Collective Soul (Music in High Places) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Interviews-Cast Featurette-Behind The Scenes Featurette-Rockin' In Morocco Featurette-Promo Spots Featurette-Location Footage Biographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	51:55
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	None Given
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	French Italian German Spanish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Music In High Places is a series of specials that takes some of the world's top recording artists to some of the more exotic and ancient locations on Earth. A series of one hour episodes that ran for a year starting in October 2000 saw a dozen recording artists ranging from Alanis Morissette to Lyle Lovett journey to some of the world's most culturally and spiritually significant locations, from the first episode that featured Alanis Morrisette in Arizona to a recent episode with Sugar Ray in Australia and exotic locations in between. This is episode six of the series, and sees the American band from Atlanta, Georgia, Collective Soul travel to Morocco.

    I must say that although I know of Collective Soul and I am familiar with several of their hit songs, including Shine and The World I Know, I certainly wouldn't class myself as a huge fan. I approached this disc with an open mind and must say I was pleasantly surprised. The quality and the quantity of material on offer is certainly above average for a music DVD.

    The band spent four days in the North African country of Morocco, touring around the markets and bazaars, talking with locals, and playing several of their hits in the streets, completely unplugged. There are also interview segments with the band members as they relate their experiences travelling to the country and the impact that the journey has had on them. Some of the discussion the guys have with the locals on the religion of Islam is quite eye-opening and particularly topical at the moment.

    The scenes listed on the inside cover also show what songs are played during that chapter, but quite a neat feature is the ability to play the disc with just the songs and leave out all the background stuff like the guys rambling through the markets, and so forth. Some real thought has gone into this and it shows in the quality of the finished product.

Video

    The menus and extras are presented full screen but the actual feature itself is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen. It is not 16x9 enhanced though which is a pity, as I feel that with an anamorphic transfer this would have been an absolutely stunning picture. It is still pretty good and far far better than most other non-anamorphic transfers I have seen. The sharpness level is excellent. It would have been near-perfect with a 16x9 enhanced picture, but there is still little to complain about. Grain is evident in several scenes, but doesn't distract and there is no low level noise.

    The colour palette is extensive, due to the myriad of colours to be found in the city of Marrakech in particular. There is much vibrancy, but no bleeding or oversaturation is evident.

    There are no MPEG artefacts. Some minor shimmer on a few different surfaces such as baskets is about the only evidence of film-to-video artefacts despite some of the intricate decorative artworks and buildings seen throughout that are just ripe for this type of problem. There are no video artefacts at all.

    There are four subtitles streams present. I was unable to test the accuracy of these as they are presented only in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, all languages with which I am unfamiliar.

    Although this is a dual layered disc, I was unable to detect a layer change. I am assuming the main feature is encoded onto one layer and the extras are on another.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

   Unlike the last few music discs I have reviewed there is no dts track available this time around, although the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is a pretty fine effort regardless.

    There are two audio tracks available, these being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. The 5.1 effort offers a much fuller, wider-reaching sonic experience than the really tame Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack (which is incidentally mastered at a significantly lower level than the 5.1 soundtrack). The 5.1 soundtrack is very much front-focused with virtually no surround use. There are some nice examples of full and open front soundstage use in the opening bars of Shine at around 42:20, where the song begins in the centre channel and opens up beautifully to the left and right channels.

    Dialogue is pretty clear at all times during the interview scenes. The dialogue from some of the native Moroccans is sometimes difficult to understand, though this is understandably no fault of the source material. The vocals during the songs are the highlight. There has obviously been some serious post production work done on the acoustic recordings as the vocal efforts are superb with every word and sound crystal clear. There are also no audio sync problems.

    The music of course dominates this special. The 12 songs are all recorded acoustically in the streets and have either been recorded on some pretty special equipment or the post production work has beefed them up very nicely. The vocals and instruments dominate over the streetscape sounds to such an extent you would almost think they have been removed completely.

    There is only minimal surround use and the subwoofer is seamless in its integration with the rest of the audio.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Quite a reasonable extras collection for a music DVD. This makes a pleasant change and something I'd like to see more often.

Cast Interviews

    Two quite extensive interviews with the band members are available here for selection. Both interviews feature French, German, Italian, and Spanish subtitles.

    Interview one is with Lead Singer Ed Roland and Guitarist Ross Childress and runs for 21:52 minutes. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced. Audio is provided by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. The guys discuss the choice of song for the disc, the acoustic performances, and what they meant to them. It features quite a prophetic and extremely topical statement from Ed Roland regarding Islam and the perception of the religion in the US. Quite remarkable.

    Interview two is with Guitarist Dean Roland, Bassist Will Turpin, and Drummer Shane Evans and runs for 15:52 minutes. Also presented in 1.85:1 with no 16x9 enhancement. The guys discuss Islam again and their reaction to being in Morocco. They provide some interesting insights.

Featurette-Behind The Scenes

    This featurette runs for 6.28 minutes and is a sort of introduction to the whole project. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (not 16x9 enhanced) with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. It contains some of the footage that is contained in the interviews and from the actual feature itself and shows some of the work of the film crew as well. It is designed to give a quick summary, which it does nicely.

Featurette - Rockin' in Morocco

    Presented in 1.85:1 with no 16x9 enhancement, this featurette runs for 3:40 minutes and showcases some of the actual street performances of the band and the clothes that they donned to fit in with the locals. Some of the material here is also in the main feature.

Featurette - Promo Spots

    Running for 1:21 minutes, this is simply a series of grabs of the guys as they promote their particular episode of Music In High Places for several cable TV stations in the US.

Featurette - Location Footage

    A featurette that runs for 15:43 minutes, though much of the footage is repeated from the main feature. Looks at the actual towns and markets that the band visited during their stay and the people that they interacted with.

Biographies-Cast

    A Band biography more so than details of the individuals. Several pages of static text detail the band's achievements and career high points to date, a career that has seen sales of over 7 million albums. Not a bad effort.

    Looks like this disc is exactly the same in R1. The local disc would be favoured here.

    Collective Soul are the sort of band that make their songs sound even better in acoustic mode. This is a pretty decent showcase of their work so far in quite a different setting. Fans of the band will love it. Others like me will return to it on occasion and enjoy it all over again.

    The video is excellent, considering the lack of 16x9 enhancement of a widescreen picture.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is excellent, though the Dolby Digital 2.0 is lacking somewhat.

    The extras are extensive in quantity, though they do repeat some material from the main feature.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall