Episode Recap: Movie Magic - Part 1

"Make every monster! Mold high and low. Blend all your edges! 'Til they glow." This is what the finalists sing on the morning before the final challenge (to the tune of "Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music, for those of you not familiar with SFX makeup artist traditions). And when they see their loved ones on the ginormous TV screen in the house, those folks start singing along. Or in Ben's case, his dog Quincy howls along. It's the kind of big musical number that they really need to get them motivated and focused on the days ahead.

McKenzie waits in the lab with only a film crew surrounding her, and, per tradition, she is not singing, though the challenge she gives the finalists is music to their ears (Eh? Eh?): each of them will be creating two characters for a short film directed by none other than concept designer/director/dreamboat Patrick Tatopoulos. He'll offer guidance with their concepts and give them feedback after a screen test, then they'll rework the characters and shoot the films. The stakes are high, but OH MY GOD THEY GET TO MAKE A MOVIE WITH PATRICK TATOPOULOS. It's pretty exciting. And some of the former Face Off artists from this season are coming back to help them out, yay!

Nora, working with Jasmine and Meg, creates a hunter and a wanderer for the movie they've been assigned, The Prey. Midway through the sculpting process, Nora has her clockwork freakout that the face sculpt isn't good enough, but she doesn't have enough time to start over; she has to trust that her ideas are good and she knows what she's doing. This little act of faith pays off –- Patrick loves her work! He suggests she punch up the paint jobs, but it's going to be a fairly chill reworking session ... hallelujah!

Ben is experiencing a minor miracle of his own –- he and his team (Jordan and Scott) went into Last Looks with not a drop of paint on either of their characters and managed to turn out two killer makeups. Patrick notes that the eyes of the creature in their film, Resurrection, are too deep-set to be expressive (and there's a huge unfinished patch on its back), but he digs the overall aesthetic.

Evan isn't feeling super-confident about his sculpt for the movie he's been assigned, Quarantine Zone and Patrick offers heaps of notes on how to make the two characters more cohesive. It's good stuff but it means a lot of work, and when the finalists meet up with McKenzie, they see that it's going to be even more … as anyone who worked on Men in Black 3 can tell you, changes on set can come up at any time. The script might now even have a third character –- and that's exactly the case for each of the short films! What a twist!