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Topic: 'The Maze Runner' will be shown in three-screen panoramic format

Terry Lynn-Stevens
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1081
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2012

posted 09-01-2014 09:01 PM

The Maze Runner will be first movie presented in new panoramic Escape theater format

Panoramic films and theaters equipped to show them have come and gone over the years, but new panoramic screening technology unveiled earlier in 2014 will debut with the upcoming film The Maze Runner in September.

Digital cinema projector company Barco is hoping its three-screen “Escape” theater configuration will be the next big trend for movie houses, and the technology will gets its first test September 19 when 20th Century Fox premieres The Maze Runner – about a group of teenagers who find themselves trapped in a massive maze — in Escape-enabled theaters. The technology uses three digital cinema projectors and a trio of screens arranged with the primary screen front and center with two angled screens on either side of it in order to create a panoramic presentation.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the decision to present The Maze Runner in the Escape format was made after the film had finished shooting, so the center screen will show the film as it was shot and the side screens will be extensions of the primary scene — extending the walls of the maze around the audience, for example — created using digitally rendered effects. The Maze Runner will be the first film screened for the general public after being specially prepped for this theater configuration.

On the tech side, it’s worth noting that the method for bringing all of the primary and panoramic imagery together into a cohesive film was built using a Crytek gaming engine to render the final product. The studio is currently experimenting with using multi-camera setups to film movies with the three-screen Escape configuration in mind, as well as testing previously released films in the panoramic format.

“We did a test with The Devil’s Double (released in 2011), and now we are discussing the possibility of a re-release of that movie in the Escape format,” said Ted Schilowitz, Barco’s “CinemaVangelist” who also happens to work at Fox. Schilowitz indicated that, since the format is still so new, the production costs associated with filming a movie for this configuration have yet to be determined.

Currently, there are five theater locations equipped with the Escape configuration: Cinemark 18 and XD at the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles; Cinemark Paradise 24 and XD in Davie, Florida.; Cinemark West Plano and XD in Plano, Texas; Cinemark at Seven Bridges and Imax in Woodridge, Illinois; and Cinemark Redwood Downtown and XD in Redwood City, California. Ticket prices for the Escape screenings of The Maze Runner will reportedly be set by each theater.

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/maze-runner-will-first-movie-presented-new-panoramic-escape-theater-format/#ixzz3C7 Tah8OP
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'The Maze Runner' will be shown in three-screen panoramic format

Some movies are just too big for the big screen. That’s the thinking behind Escape, a three-screen digital panoramic setup that audiences will be able to experience for the first time in showings of The Maze Runner starting on Sept. 19, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Escape, developed by Barco, is essentially a modernized, digital update of Cinerama—a widescreen format popularized in the 1950s that had three 35mm projectors simultaneously playing a single movie on a massive, 146-degree screen. It was a problematic, expensive format that was ultimately phased out (though some Cinerama screens are still up and running in the U.S.). Escape relies on digital technology, though, and can avoid many of the headaches that Cinerama faced.

Ideally, movies will be produced and shot specifically for Escape, and technologies to support this format are currently in the testing phase. The Maze Runner, however, is more of an experiment and was simply formatted to fit the three screens. According to THR, the center screen will show the film and the side screens will display expanded images of the shot, rendered with VFX.

Escape theaters in the U.S. include the Cinemark 18 & XD at the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles; Cinemark Paradise 24 & XD in Davie, Fla.; Cinemark West Plano & XD in Plano, Texas; Cinemark @ Seven Bridges and Imax in Woodridge, Ill.; and Cinemark’s Redwood Downtown & XD in Redwood City, Calif. Ticket prices, the report says, will be determined by individual theaters.

Below is Barco’s presentation from this year’s CinemaCon, including a brief look at Escape.

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