Is the ship in Titanic really photographed? Won't it cost a lot of money and time to build it?

In filming, the most challenging thing is to reproduce the scene of the shipwreck. Cameron has a purpose, that is, these scenes should be as immersive as going back in time. 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.

Cameron said: "You can't just build a set, because the big ship in the film is always changing angles, and different angles need corresponding sets."

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 Lamont, a production designer who was nominated for three Oscars for Alien 2, Underwater City and Fiddler on the House, got a design of Hanand Wolff Shipyard and the notebook of Thomas Andrews, the chief designer, about the design features from the very beginning. This is the first application of design data after the sinking of Titanic.

In the research, Ramon found that the manufacturer of carpets used in D-floor restaurants and reception rooms is still alive, and this company still maintains the style of carpets and can reproduce the dyes at that time. The manufacturer immediately started ordering.

Ramon recalled: "In nearly a year, we made sets and all kinds of furniture and ornaments in Mexico City, new york and Los Angeles, and copied thousands of reclining chairs, desk lamps, porcelain, suitcases, life jackets and navigation parts according to the real quantity. Although the 775-foot-long shooting location was built in different ways, it is as complicated as the real Titanic and can only be completed in one tenth of the time. "

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.

Cameron said: "It took us a long time to realize the true size of the Titanic. It is 880 feet long, with a drainage tonnage of 48,000 tons and an actual weight of nearly 60,000 tons, just like a huge monster. "

In order to create the illusion that Titanic was sailing on the sea, the scenery and water tank 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.