take one.
Ben, can you please tell us about your creature? - Sure.
- This is King Karg.
He is the ruler of the Kargonians from the planet Kargon.
He's taken it upon himself to create a mechanical head covering so that he can maintain anonymity because his planet was under attack recently.
Well, first off, I loved the reveal.
I just saw that head.
I'm like, "is it just gonna come up?" And then the way it just unfolded like a puzzle, you know, and it came apart just, like, wow.
So I thought that was really fun.
I think this is a really cool character, Ben.
You did a really nice job on him.
Thank you.
I would like to have seen just a little bit more something going on around here in the neck.
It just kind of looks like loose fabric there.
Here? Just a little more detail or something - Yeah.
- But nice job.
I would too.
Well, yeah, if give him another five months, imagine what he would have done.
I mean, first of all, I thought, Ben, your reveal was fantastic.
Thank you.
I also loved the eyes becoming shoulder pads.
I also loved that the back hood rotated 180 degrees and kind of disappeared, so I thought the reveal was great.
It's so impressive.
- I love the finger mouth.
- Thank you.
And the transition opening very impressive.
Creature inside very impressive.
The fabricated outer head is possibly to me the weakest point on your creature.
When the creature first approached the mic stands, it wasn't as impressive as it could have been.
Yeah, I agree.
But you painted these eyes, right? These are not off the shelf? - No, I painted them.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
I really, really like the eyes.
Thank you very much.
Jake screen test, take one.
This is one of those screen tests that I'm super nervous about.
The bar is set so high in this competition at this point.
Everyone's aliens are really pushed to the limit.
But, at the same time, only three of us can go to the finale.
We are not making it easy for the judges.
Jake, screen test take one.
And cut.
Jake, can you please tell us a bit about your creature? My creature's name is high warlord Abiden, and he is coming to this international conference of aliens to announce the planets that his race plans to destroy in the near future.
Are you gonna open him back up again while we're here? - Yeah, I can open him up.
- There we go.
The eyes close really nicely.
I would like to have seen a little bit more color in there just to see it pop a little bit more, but they're very cool.
Thank you.
I wish that the reveal was more dramatic.
Mm-hmm.
I also think if you add more oil or shine to it, all those specular highlights would really help you.
Right, right.
You can never add too much k-y jelly to your alien.
Great advice.
The thing I really loved about your guy was the mouth.
You know, it's got that great, creepy villain with the wet mouth, like a James Bond villain who's eating, like, figs, you know.
You're just like, "oh, that mouth is just so creepy.
" And movement is so important, particularly with a villain if he's got a lot of dialogue.
And I think you really nailed that.
Thank you.
I have to say, I loved how big the head was when it came out.
Oh, thank you.
Now, a creature that first comes in there needed to be a little bit more going on 'cause the shape is very simple, you know.
Aspects of the transformation, maybe not as strong.
Other aspects, very strong.
Thank you.
Robert screen test, take one.
Cheerio.
And that's a cut.
Cut.
Robert, can you please tell us about your creature? His name is Reginald.
And he opens like this.
And he has come to this council, and he has a plan to destroy Jake's character.
Well, when he first came out, I loved your exterior head, and then your inside head shows up, and my note was, "looks like Grinch and E.
T.
had a baby," which is good.
That screams alien to me.
There's something about the eyes a bit of a dead expression, kind of looked a little stare-y.
You know, I have to disagree with you about the eyes.
- You have to? - I must.
I feel I must.
I just think they go with the overall look, you know.
Robert, you're very strong at creating interesting characters, and I think this guy's no exception.
- Thank you.
- I like him.
Having done three Men in Black movies and worked with Rick Baker to try to create all these aliens, I'm always saying to Rick, you know, "why do we draw them with, like, eyes and a mouth?" And, you know, "if they were real aliens, how do we know that they wouldn't have any eyes or mouths?" And, you know, so Rick says, "great," and he goes back, and he draws me these great aliens.
And I go, "well, that's great, but without eyes, how do I know where they're looking?" He goes, "all right, I'll give you some eyes.
" And then I go, "well, without a mouth, how do we know they're speak" "all right, I'll draw you a mouth.
" So when you came out with this coconut-walnut thing, I loved it, because to me, that's what an alien would look like.
I thought he was fantastic.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
This creature requires a film that has a certain amount of style to allow the audience to accept this creature.
Right.
But once they've done that, you have a creature that is camera-ready.
For a creature to be camera-ready, it means that the camera can zoom in on any part of the creature.
There's not gonna be a bare spot of paint, or a fabric isn't gonna be ripped or anything like that.
So the fact that he says it's camera-ready, that's a big compliment.
- Thank you, Robert.
- Thank you.
Creature designers, tonight the judges must make the most important decision that they've made in the competition so far.
You've done so well to make it this far, but now you must sweat it out in The Henson screening room.
We'll call you back soon.
Thank you.
Thanks, guys.
So initially, when we first set up this challenge, we thought, "can they really do this?" "Can an individual artist really make a creature that opens up to reveal one inside in three days?" Really impressive what they've done.
I'd say all four creatures I found very impressive.
Yeah, I'm amazed.
I wouldn't say there's a loser tonight, so we're going to have to decide which was the most impressive and which was the least impressive in a field of very impressive creatures.
- And that's gonna be hard.
- Yeah.
But let's start with Melissa's creature.
The outer head I thought that, when it stepped up to the mic, - it was very impressive.
- Mm-hmm.
I also was impressed where the break was.
It's not where I expected it.
I find that amusing and surprising.
- And that was part - a big part of the challenge was, is it a creative, original, surprising reveal? And I think she nailed that.
Considering that Melissa was not even mechanizing eyes two weeks ago, Melissa's eye mechanism worked well tonight.
The best way to learn is by doing, and clearly, she has gotten stronger and stronger, and now she wears many hats.
She's not just a fabricator.
All righty, Ben's creature.
You know, for me, Ben's creature was everything that the assignment was.
I thought the reveal was fantastic.
I personally love the genius of painting and fabricating the fingers to look like teeth, which let him sneer occasionally.
And I thought it was a home run.
To me, what he really nailed were those eyes.
When that guy was looking around, I did not see a puppet.
I didn't see an R.
C.
Rig.
I saw a character looking around the room.
His eyes were looking up and down and right and left.
- Oh, and blinking.
- And blinking.
And he decided to do it on an individual challenge when he had three days to make two creatures.
- Yeah.
- Yep, very ballsy.
And it really worked.
I mean, he had he had an eye mechanism that you could totally put on camera in a movie.
Yeah.
Let's go on to Jake's creature.
I was more impressed with Jake's creature when we were talking to Jake.
I think he talked a better alien than I saw, actually.
Right.
I think the thing he did not do well was the reveal.
- Yeah.
- Just a hinge popping up? I thought, "really?" And it looked like plastic on the inside.
- Yeah.
- To me, it did.
The first half of the transition is not strong, the door opening up.
The big head coming out is kind of, "whoa.
All that was in there?" Yeah.
I felt his sculpture was pretty darn good.
It had a beautiful eye mechanism, but the way he had painted the face basically hid it.
You know, he kind of shot himself in the foot with doubling down on dark and dark.
I wish he'd had pupils that focused or even were really black and shiny and then lighter eyes, because once it was closer in the Q&A, you're like, "wow, those are amazing.
" So let's talk about Robert's creature.
I'm always trying to find aliens that don't look like humans, you know, and that thing was great.
It had too many eyes.
It had teeth that went the wrong way.
Every part of it was finished off.
There wasn't any flaws that I went, "oh, why didn't you do this or that?" - It was camera-ready.
- Yeah.
For the right production, it was camera-ready.
This is gonna be interesting.
It's tough to say who, you know, was the most successful and then on the other side, who was the least successful, because it gets down to real minutiae.
Creature designers, only three of you will move one step closer to the grand prize of a full-time job here at the Creature Shop.
It's time to find out who this week's winner is and who has earned their place in the grand finale.
Creature designers, it's time to find out who this week's winner is and who has earned their place in the grand finale.
Brian? One creature was particularly impressive in how ambitious it was.
The plan was executed very well in building the creature.
The transformation was particularly mind-blowing.
That creature was designed by Ben.
- Congratulations, Ben.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Congratulations, Ben.
We'll see you next week for the finale.
It's an amazing feeling.
I've been through so much, and now, I'm gonna be in the finale, you know.
I feel like I have a good chance of taking home the job and the money.
I can see it at the end of the tunnel.
Melissa, Jake, and Robert, one of you has earned the next place in the grand finale.
The next creature had a really fantastic initial impact, had a very strong transformation, but particularly, we were impressed with the finishing and detailing.
That creature was designed by Robert.
Thank you guys so much.
- Good work.
- Good job.
Congratulations, Robert.
We'll see you next week for the finale.
- I've made it to the finale.
- Top three.
I'm gonna work my ass off, and I'm gonna win this thing.
There's only one place left in the finale, but two creature designers remain.
Melissa and Jake, one of you has earned that place, and the other will be eliminated tonight.
The next creature whose designer will go forward had an outer head that was very impressively fabricated.
The transformation was very strong and unexpected.
And that creature was designed By Melissa.
Thank you.
That means, Melissa, you're in the finale, and we'll see you next week.
- Thank you very, very much.
- Thank you.
You can return to the screening room.
To be in the final three and to duke it out with these boys, like Bring it on.
Jake, your creature was excellent.
All four of them were excellent.
Yeah, I don't envy your decision this week.
That could not have been easy.
They were all so cool.
We have been so impressed with your growth as an artist - Thank you.
- Over the last seven weeks.
You're a very, very talented guy, and thank you so much for being part of this.
Thank you guys so much for the opportunity.
- It's been so much fun.
- Bye, darling.
- Thank you guys so much.
- Take care, Jake.
It's been the experience of a lifetime, and I'm really proud of myself and the work that I've done.
No.
It's so crazy that I even made it this far into this competition.
Oh, this is the coolest thing I've ever done in my life, and I could never ask to do it with cooler people.
This has been a great vehicle to push me even harder as an artist and to get me in the mind-set that I need to do this professionally.
I'm gonna definitely finish school and just keep doing what I love and keep making monsters and designing creatures, and so Can only go up from here.