The extras from “Titanic” were no more than 170 cm tall.  “We gained a lot from it”

The extras from “Titanic” were no more than 170 cm tall. “We gained a lot from it”

Although more than 25 years have passed since the premiere of “Titanic”, fans still learn about new details from behind the scenes of the production. Now the director, James Cameron, has decided to reveal the secret once again and reveals his goal in employing only short-statured extras.

is one of the most popular films in the artistic output, which was released in cinemas in December 1997, delighting not only viewers, but also critics. The story of unhappy love that united Rose, who comes from an aristocratic family, with the emigrant Jack (played by Kate Winslet and ), received as many as 11 awards and is today considered a cult classic.

26 years after its premiere, “Titanic” is still impressive. What influenced the film’s success?

The inspired thread was also key to the plot. During its maiden voyage on the night of April 14-15, 1912, the transatlantic liner collided with an iceberg, as a result of which it sank to the bottom, claiming nearly 1,500 lives. The scale of this tragedy, despite the passage of time, still evokes many extreme emotions, just like the film, which constantly attracts crowds of viewers. It was no different on February 10, 2023, when the 4K 3D HDR technology debuted on big screens. Its success was undoubtedly determined by, among others: special effects that allowed the creators to fully show the magnificence of the ship. It turns out, however, that this is not only due to the graphic designers, but also to the idea that the director came up with just before the shooting began.

James Cameron revealed the behind-the-scenes of the making of “Titanic”. This was his guide when choosing the extras

In an interview with James Cameron, he admitted that the monstrous impression he made on the screen was largely due to the increase in the number of extras employed. – We only employed short extras, which made the set look more impressive – revealed the director, adding that people who appeared in the film could not be more than 170 cm tall. This not only resulted in the optical enlargement of the transatlantic, but also made it possible to reduce the budget, as the use of additional ones would have cost a fortune. “It’s like we gained an extra million dollars from the casting,” he said.

However, this was not the filmmaker’s only clever idea. He approached planning the order of photos with equal care. The scene of the ship sinking was created at the very end to save time and, of course, money, although he had absolutely no guarantee that everything would go as he planned. – If the studio wanted to make this movie their way, they would have cut out the entire sinking scene. It was smart to plan this sequence for the end of the shoot, he said. – If I hadn’t left sinking the ship until the end, the plan wouldn’t have looked good when we showed up the next morning – he explained to the magazine the main reason for this decision.

Source: Gazeta

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