The Titanic
The Titanic behind the scenes are unlike any other movie. The props and scenes they were able to capture were hands down simply amazing. Not only that but, the entire cast became one big family and the extras were the most dedicated extras you ever saw. The extras and cast were also treated very well. During a cut in the scene where the extras are in cold water for a long period of time they had hot tubs and hot water hoses going around to keep the extras warm and keep morale high.
They built a replica of the grand staircase but only a little wider. This brought a lot of realism into the film and come on that’s just so cool! That’s not the only replica they made of the ship. They built half the ship for a few scenes and used it when necessary. They also built miniatures in many different scales ranging from ½ scale to 1/20 scale. The engine scene is actually a real ship with the same engine but smaller. They built catwalks and placed a mirror 2 and a half motors down to make it seem full scale.
The sweat and heat in that scene is real, while in some other scenes with an example of Jack and Rose floating in the water. It was warm for how cold it was supposed to be and they used breath cgi to make the illusion. Another few important and stand out cgi moments in the movie is when the Titanic hits the iceberg. They dropped ice from above and used cgi ice to also make it seem like ice fell onto the ship from another angle. Also they used a mixture of extras diving off of the ship and cgi models falling off the ship as well. They used this technique in multiple scenes. A popular scene people think is fake and cgi is the splitting of the Titanic. But that popular belief is false. They had a model of the Titanic in water inside and blew it in half, multiple times. They had to rebuild it every time they blew it up.
They used a lot of camera tilting as well. A few popular scenes that use this is when the Titanic is split in half and in a 90 degree angle. Well, the ship was actually at a 6 degree angle and they tilted the camera and used cords to pull cast members “upwards” and make that illusion. Another scene is when you see water pouring into ship and breaking through the 3rd class doors. They used a ¼ scale model of the hallway and used a camera on a mechanical dolly. All the scenes inside the Titanic when Jack and Rose are trying to escape were all real shots. Meaning they filled a model of those parts of the ship and filled it with water. This was very dangerous and this goes for all the scenes with all the extras as well, like when the grand staircase was flooded. No one was injured in the making of the film and everyone had good moral and the producers and director had nothing but good things to say about working with the entire cast.
