Media Studies | Ajax the Kea dog

Today at Media Studies we examined a DOC video of a man and his one-of-a-kind Kea finding dog, Ajax. 

The first thing I did after watching it was examine the sound.

Music	At the start of the video, the music sounds chill and ambient, sort of like a status quo in the the forest. When the man finds a dead Kea nest, the music has more of a sad piano sound to it. After Ajax the dog finds a Kea the music suddenly gets a much more bass-y sound and happy chords come in.
Dialogue	The dialogue has a New Zealand documentary feel to it. The man talks a lot about what happens on the job and him and his dog's daily life being Kea finders and monitors.
Sounds	Sound design is good. They have very well fitting noises such as water flowing, bush rustling and other nature sounds. They also have kept in (or got a Foley to recreate) sounds that the two workers had made on the trip around the mountains.

Aferwards, I read the instructions wrong and wrote up my first impressions of the camerawork and what I liked in general.

The camera changes scenes and moves around a lot to keep the viewers interested.

There are interesting shots such as these:

I especially enjoyed this overhead shot of the dog going over the river, as it is something the cameramen would actually require a drone for.

Also, the grading after the empty Kea hole scene was very good for what they wanted to portray, which was that the man was feeling down.

In the end, I wrote that my first impressions of the music was that it was so well done that it was near unnoticeable, like Minecraft ambience going on in the background as you play.

Cya later,

Kyle