True North

Rating:
Summary: An excellent production in a so-so package
Review: Bookstore often have a selection of oversize books featuring gorgeous nature photographs. True North expands on this idea by going from still photos to moving video and adding music. The shots were taken in Alaska and Canada and each track focuses on a theme including rugged solitude of mountain peaks, the impossibly deep green of the temerate rainforests, orcas and humpback whales, glacial ice melted into abstract sculptures, and the wonders of the Aurora Borealis. The music of John Serrie, Paul Speer, James Reynolds and Tangerine Dream (who only provide a single track - sorry fans!) fits very well with the scenes.

Given the technical expertise in obtaining the photos, creating the music (which is pretty much all synthesizers), and editing them together, it is somewhat surprising that the DVD doesn't seem to be put together as well. The main menu consists of eight boxes, each with a number. No thumbnail video, not even the name of the track. And for you "special feature" junkies, there's really nothing available. You are given the option of having the tracks repeat or run in random order, like you might do on a CD player, but that's it. (And while I'm venting, the disc itself is hard to get out of the case.)

So while the disc itself has some annoying quirks, the content itself is spectacular and you'd be hard pressed to find much at the same price.

Rating:
Summary: Great Nature Video
Review: Great relaxational video. The quality of the video is ecellent. I play it for my patients during their dental visits and receive only positive comments.

Rating:
Summary: High quality production
Review: I had been watching Desert Vision at a comfortable volume prior to putting in True North. The first thing I noticed was the sound quality: it was louder and fuller, in fact, I had to turn my system down a fair amount to match my previous settings.

The 2nd thing I noticed was the breathtaking photography. Track 1 is full of beautiful blue glacier ice accompanied by a rousing drum/synth track. Slow motion, aerial flyby, time-lapse photography, it's all there. Track 4 is particularly amazing, including a panning-time-lapse sequence.

I heartily recommend this title, and it's not just background music. Grab a cup of coffee, turn down the lights, and turn up the volume.

Rating:
Summary: MAGNIFICENT
Review: THIS IS A GREAT NATURE DVD. IT IS HIGHLY RECOMENDED FOR FANS OF PBS. THE PHOTOGRAPHY IS WONDERFUL.THE SOUND QUALITY IS SUPERB. THE DVD FEATURES MANY WELL KNOWN NEW AGE ARTISTS.IT ALSO IS FILMED ENTIRLY IN ALASKA. IT IS A WONDERFUL FEATURE TO ENJOY THE WONDERS OF NATURE.

Rating:
Summary: The photography is beautiful, but the music is not...
Review: Watching this dvd, I constantly thought the music was not supportive to the wonderful photography except a couple of tracks. The music mainly employs synthesizers, which, I believe, is not a good idea for "explaning" nature. Acoustic(unplugged) music would have been much better. How about the music of George Winston, Andreas Vollenweider or Philip Glass(as in Anima Mundi)? Interestingly, in the point of the technical quality, the music surpasses the photography which looks some old. I think music is very important for this kind of movie because it has no narration. One more problem with this dvd is that it was packed with a new style of keep case but it's some hard for me to fix the disk inside on the case. Anyway, I love nature-oriented movies and this was one of my good experience.