Magazine Spreads and Critical Reflection

Below are both the final edits of my magazine articles. The top article is generally about the art of animation and how it is reverting back to the way it once was back in the 1930's. I decided to choose this topic because I have a passion for the subject; I also realised that I could use copyright free images because the images I have used are taken from my sketchbook. The article is written as if it were to be published in a specialist magazine, the likes of which I found examples of online. It was fairly difficult to write in a specialist way without getting too technical; which I found a lot of articles on animation did. Although I understand the terminology, and those buying the magazines would as well; I tried to make it appeal to a larger audience since the topic of Disney hits a wide range of people. The layout I wanted to look vintage; as if the images used are film cells from the past. I also left them looking rough, as opposed to cleaning them up and erasing my guidelines. I wanted to pull quotes from the passages and put them in quotation marks, not just because it is a standard magazine look, but also because they almost become like chapter headings in a story book; which seemed appropriate within the article topic. I initially wanted to add more drawings, of small animals interacting with the text and sitting on the title etc. But the attempt failed as adding the drawings meant less space for text, as well as it then becoming too image heavy. The opening statement I set in bold, again because it is a standard magazine layout, but also because it lets the reader know what the article is about. I feel like the large animated images may peak a persons interest, and therefore having a short summary allows them to decide whether they want to read it before continuing. I considered having a sepia background but eventually felt that leaving it white means the text is easier to read and the images stand out more.

This second article is a travel piece about New York City. I chose to write this piece because I have been to New York several times and as such feel I know enough to suggest things to do. I wanted to write it with the idea of suggesting things that wouldn't usually be seen. I deliberately didn't mention famous landmarks like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty because I felt they were generic. When I went recently, I struggled to find articles that would tell readers unusual things to do within the city. Although I don't suggest necessarily unusual things, I have tried to incorporate things like the best view off of Queensboro bridge, or the best places to eat outside of central Manhattan. This I feel gives it a tiny edge over the standard articles you see about visiting sites like Ground Zero and Central Park. One of the things I struggled with was to figuring out where to place the images to make it look like a travel article. I eventually loosely based it on online Elle Travel articles. They often have a scroll bar down the bottom for images, and although I couldn't incorporate that, I used the basic idea and put the images in a row down the bottom. Again the images are my own and therefore copyright free. The short barkers above some of the paragraphs are there to break the text up, and also to keep interest. I want the reader to want to know what they should "take the time" to do or "don't miss" out on. The effects on the images I thought came across almost looking like fridge magnets; this I thought was a nice (if accidental) touch because it's a staple image of things brought back off of holiday from tourist shops. 

Overall I am relatively happy with my magazine articles. I am happy with the layouts and the topic of both of them. I incorporated my own experience on one of them and a topic I am heavily interested in on the other. My one real struggle was with the animation piece and the writing style for it. I found it difficult to keep it down to earth whilst talking about a fairly technical subject but I felt it works fairly well. I'm also impressed with the layout and how it all came together. 

Land Final Edit and Critical Reflection

The topic of Fox Hunting for our land project was not the wisest choice when it came down to the technicalities/legalities of filming fox hunting groups in the area. We decided early on that we should mainly focus on the history of fox hunting in the area as opposed to showing a bias either for or against the practice. This made it much easier to film and edit as we simply amalgamated both the fox and the hound footage together, without showing a preference. We also thought it might make it easier to gain an interview with a local group if we were seen to be neutral on the matter.

Despite this, many of the hunts refused to get back to us the moment that they heard there was a camera involved. Thankfully, the Hursley Hambledon Hunt was kind enough to allow us to film their kennels. Although the Hursley Hambledon group has not hunted foxes since the ban, they refused to talk about even their drag hunting on camera since they were so afraid of the controversy surrounding the matter. The huntsman also refused to speak to us on film, although he was more than happy to appear on camera with the dogs which was a fortunate turn of events for us. The matter of filming the dogs themselves was also tricky. We were not allowed in the pen with the hounds due to the sheer number of them. There was much concern over the equipment being knocked from our hands, and we were even cautioned about getting too close to the fence in case one of the dogs jumped up. Thankfully we threw caution to the wind and got some great close up shots of the hounds as they bounded up to investigate. The three people seen at various points throughout the footage were all there on that day to assess the younger hounds that had recently come back to the kennels as adults. The woman seen on camera had been a master in the Hursley Hambledon hunt for 20 years and was incredibly interesting to talk too. We were restricted from filming anywhere on the location other than the kennels because they were afraid of us filming the buildings, therefore the area we were allowed to film in was extremely small. Unfortunately this meant that the interviewee was often drowned out by the noise of the dogs in the background. We managed to salvage the quotes we had but all together lost a majority of what she had said. All in all the people at the kennels were incredibly guarded; just around the corner were some stables, but we were also restricted to film the horses. They explained that the horses were actually owned by the huntsman's wife and were concerned that she would not grant permission for them to be used in the footage. Despite trying to placate the group, they would not waver on their word and as such we missed out on filming an animal that is a staple of the fox hunting image. The Hursley Hambledon hunt were incredibly kind to allow us to film their kennels regarding a matter that is highly controversial in current times, therefore we did understand their reservations and did what we could with what we had.

Filming the foxes was a surprisingly altogether easier ordeal. Despite hitting some dead ends with sanctuaries that did not care for foxes, we were eventually put in contact with a rescue centre that dealt with taking in abandoned fox cubs. Despite the fact that the animals were one day to be released back into the wild, due to their young age, they were allowed to interact and be petted by humans for the time being. Due to this stroke of luck, we were allowed into the pen and left alone for half an hour with them to film. The cubs, although skittish, were incredibly curious about us and we got some great footage of the two siblings. Our one concern was that the area in which the foxes had been filmed was not rural countryside in which fox hunting is usually imagined. Instead the cubs were seen on hard concrete; this we decided wasn't completely unrealistic as they would just come across as urban foxes. Our only other trouble was fairly humorous and easily overcome. The pen in which the cubs were housed was incredibly small, barely big enough for two of us, and the cubs quickly became curious about our camera bag. Since they continually ran over to chew on it, there were numerous occasions of accidentally getting the camera bag in shot, but we managed to kick it back enough so that it was behind us and they eventually left well enough alone.

During the editing process we became concerned that the way in which the footage was edited together, made it look like the Hursley Hambledon hunt was still in the practice of fox hunting. We felt it was important to put a disclaimer on our uploaded Youtube video to state that this was not the case. Despite several different editing techniques, we couldn't find a way to tie in the fox footage with the hounds without raising concern. Since we had decided to come across as unbiased on the matter, we decided that the footage should merely be seen as an homage to an old English tradition, as opposed to anything opinionated or slandering.