Nowadays, most of it is done with special effects, which means that creators no longer have to waste time and money building. This solution is also more ecological and in line with the assumptions of sustainable development of film production. For many people, however, it is perceived as less realistic, which may be hard to disagree with when looking at the phenomenal shots from “Titanic”.
The creators of “Titanic” wanted to build a real ship. James Cameron changed his mind
In the 90s of the last century, computer graphics were not yet developed enough for the creators to give up constructing a magnificent film set. However, before the impressive replica of the famous ship was built off the coast of Mexico, the producers actually considered building a floating ship in a Polish shipyard. Ultimately, he gave up on the idea for logistical reasons. The filmmakers would have only one chance to shoot the scene where the Titanic disappears underwater.
In an interview with GQVideos, the director said: “We talked about going to a shipyard in Poland and building the Titanic. I said, OK, great. So they can build us a Titanic for $10 million? Yes, we should think about that. Now if we sink it, how many takes do we get? Hmm, one.”
So the producers were looking for an alternative to the real, floating . The best solution turned out to be the construction of a Titanic replica off the coast of Mexico. Peter Lamont was entrusted with the supervision of the process of constructing the nearly 200-meter set. The production designer was based on the original plans of the Titanic and Thomas Andrews’ personal notes. For the purposes of production, a replica of the ship was placed in a huge pool located along the shoreline. Thanks to this, the Titanic actually looked like it was sailing on the sea. The spectacular aerial shots that we can see in the film were created by placing the camera on a 60-meter crane.
One of the videos on Tik Tok shows the scale of the whole project. The producers of the film admitted that building such a grand set was a real challenge for them. “Building a replica of over 200 meters was as complicated a task as building the ship itself” – said Peter Lamont in one of the interviews.
The film shows only a part of the scenography constructed for the film. For example, the scene where the characters are drifting in the cold ocean waters was shot in an indoor swimming pool 120 cm deep. So the actors had to crouch down to create the illusion that the water was deeper.
Interestingly, the object that was actually computer generated for the “Titanic” is an iceberg. So while filming the impact scene, the actors were looking at a non-existent object.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
