For those of you who don't know me that well, I'm a huge fan of the SyFy television series Face/Off,,which is a competition show that puts the best pro/am makeup artists against one-another for a chance to be the best of the best of prosthetics and movie makeup. I wish this show was on twelve years ago, because I would've done this for a major in college. This show alone will increase the amounts of people,that even think of working with visual effects, ushering a next generation of insane monsters, fantasy creatures, and film and 3-D animation.
This show is incredible,and I believe it's one of the best shows on television today. All these individuals are the best of the best, and they inspire so many young kids, because it's incredible what they can turn into reality with the power of movie magic. I always loved Science Fiction, especially advant-garde works that totally redefine the genre.
Face/Off, hosted by the beautiful, and talented Mckenzie Westmore, daughter of special effects makeup artist extraordinaire Michael Westmore, truly makes this show about the art, and not another fogey reality show. We don't see these people living and partying it up in a giant mansion, and a little bit of makeup work. Instead, we see a grueling day of hard work, frustration, and the reality of failure, nearly extinct on television. This show keeps the art and the science the focal point of the show. Sure, we do get to grow to respect, even cheer for certain contestants, but this show is all about the hard,work, not the reality show faux script that puts them in compromising positions, and doing asinine things while they're outside the lab, which makes this the only reality show I can stomach more than a season.
I love the show, and I love the people who can create such magnificent creatures and in such a ridiculously short amount of time. This proves that you can do fantastic work, and make it a serious competition, where only the best van compete on such an extreme level. I love how this show incorporates so many skills, and it shows that if you're dedicated enough, you can create spectacular art.
Mckenzie is joined weekly by three judges, and sometimes a special guest judge. The three main judges are Glen Hetrick, Ve Neil, and Nevill Page. These guys don't pull punches, and they are very experienced, and respect the work, mostly criticizing time management, and that makes it pretty obvious as to who's going home. I'm actually impressed at how well these guys actually judge, it is such a great job, compared to the rest of these shows where the judging seems as fake as a raggedy weave.
I love the show, I really do, and if I were talented, or skilled in this profession, I would try out for this show years ago. See,,that's why watching television today isn't a waste of time. I love these shows, they make you want to out new things,and it teaches you the basic words and phrases of the job. Face/Off could inspire more kids to take their natural talents, and put them to uses in ways that the public education system, and web searches are limited. This show could go on to be useful in potentially teaching students with form and structure.
Aside fromFace/Off, there are several great shows that teach you how to things, or how things are produced. Science channel has a great show called How it's Made,,which is one of those shows that is simple in concept, but never grows old, because how it intrigues people. The premise is simple: go into a factory, show a product made from early design until fabrication, and explain the history of the product, and how it is created in the modern world.
I don't mind watching shows that teach me a bit, and I wish there were more shows that teach, but they're not nearly enough people who are willing to watch that, instead they sit around drooling over piss-poor shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Granted, Honey Boo Boo can be considered entertaining, and I love the shock of seeing an average family on television for once, instead of a bunch of stuck-up rich kids that think the world should revolve around them....but The Learning Channel? Yeah...um, that is beyond even stupid hipster irony.
Whatever, just show me some awesome shows on how they encode video games, give stunning visions of the cosmos, and science that is both bizarre, and beautifully enlightening, and I'm hooked. I was always inquisitive, and most people need that still today, perhaps even more than I needed it in the past. Most kids don't need to study, they just look up the answers,,and once that fulfilled, they move on, and I cannot say this isn't just a sign of having unlimited knowledge in one's pockets, but we should try to entice thinking along with entertainment. Why should the two be separated? That never made sense to me, and I'm sure most Millennials, if you must label me one, I suppose that what I am, but they must see that we don't intentionally hate learning, it's just hard to pinpoint what is crucially viable to learn a certain trade.
So I love makeup art, I love the movie magic that entails every episode of a Face/Off. I've learned more about the makeup industry than I would ever have learned on my own, and I'm clearly entertained enough to keep coming back every season. Yet, does this mean I'll grow up to be a famous make-up artist? Does this mean I have natural talent? No, of course it doesn't! It does mean that I have an interest that normally would have never held my attention longer than May flie's lifespan. No, I think of shows like How it's Made, Face/Off, and now Cosmos: A Space Odyssey, are great ways to get the younger generation interested in Sciences. If shows like Cosmos was around back when I was fourteen, and shows like Jackass were nonexistent, I might've done more with my life.
So to all of you out there that think television is a waste of time, I say you're wrong. It's what you watch that determines of you're wasting your time, because remember that everyone who has a hit television show on today, or watches a reality show based in science and technology right now, both share the common interest of changing things in their life for the better, because they've found something that intrigues them to critically think, and learn.
I'd like to just add this one last touch: I believe deeply that intelligence is not just doing what you're told, but learning to go outside the curriculum in order to properly succeed in learning. So if television shows ( like the several mentioned above) are going to be compared to horrible reality shows that are dumber than watching rocks dry near a river's mouth, that is a bit closed-minded. The most dangerous thing that stifles learning is telling someone that there is only one right way to learn, and having zero tolerance towards any other medium. Are we to the point where film will replace books? Not in my lifetime, you'll more likely see professors using Call of Duty to teach the history of WWII before that day ever comes, and I hope that becomes the case. Technology can be used to harness it's power,to teach the masses, or to spittle out propaganda. Hopefully we will one day be smart enough to let the bullshit subside, and work together to help one-another without limitations.
Thank you for supporting the Malacast Editorial.
Twitter: twitter.com/mcasteditorial or @mcasteditorial to leave a message
E-mail: mcasteditorial@yahoo.com
Thanks again, and have a great day/evening/morning/night.
No comments:
Post a Comment