In the years after the shipwreck, the myth surrounding the Titanic began to spread, and stories about bravery and cowardice appeared in countless historical records, poems, music and movies. After decades of research, 1 September 19851day, the expedition led by scientist Robert Ballard finally found the wreck of the Titanic in the sea about 380 miles southeast of Newfoundland, and all related questions and disputes were solved.
James Cameron, inspired by the sinking of Titanic, turned a nautical legend into a touching love story. Cameron said that in the collective imagination, the tragedy of the Titanic has almost become a myth, and its humanity and vitality have disappeared with the passage of time. I hope that the love between Rose and Jack can become a beacon of emotion, so that the audience can devote themselves wholeheartedly and witness the reappearance of history. In filming, the most challenging thing is to reproduce the scene of the shipwreck. Director Cameron has a purpose, that is, these scenes should be like going back in time, making people feel immersive. In a month and a half, Cameron directed a series of visual preview research. The founder made a research model of the ship and took pictures around it with a camera, thus knowing the structural layout and the most wonderful and spectacular perspective of the Titanic. With the deepening of research, architectural landscape has become the most important.
Under the guarantee of strict engineering technology and safety measures, most of the films were shot in indoor and outdoor sinks. Among them, the first-class dining room and the three-story staircase were built according to the actual size, and were built on the hydraulic platform 30 feet deep in the indoor sink of Studio 2. This hydraulic platform can change the angle. The crew introduced 5 million gallons of seawater from the seaside a few yards away, and the filtered seawater will gradually flood the landscape on the hydraulic platform.
Peter Ramon is a production designer who has been nominated for three Oscars, Alien 2, Underwater City and Fiddler on the House. From the very beginning, he got a design of Hanand Wolff Shipyard and a notebook of chief designer Thomas Andrews about the design features. This is the first application of design data after the sinking of Titanic.
In addition, because the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, the interior decoration was not completely completed at that time, and there were few photos. Through sufficient research and the help of consultants, Ramon led the production team to accurately reproduce the first-class restaurant, reception room, first-class smoking room, trail area, afternoon tea hall, gym and several special cabins according to the only remaining internal photos of Titanic and its sister ship Olympic.
In order to create the illusion that Titanic was sailing on the sea, the scenery and sink of the hull were built along the coastline, thus showing an endless horizon during the day and night. When shooting the night scene, the deck is 45 feet high when the hull is in a horizontal position, and the stern rises very high when it sinks, so the lighting effect of the scene needs the help of the tower crane.
In order to shoot the scene on the high ship, Cameron used advanced shooting equipment-Akelacrane. This is the largest camera rocker arm in the world today, with an arm length of 80 feet. However, to put all the scenes in the mirror, Cameron still relies on a huge tower crane. He said: "The large tower crane we built can reach 200 feet. We laid a guide rail along the side of the hull in the cabin, which takes only 5 minutes from the bow to the stern, so that we can take pictures as we like. " When shooting, Cameron will also be suspended above the set, and together with photography director Russell Carpenter, he will take photos with a gyro-stabilized camera.
After the three-week Christmas holiday, the film crew used two fully completed deck platforms to shoot the sinking scene. In the final stage of the disaster, the hull split in half and the first half sank 40 feet underwater. When the real incident happened, the lifeboats on board could only hold less than half of the passengers. Because the crew failed to fill every lifeboat, only one third of the passengers were finally rescued. The lifeboat davits used in the shooting were made by the same company that provided the same accessories for the real Titanic. The davits produced by Welland Company according to the past drawings are exactly the same as those on Titanic.