trojan & PDC's AusNTM Rankdown! (#22 REVEALED! NOMS OPEN!)

[PDC]

Yeah I'm out at dinner rn (FML they only have risotto with too much seafood or mushrooms. I love risotto <\3) and ofc I haven't watched Top Model yet binch!

Chat when we are both home

[trojansoldier]

Before I start talking about Izzy, I want to say that it is very clear to me that PDC is going to use her Sarah Murdoch Save on her, which would, in theory, make anything I say here redundant. But, given that I have the opportunity to say a few things about Izzy at this moment before she is sent into Cycle 7 (deservedly so I might add), let's discuss the many varied and mixed feelings I have had about Izzy during and since her time on the show.

I've talked a little about how I see repeated storylines in the history of AusNTM and how that each attempt to go back to the well on a certain "type" of story by the producers has had a diminishing return. I've always kinda rolled my eyes at Survivor fans with their EDGIC stuff but I can definitely appreciate how the editing of reality tv is carefully crafted to tell a self-contained story within each episode and, hopefully, also a season long story arc culminating in the winner having been on some sort of journey, overcome a set of obstacles and achieved their goal through hard work and determination. Usually, I can see what is coming next based on certain cues in the episodes or pick up on small details like "wearing headwear in confessionals suddenly = makeover episode" (except for the current cycle of ANTM which is fucking ALL over the place and messy as fuck in its storytelling).

So, with Izzy, it was clear to me, or so I thought, at first, that her story was going to be "square peg in round hole". She was that girl who stood out as strikingly beautiful but would ultimately give the producers their "out" when they wanted to pull the plug on her because she was too "different", "non-commercial", "niche" or would "have a bad attitude" or be "non-conformist". She was meant to draw a fan base who would faithfully believe in her because she was something different, unique and visually striking with her pink hair and her punk-rock 'tude but anyone who still considered AusNTM a "legitimate" modelling competition was meant to be slightly bemused by her, consider her a novelty and then slowly roll their eyes at the thought of her actually being a contender to win. To win, the square peg is supposed to round off all of the edges, fit into the round hole - the implication is that
it is the peg that needs to change to fit the hole, the hole is the perfect shape.

Izzy is the closest anyone has ever been to forcing the round hole to turn square.



That isn't to say there wasn't some degree of rounding off the edges during Izzy's time on the show - her transformation from pink and blue haired anime character to a more sophisticated mono-auburn looked demonstrated her true versatile potential and her attitude slowly morphed from having a slightly resentful, bitter tone to actually being somewhat light-hearted as the cycle progressed also. Usually, when a girl shows up in the casting
episode and is "pink and blue hair punk girl" it makes you very hesitant to put and real stock into them as a competitor because, ordinarily, gimmick characters underperform and end up burning out once their gimmick runs it course. But not Izzy. She compromised in the ways that the competition required but also retained the majority of her bad-ass, don't fuck with me attitude and managed to meld the two into a formula for successs.



However, for as well as she did consistently (Izzy's first time in the bottom two was episode 10 - the episode she was eliminated in), she was also routinely robbed of a first call-out spot, which, upon reflection, was a pretty good signifier of where the judges saw her. She over exceeded everyone's expectations, meaning there was no justifiable time to cut her and yet they didn't want to give anyone the impression she was a front-runner at any time
so they kept her shut-out from the top spot despite being consistently praised each and every episode until her bullshit elimination.

Yeah, episode 10 - the Short Stack episode. You know what? Since I'm 99.9% sure we'll be seeing Izzy again later in the competition I'm gonna leave myself some wiggle room in case I have to speak about her again in detail because I think episode 10 was the point in cycle 7 where the producers made it clear who the chosen one was and who needed to be neatly shuffled off for "reasons".




Make no mistake, model vs model I think Montana wins 9/10 times. Sometimes Izzy can look like she belongs on promo posters for club nights playing goth/industrial edm and even her most commercial looks still retain a level of "niche" to them but she has the emotional connection to the camera and a versatile, interesting enough look that allows stylists to go to town and know that she will be a living canvas so, for now, we won't say goodbye, but "see you again soon".





Numbers Chosen:


Numbers Eliminated:


Numbers Saved:
[/center]

So, back to PDC now - it's clear we're down to only a handful of buffer models left and some tough choices are coming up! Let's get some nominees her way and avoid that randomiser button!

[PDC]

OH. MY. GOD.

my jaw DID drop. It is on the floor! That is AMAZING <3

[trojansoldier]

ummmmm... and my write-up? Did it not surprise you how much of a scathing bitch I was NOT?

[PDC]

[trojansoldier]

[trojansoldier]

PDC you can now hit the button at any time!!

[PDC]

tbh prolly gonna do it in another 12 hours (am busy 2day) so people have time : P

[trojansoldier]

Nobody is nominating :'(

The one time a ranking/rankdown might actually get completed too....

[PDC]

ugh random.org gon' be da real mvp =[

[PDC]

[PDC]

coming up :)

[PDC]

[/color]

[Gigica123]

aww ya are so cute with your 'i will chat later' posts. BFF goals right there <3

I will TRY to nominate as much as I can for you guys.

oh and um Rebecca is so not getting cut I'm guessing

[PDC]

Unlike what gigica thinks, this wasn't actually an obvious cut - my original default choice was to cut Rebecca for a number of reasons. For one, she's a little bitch from cycle 4 who was one of Demelza's lackeys, and secondly, Neo is an African queen and I have already proven my love of keeping racially diverse girls in the game (not that Rebecca isn't non-white, but yeah). However, looking at their time on the show and their post-show work, one girl clearly has a better story and career than the other.... and unfortunately the winner of that head to head wasn't Neo I'm not so invested in her as to keep her for ~reasons~ like I am with Laura M so sorry Neo boo.

So who is Neo? If you wanted to be kind of racist about it, you'd say she was the significantly less talented Duckie. If not, you'd say she was a girl who got a pretty standard "African girl take out the weave/wig, your natural near-bald head is perfect!" storyline. To be fair to her, the transformation was insane and for the better (for once) but it didn't really help her out for very long in the competition. I'll go into more detail about this though.

The first episode featured this pretty heavily (with like 100 girls in the episode, that says a lot) - they even dedicated a segment to her pulling off her wig during the photoshoot, as if to show she was empowered or something:



I see what they're going for but it's just super cringe.

What they showed us viewers as the final result was this before/after:



Which, to be fair, is insanely fierce - is Neo going to be a contender?!! Are we finally getting a non-white goddess on this show?! At this point I got kind of excited in fact - AusNTM does seem to have a reputation as being one of the more legitimate Top Model franchises (since the winners and a huge number of contestants usually, y'know... model after the show) but one thing you would never accuse it of is being too racially diverse. The cast is usually so white-washed that the single African is someone you watch, and Laura M - the only girl who actually looked Asian ever in the show - is someone I hold near and dear. Cycle 8 was INTENSE with an African girl and an Indian/Fijian girl BOTH IN THE FINAL 3!!! But of course, Australia is still kind of racist and voted for the obviously undeserving alien white chick instead of the clear glamazon perfect specimens next to her.

Back to Neo - so here we are, cycle 7 - the second ever African on the show, since like cycle 1 or something, and she is... fierce?! YASSS. So we're treated to this shot the next episode which for some bullshit reason doesn't earn her the first call-out:




Next episode her photo I wasn't a huge fan of:




But the judges LOVED it so woo go Neo! Following this, in episode 3, we get a backstory for Neo - she is a Sudanese refugee. Usually this is a kiss of death and it probably should have set alarm bells ringing but she was doing so great, it couldn't possible go sour, right? So what happens is they have to pose in coffins and try and be Lady Gaga-esque. idek. Neo finds it confronting given her past, and then something ridiculous happens. When writing about Duckie, I mentioned them making her rock the near-bald look and then chucking a wig on her for a number of photo shoots - like wtf? Neo was todl she would have to wear a wig for this shoot but ... see for yourself:



The girl said NO! In fact, she got into an argument with the styling team about having to wear a wig after she was told to embrace her natural look. GET 'EM NEO!!!! Of course, the photo is ahhhmazing so the judges could do nothing but bitch about how it's a lovely photo but her inability to accept styling choices would be her downfall. DUN DUN Neo is no longer a judge favourite it seems.

And guess what happened the very next week? Neo is now struggling and needs to improve her ability to "use her body" to take photos and not just rely on her face. Hmm I wonder where this is going. She ends up in the Bottom 3 - being saved by her "stronger portfolio" while the bottom 2 girls were both eliminated.

The next episode, Neo wasn't so lucky. Apparently this photo was "ordinary" and the judges didn't like it at all:



The truth is - 90% of the shots from this photo shoot were average at best, and the first call-out seriously looked like an AWFUL crop job. It was pretty bullshit and in another double elimination, Neo was gone.



Post show, Neo's career has no really existed. Her best shots are really the first one in this post and this one:



In a wig.



Numbers Chosen:


Numbers Eliminated:


Numbers Saved:


Trojan's turn for another cut! TWO numbers. ONE poster. Don't let random.org be da real MVP [/center]