Cycle 10, Episode #13 Season Finale of America's Next Top Model:
After a few quick clips of each of the models talking about how close they now are to winning, the first challenge gets underway: a Covergirl commercial being shot just outside the Colosseum in Rome. The models were given the script a day ahead of time and it is in English, so delivering the lines should be a piece of cake compared with their last commercial. Saleisha, winner of Cycle 9, is back (complete with that same bad haircut) to help coach the models of this season. As the models prepare in hair and makeup, Anya breaks down crying. Clearly, she is feeling the pressure of her last commercial filming attempt.
The commercial is filmed with the models performing relatively well. Fatima has the words memorized, but is rushed and robotic in their delivery. Whitney has the words mostly memorized, but is uneven in her delivery: pausing at the wrong times as she struggles to remember the script. Anya has ‘wonderful energy’, but can’t gather up her annunciation well enough to deliver the lines in an intelligible manner.
After the commercial, each model does a photo shoot for Covergirl as well. The winner will have this photo appear in Times Square. All of the models mention to the camera that they represent the widest range of women and are the most relatable to those women. Hmmm, almost as if this is what they were instructed on what would be the criteria for picking the winner of the show.
---------------------------------------- Next up is the first judging panel of this episode. Each model is shown their best commercial take and their best photo from the shoot in front of the judges.
Whitney: no one seems to like the commercial much: too fake and too beauty queen. They do like the photo, however. I didn’t like the photo at all. Her mouth looked like it had been photo-shopped in from another image.
Fatima: No one really liked this commercial either, saying that Fatima was too rushed and that she was over thinking the words rather than making them believable. The judges did like the photo, however. I thought the photo was much better than the other models’ and that this was the only photo of the three that would work in an actual print ad campaign.
Anya: Tyra called Anya’s commercial a ‘train wreck’, but also said that it was the best commercial of the three. The judges felt that even though she failed in her delivery of the lines and was really hard to watch because she was so bad, that her commercial seemed the most real and the most believable. The judges didn’t like her photo. The photo chosen had Anya looking up at the top of her own head and was not a good photo at all.
---------------------------------------- The judges then deliberate and do the first call out to eliminate one of the three models.
Anya is called first: a sigh of relief for Anya after performing so poorly in the commercial and in the photo. Real feeling or not, it would be hard for an ad agency to snip together 30 one second segments of Anya and still make the resulting commercial flow normally. Anya skated through this elimination based upon her prior good work because her performance in this round was dreadful.
Whitney is called second: The judges all sense that Whitney is not a beautiful person on the inside, but they like what they see on the surface.
Fatima is eliminated: Paulina stated that she would make a wonderful print model, but the judges didn’t feel that she took direction well enough to be a ‘Top model’.
---------------------------------------- The next task is for the remaining two models to have the photo taken by Nigel Barker for the July issue of Seventeen Magazine. Once again, Seventeen Magazine editor, Ann Shoket, is on hand to oversee the photo shoot. No matter what else goes on with ANTM, the Seventeen Magazine people are always very professional and very detail oriented in making sure that the product they end up with is of quality.
After the photo shoot, Whitney and Anya are off to the final runway show. Again, Saleisha joins them and the clothing they will model is from Versace. From what we see, each model goes down the runway in two different outfits (more outfits may have been edited out of the show, though). There are also a bunch of other models, including a number of male models to represent why this show would never work with a male cast. Whitney: Seeing her on the runway makes it all too obvious that full-sized models are not the runway norm. Whitney simply looks silly out there with the other models. She sways her hips like a little kid pretending to be ‘sexy’ and she looks twice as big as the rest of the models. Anya: Seeing Anya out there one has to wonder where all her bounding energy went. She is subdued the entire time and the makeup (the lipstick in particular) does not compliment her face for a runway look. She came off as very professional, but also very forgettable.
---------------------------------------- Again the judges deliberate and this time they are deciding which model will be the winner of Cycle 10.
Paulina says that Whitney is the one you want in the bedroom, but that Anya is the one you would buy a dress from. Tyra claims that each of the two models represents women out there that have not been represented in past cycles of ANTM.
All the votes are in and, without much fanfare, Whitney is declared the winner of Cycle 10 of America’s Next Top model!
I know the show is trying to make a statement on women’s health, just as some European countries are trying to regulate the modeling industry for the women’s body mass. I know that teaching young girls that there is nothing wrong with being a size 12 makes sense since most of them will grow up to be at least that big. Still, setting the lessons aside, Whitney is not a nice human being at all and as such won’t make a good representative for the show unless she can be heavily coached to change her attitude towards others and to remove the chip on her shoulder towards thin people. She will never be a runway model or a TV commercial model. So, they just picked a ‘top model’ that will be limited to print work – commercial print work.
Side note 1: Next season (if Tyra is really interested in picking a winner that represents a style of woman that hasn’t been represented in the past by this show) how about picking a tall, thin, intelligent, and articulate woman. Just once, give the fans the total package. This show needs to find a model that can take great pictures, follow directions, speak on camera, and walk a runway without falling over. There must be another Paulina Porizkova type out there waiting to be discovered. This show needs to bypass the minority/health/underdog/etc… issues and make a real effort to go out there and find a ‘top model’.
Side note 2: America’s Next Top Model should have a reunion show where all the models get together and talk about their experience. Survivor did their end of season show this past Sunday I couldn’t help but think that ANTM needs to do something similar.
No, Whitney is not the best person to represent the first Plus-Sized ANTM winner, but then again we haven't seen a good winner out of any of these contestants. Dominique looked too old. Fatima looked terrible without make-up. Anya didn't have a clue. Claire was too lactating. Lauren couldn't act. Stacey Ann appeared too fake. Katarzyna...had a name Tyra couldn't pronounce.
Whitney wasn't the best plus-sized in the history of the show, that was Toccara. Whitney obviously shows more than a few scars and resentsments from the way she was treated in the past. And the judges going back and forth in the show didn't help her either.
At the end after the judging and before the reveal, I wondered how each of them would do if they lost. Anya would find work anywhere and be happy and energetic, even if she was wearing Prarie Dresses for Modern Polygamist Weekly. Whitney is the one who would benefit from winning this.
So I'm fine with Whitney winning it. Better than Salisha.
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Posts: 516 | Location: Seattle | Registered: 16 March 2007
Originally posted by Elvis Bus: Katarzyna...had a name Tyra couldn't pronounce.
Speaking of which, if Tyra is going to claim that each season has to have a winner that has been unrepresented in the past, I hope next season's winner is 'the smart model'. Every season Tyra has some reason to claim that these Ivy League beauties 'overthink' their modeling, but it really is just a silly excuse. I'd be fine with the next 'quota win' going to the model with the brain.
It's NOT supposed to be a quota/message-sender, but inevitably, Tyra seems to let it out. What I would like is for this show to get back to real roots. More Modelling tips, less manufactured Drama.
I know, there's no chance of that!
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Posts: 516 | Location: Seattle | Registered: 16 March 2007
Originally posted by Elvis Bus: It's NOT supposed to be a quota/message-sender,
Sure it is. The primary goal of the show has always been to 'help' young women with their self esteem, not to find a 'top model'.
quote:
What I would like is for this show to get back to real roots. More Modelling tips, less manufactured Drama.
I agree. The best parts of the show are the ones that discuss the process of putting together a photo shoot that results in a useable end product, the parts of the show that discuss hair/makeup/lighting/walking/posture/speaking/etc... are all more interesting than the 'illness', fighting, and crying issues.
Sure it is. The primary goal of the show has always been to 'help' young women with their self esteem, not to find a 'top model'.
And here I thought the primary goal was to massage Tyra's massive ego! Note the Mona Lisa 'Tyra Mail'.
Although now I wonder if we'll ever see Paulina Poriskova as a judge again. She contradicted her Tyra-ness a couple of times.
quote:
The best parts of the show are the ones that discuss the process of putting together a photo shoot that results in a useable end product, the parts of the show that discuss hair/makeup/lighting/walking/posture/speaking/etc... are all more interesting than the 'illness', fighting, and crying issues.
There are inevitable comparisons to Make Me a Supermodel here. MMAS did show more about the biz, but only in the first few episodes and then seemed ot drift into Brommie and Britney's BF territory by the end. I recall that the first couple of Cycles had a lot of tips, but now it's become a mess of "who cares?"
Speaking of which, when they went back through the old photos, I saw that water panel that Claire did a face plant in and that was one idea which really did not work AT ALL. You had to put your face right up to the ground to show it, and it was still obscured. It made me wonder how many trying photo shoots are made that disappear like soap bubble.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Elvis Bus,
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Posts: 516 | Location: Seattle | Registered: 16 March 2007
Originally posted by Elvis Bus: Although now I wonder if we'll ever see Paulina Poriskova as a judge again. She contradicted her Tyra-ness a couple of times.
I think she might be being groomed to take over as host.
quote:
Speaking of which, when they went back through the old photos, I saw that water panel that Claire did a face plant in and that was one idea which really did not work AT ALL.
I agree that that concept did not work at all. The best this season were the photoshoots of the paint spatters and of the 'music genres'.
