Watch Star Trek Beyond In Barco Escape

A new, immersive form of theater-going experience is taking Star Trek Beyond to warp speed.

It’s not quite the holodeck, but it’s close.

While cinemas have developed new options like IMAX and 3D to compete with the home-viewing experience, Belgian company Barco has developed new technology to enhance the movie-going experience even further.

Barco Escape has gone even bigger: banking on multiple, interconnected big-screens, creating an even more immersive experience with three cinema projectors and two additional cinemascope screens, allowing filmmakers to create a much larger canvas. Select sequences of Star Trek Beyond footage have been created to dramatically expand across three screens.

It’s like digital surround sound for your eyes.

“Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond is an epic adventure — truly larger than life,” said producer and Bad Robot president J.J. Abrams in a press release. “It is especially fitting, then, that we are partnering with Barco Escape to provide an ultra wide-screen immersive experience using their unique Barco Escape format. This premium format dramatically expands the width of the viewing plane, giving filmmakers an innovative new tool with which to tell stories and audiences an enhanced new way to experience cinema.”

Barco Escape will illuminate the Star Trek universe by creating key “moments” across all three screens that will exhilarate fans. Bad Robot has re-mastered more than 20 minutes of “Star Trek Beyond” into the new format.

With partners in the United States, Europe, Mexico and China, there are about about 100 Barco Escape theaters. Barco has been in operation since 2014, premiering its tech with the “The Maze Runner.”

Discover a new kind of Star Trek adventure available exclusively in Barco Escape, with select sequences of Star Trek Beyond footage created to dramatically expand the Universe across three screens.

Book your tickets now at http://www.ready2escape.com/

This article was sponsored by Barco Escape.

 

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I saw The Force Awakens in imax and if I am absolutely honest; it was distracting.. I’m just somebody who prefers good sound and a basic 2d picture I guess.

Agreed! Bells? Whistles? If you need these things to cover up story and artistic deficits…try harder.

In my humble opinion, I like the idea of pushing the boundary with these new technologies. I don’t believe using this technique is an attempt to cover up the story or because of artistic defects. It’s a different way of experiencing the movie.

I saw STID in IMAX 3D and then standard 2D. These felt like I experienced two completely different movies. IMAX 3D seemed larger and more powerful than the “small” standard 2D version, which I appreciated because of the vastness of space and what the artists are trying to portray.

“I’m just somebody who prefers good sound and a basic 2d picture I guess.”

Same here. I’ve seen film in theaters in 3D and Cinerama (which is basically what Barco is, minus curved screens), and they did little for me. As for sound, once you’ve experienced good old / bad old “Sensurround” you’ll never want to go through it again. :)

That trailer does nothing to sell this technology. It looks terrible: the seams/junctures between screens are terribly distracting, and the “look to the left/look to the right” nature is contrary to human viewing practices. This looks like an absolutely idiotic cinema experience that is *less* worthwhile than the old Cinerama technique.

I don’t mean the content of the trailer. Not bashing Beyond. I mean that the Barco version of the trailer doesn’t sell the Barco technology. (Just being careful since some of you are rabid.)

Agreed this looks like a very distracting and disjointed way to watch any movie

Yeah I do agree, PaulB. I’m trying not to judge this technology because the video likely does not do it justice. I would much rather see this in person than try watching the video above again…

Don’t watch it embedded in this thread, use full screen on your computer. That said, I don’t think I’d watch this for the same reason I avoid IMAX now, in my old age, stuff going on around the edges of my peripheral vision tends to produce a little nausea. Also, recall, Ang Lee’s Hulk was shot with overlaying frames, which proved to be a distraction. Maybe this just needs to be experienced in the theater, on smaller screens, it’s not doing much for me.

Interesting.

The fact that some people are able to cope with/enjoy this kind of format and others can’t may have something to do with what an individual’s eyesight is like. Most people, it seems, need to wear glasses or contact lenses and the number of much younger people (children) needing such help is growing (for whatever reason?) The main reason, I think, is because most are short-sighted and some may not have the greatest peripheral vision either. For those people, I suspect that technologies like barco-escape are not the best formats to see a film in.

However, I am farsighted and it seems, have very good peripheral vision. I need glasses to read and write anything, including this computer. I cannot wear glasses when I drive because everything is a blur. I suspect that my eyesight can cope with barco-escape and IMAX 3D technologies better than another person with more shortsighted vision is able to.

link is wrong

Fixed.

Going to see a Barco presentation in a couple of hours. Looks like a fun throwback to the Cinerama experiences of yesteryear. Can’t wait!

Gotta admit. In the attack sequence, it looks pretty amazing.

Saw it last night and to be honest, didn’t much care for it. There’s one scene where it was COMPLETELY unnecessary was when Bones and Kirk shared a drink together. Often times it reminded me of watching iPhone footage on tv where the center image is in focus and the sides are blurry. The effect doesn’t work unless you’re sitting both close enough to where it takes up you’re entire field of vision and dead center.

Pass otherwise

I disagree, that scene made a lot of sense in the Barco Escape version.
One of my griefs was that during the non-Barco scenes the side panels were very dark grey. The standard background was pitch black. This scene for me proved that if they would “Ambilight” the side panels during standard movie scenes, the continuous presence of the three screens would be more blended. Now they flip on and off but remain visible. I enjoyed the space warp effect on the side panels during their drink.
The side panels work very well if the motion in the scene is fixed or slow. In high speed scenes the wrapping around the angles had a negative experience for me. And this was the FatF director…
I believe movie directors have to experiment with scene styles and how to incorporate them into the movies.
Not every scene is suited for this system.

Do not make this mistake! Or maybe do it so you can say you were one of the few to see a film this way. But jesus. The material on the side screens is usually extraneous and sometimes nonsensical – – starts flying past in a scene set in Kirk’s cabin. What? The only time it’s anything ambitious is when they blow up the actual film itself and divide it among the three screens. This means the movie becomes grainy, and and partially perpendicular, and cropped. You actually get less picture rather than more, and maddeningly usually in the most spectacular moments of the movie. The real problem is, this is no Way to watch a film even in the best of circumstances. The side screens are at too steep an angle from the main screen. The light from the side screens washes out the image on the main screen. And creating the space necessary for the minor degree to which the side screens are not exactly at a 90° angle requires that the main screen itself is reduced in size. So again you are getting less screen real estate rather than more. I get that theaters are grasping for ways to your audiences back into the movie theater. All I can say to them is keep trying, but this is not one. I actually feel like I need to see Star Trek beyond again just to figure out what the hell was going on in its big scenes.

Voice dictation is not without drawbacks

The screens are REALLY small compared to regular ones. This means the two side screens end maybe ten rows into the theater. Most people end up looking into the “U” of three screens from well behind any of them. Did I mention they’re really small? It’s not being surrounded by the movie. It’s watching one through a Cylon visor

Barco Escape is a terrific experience. I wish that Star Trek Beyond was entirely in Barco Escape format. I look forward to a complete “fish bowl” 3-D Barco Experience from even more sides. If it is combined with D-Box technology, the Virtual Experience will be even better. If tactile and water sensation are added like “Shriek 4D” @ Universal Studios, that would be the best. Film making will have to start considering all sides & 1st person filming like “The Blair Witch Project”. It was great not having to use glasses. The live action footage could have been more sharp. Also, it would be better if the screen was curved rather than at sharp angles. Hopefully, OLED technology will allow televisions to also have the Barco Escape mode. I also envision multiple home projectors to also replicate the Barco Escape experience at home. Thank you for doing this great technology. Please do more. It also costs less to see the a 3-D movie.

Saw the film in this format. IT did work for some things. But the angles were really annoying for some of the tracking shots. It worked best when moving in or back, not so much side to side movement. If a way to fix the angles at the screen intersections this could be a worthwhile theater experience. Until then, no thanks.

Here are some quick thoughts on the Star Trek Beyond Barco Escape three-screen experience which I saw at the Regal at LA Live. There are some… problems.

1) The screen itself is elevated higher than normal, so to truly enjoy the experience, you must sit within the first half of the theater. If you find a seat in the back, it’s like looking into a box.

2) There are visible seams separating the three screens that constantly remind you that there are three screens. This could have easily been solved by adding a curve where the seams are.

3) The screens did not line up perfectly. There’s no excuse for missing that detail in the setup.

4) The theater in which the Barco Experience is being screened is a small one, which is a mistake. It seems that the experience would be more effective on a larger screen.

5) The three-screen scenes are random and will cut back and forth within scenes. IMAX movies seem to have gotten that right where if a sequence is in IMAX, it stays that way until the end of the scene. Barco Experience cuts from three-screens to one-screen several times within a minute or a scene which is terribly distracting.

6) It appeared as if much of the three-screens were simply “pushing in” on effects sequences which made it appear as if it were switching from standard def to HD. Image quality needs to be addressed.

Overall, the Barco Experience is not ready for a mass roll-out and seems more like a technology demo. It clearly shows promise, but not from this screening of Star Trek Beyond. I still prefer IMAX. If you’re interested in checking it out for yourself