After a month of Hillary's features, I can safely say that there is no doubt she will be a force this year in the running for CGOY 2010. I mean, there really is no competition from anyone else -- except, of course, fo
r Jamie Graham, whose CGOM performance was second to none. Surely, Hillary, with all of her outstanding sexiness and awesome talent could surely sweep everyone and dominate the year? Well, let's take a look first.
While it's true that Hillary is head and shoulders above almost all of the girls so far this year, in other years she would be in a bit of trouble. With an uninspired and flat performance in her pictorials, the ever-so-sexy Miss Fisher was unimpressive. Even in her first pictorial, things just didn't transpire right, and the production value suffered. Her best photo was a bit of an oddity, and needed a gimmick pose to be sexy. Although ultimately Hillary's cut, toned body was very attractive, it just seemed to not go anywhere.
Things only got worse in Week 2, with some amateurish posing and horrid photography. It just seemed to not go anywhere, and only seemed to waste the talent that she had. The curls in the hair just made it seem frizzy and unkempt. Her body wasn't lit right, and so it seemed to not have the dynamic curvature and volume that it did before.
Admittedly, Hillary is, in the end, the best looking girl of 2009. She is just drop dead sexy, and in Week 3 she picked up the slack and delivered some very good shots. Taking on a more nuanced and subtle posing style, she did a great job with innocent photos like this one, and this excellent full body shot showing off her great look in natural lighting. As I mentioned, Hillary looks so good when lighting is used sparingly, and when she's allowed to move around with lighter, more natural gestures. When the photographers ruin her pictorials with overproduction and overdirection, you get the problems seen in her other weeks.
When you look at her and take a step back, you see the same awesome model as in her CGOW pictorial: strong, sexy, forceful and dynamic in her posing. She takes charge in front of the camera, and when she is comfortable in her own skin, she shines. When Playboy gets in the way and tries to do too much (overdoing her hair, her set, her posing direction), things go wrong. I'm sure that she could do more, but ultimately, the best showing of the year is still in the hands of Jamie Graham, who show
ed near-perfect posing talents and an even sexier body than Hillary.
Consensus...
Facial: A
Hillary's greatest strength is her bright smile and gorgeous natural looks that set her far apart from the rest of the 2009 class.
Body: B+
Hillary keeps her body very toned and has awesome proportions. However, a questionable set of breast implants and skin that's not always flawless in front of the cameras sets her back.
Talent: B+
We all know what Hillary has the capability of doing, but she takes too much direction from photographers and producers. When she gets into a natural groove, she soars.
Pictorials: B-
Again, Hillary has loads of potential. However, her showing in her CGOM set was extremely mediocre, and at times below average. She has to concentrate more on being natural and using her acute presence.
Videos: B
Hillary doesn't look great in motion, often seeming robotic and unnatural. Again, it might be a product of her being out of her comfort zone, but she looks far better in photos.
Overall: B+
While offering a better showing than almost all of the other entrants in 2009, Hillary fell far short of expectations. Her pictorials are some of the bigger disappointments in 2009, but I can still root for her chance to win CGOY 2010, because of her massive potential. If she has several months to offer retribution and to show off what she can really do, I'll take them in a heartbeat. Still, she was outshone by fellow CGOM Jamie Graham this year, since Jamie's overall performance was far stronger.