In 1997, James Cameron’s TITANIC set sail in theaters — and one of the world’s most breathtaking and timeless love stories was born. The film’s journey became an international phenomenon as vast as its name, garnering a record number of Academy Award® nominations, 11 Academy Awards® and grossing over $1.8 billion worldwide. On April 6th, 2012, precisely a century after the historic ship’s sinking and 15 years after the film’s initial theatrical release, TITANIC resurfaces in theaters in state-of-the-art 3D. Upon its original release, TITANIC was celebrated for transporting audiences back in time, right into the belly of the R.M.S Titanic in all her glory and into the heart of a forbidden love affair entwined with the ship’s epic collision with human arrogance, nature and fate. Now, the leading edge of 3D conversion technology has allowed Oscar® winning director James Cameron to bring moviegoers the most visceral and dynamic screen experience of TITANIC yet imagined. The artistic process of re-visualizing TITANIC in three dimensions was overseen entirely by Cameron himself, along with his long-time producing partner Jon Landau – who both pushed the conversion company Stereo D literally to unprecedented visual breadth. Cameron guided them to use the latest visual tools not only to intensify the film’s sweeping race for survival, but to reveal the power of 3D to make the film’s most stirring emotions even more personal. “The 3D enriches all of TITANIC’s most thrilling moments — and its most emotional moments,” summarizes Cameron. “More than ever, you feel you’re right there going through all the jeopardy that Jack and Rose go through. The 3D kicks the experience up to another level.” While the universal appeal of TITANIC’s themes – themes of human grandeur, the roots of disaster and the way romance can transcend prejudice, society and time — remains the same, the filmmakers believe the 3D conversion will speak with a fresh voice to a wide range of moviegoers, including a 21st Century generation who have never had the chance to see the film on screen. “The themes of TITANIC are as relevant today as they were 15 years ago,” notes Landau. “I think those who have seen the film will find themselves transported in a new way; but there will also be many discovering the film for the first time, who weren’t even born when it was released in 1997. Audiences young and old are each going to take something away from it.” He continues: “If we made TITANTIC today, I’m sure we would use 3D. Of course, we can’t go back in time. But technology has now allowed us to take the movie to its fullest incarnation, in a way that we could have never envisioned in 1997, and for both Jim and me that’s very rewarding. “ Almost instantly upon its release, TITANIC became a cultural phenomenon, breaking box office records (which stood until Cameron’s AVATAR finally broke them again), as its most iconic moments were etched into the popular imagination. Perhaps it was the way that the ship seemed to become a microcosm of human life –- a place where conflict and danger never ceased, yet neither did human resourcefulness, courage and hope. Perhaps it was the sheer beauty of the connection between Jack and Rose, one that neither social conventions nor the ferocious power of nature itself could tear asunder. Perhaps it was the stunningly intricate detail of the production that swept viewers into another world both never-before-seen and deeply real. Whatever the source of its power, TITANIC took on a life of its own. The promising young actors playing the story’s star-crossed lovers – Leonard DiCaprio and Kate Winslet – both went on to stellar, award-filled careers as Hollywood leading lights. Meanwhile, Cameron kept pushing the cinematic envelope, resulting in the groundbreaking blockbuster AVATAR, which for the first time cracked the long talked-about full potential of 3D wide open, revealing its simultaneous ability to create new worlds and pull audiences into the very fabric of dramatic stories. As the singular director most associated with 3D achievement, it seems only natural for Cameron to circle back to the most legendary of all his blockbusters now that 3D has come of age. But what is striking is that the filmmakers’ original aim – to forge a dead true experience for the audience — has not changed; only the tools have changed. Indeed, the very same words Cameron wrote in his 1997 director’s statement remain just as apropos to the 3D conversion in 2012: “My goal in making this film was to show not only the dramatic death of this infamous ship, but her brief and glorious life as well. To capture the beauty, exuberance, optimism and hope of Titanic, her passengers and crew and, in the process of baring the dark side of humanity underlying this tragedy, celebrate the limitless potential of the human spirit. For Titanic is not just a cautionary tale – a myth, a parable, a metaphor for the ills of mankind. It is also a story of faith, courage, sacrifice and, above all else, love.” Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox present a Lightstorm Entertainment Production, a James Cameron film, TITANIC, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. Written and directed by James Cameron, the film is produced by Cameron and Jon Landau.Rae Sanchini is executive producer.

THE STORY The action-packed romance of TITANIC unfolds against the ill-fated maiden voyage of the R.M.S. Titanic, perhaps the most famous ship in history. In 1912, Titanic became the largest moving object ever built, the pride and joy of the White Star Line of passenger steamships. She was supposed to be the most luxurious and forward-thinking liner of her era – the ultimate “dream ship” for crossing the seas before the age of aviation — yet ultimately she carried over 1,500 people to their death in the ice cold waters of the North Atlantic on April 15th, 100 years ago. The film’s journey on Titanic begins at the site of the ship’s watery grave, two-and-a-half miles under the Atlantic Ocean. Here, an ambitious fortune hunter (Bill Paxton) has come to plumb the treasures of the once-stately liner, only to bring to the surface a story left untold. The tragic ruins melt away to reveal the glittering palace of the ship at the very moment it prepares to launch on its maiden voyage from England. Amidst the thousands of well-wishers bidding bon voyage, destiny has called two young souls, daring them to nurture a passion that will change their lives forever. Rose DeWitt Bukater (Academy Award® winner Kate Winslet) is a 17-year-old, upper-class American suffocating under the rigid expectations of Edwardian society who falls for a free-spirited young steerage passenger named Jack Dawson (Golden Globe winner and Academy Award® nominee Leonardo DiCaprio). Once he opens her eyes to the world that lies outside her gilded cage, Rose and Jack’s prohibited love begins a powerful mystery that will echo across the years to contemporary times. Nothing on earth can come between them — not even something as unimaginable as the sinking of Titanic.

THE 3D CONVERSION For James Cameron, bringing his cinematic achievements on TITANIC into the 3D realm was no after-thought. On the contrary, Cameron has been at the forefront of 3D technology for well over a decade, and is considered a visionary pioneer of multi-dimensional storytelling. In that sense, the conversion of TITANIC is simply the next step in his exploration of 3D, and an ode to a film that he always wanted to be the seamlessly immersive experience possible. Cameron first began exploring the creative use of 3D in 2001, kicking off a series of acclaimed 3D documentaries with GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS. He then dove into the daring new territory of AVATAR – a film that many felt revolutionized going to the movies for the first time in a century. All along, Cameron was creating his own systems and techniques that would stretch the form’s potential. In 2011, Cameron founded Cameron-Pace Group with Vince Pace to accelerate the worldwide growth of 3D across all entertainment platforms. Their Fusion Camera System has become the world’s leading stereoscopic camera system. “I always felt the technologies coming over the horizon were going to enable an amazing 3D future,” explains Cameron, “And I always believed that the best use of 3D was to more fully involve the viewer, to draw them right through the screen into the moment with the characters.” That was precisely his aim behind converting TITANIC – to bring audiences one step deeper into the heartbeat of his classic tale of epic catastrophe and mythic love. The fact that he was able to do so to line up with the 100th anniversary of the vibrant ship’s historic demise was especially meaningful. “I’ve always felt TITANIC belongs on the screen and the conversion is a way to bring it back to the screen, and evoke the life of the ship with more emotional power,” Cameron comments. He continues: “TITANIC is my baby so I really wanted to roll up my sleeves and get involved in every step of the conversion. To offer the film in this new form on the 100th Anniversary of the sinking made sense to me, corresponding with the maturity of the 3D conversion process. I’m excited to have the film in theatres again, where all those feelings of love and loss and deeper things can be shared together among an audience.” Cameron has himself long been in love not only with the movies, but with science and exploration. Those themes wind through his career and legacy – and were a large part of the original production of TITANIC. The 3D conversion became an extension of what he had set out to do with TITANIC from the start: use the best of technology to make the film as palpably real as any projected image could be. Now, he was ready to focus his expertise on the puzzle of how to make a film shot in 2D feel like it had been planned in 3D from the beginning. He reunited with producer Jon Landau to take on a task that proved to be as creative as it was technical. Landau notes that he and Cameron started talking about TITANTIC in 3D many years ago. “Once we both began to get intrigued with 3D, we almost immediately started to talk about one day re-visiting TITANIC,” recalls the producer. “We were thinking about a new generation who never got the chance to experience the film on the big screen.” Cameron and Landau were convinced that TITANIC was ready for 3D, but the question was whether 3D was ready to be applied to TITANIC’s distinctive mix of spectacle and intimacy. Early tests with the company Stereo D – a leading specialist in 2D to 3D conversion — suggested that Cameron’s high hopes and expectations could potentially be met. “I wanted to make sure the conversion could be done convincingly and without compromise,” Cameron says. “I wanted it to ultimately feel as if we had originally shot TITANIC with stereo cameras. It had to live up to that standard. We did tests with the big crowd scenes of people running up the ship to see if we could capture that complexity. We knew that TITANIC was right for 3D; but now we saw that 3D had matured to that level.” It was clear that the vastness of the ship, the tumult of its collision with the warned-of iceberg and the epic struggle of passengers as it sinks in icy waters would become more rich with life and suspense through the use of 3D. But Cameron was interested in how 3D might enhance something else: the ineffable passion of the story. If there is a single vein that runs through all of Cameron’s films – from ALIENS to TERMINATOR to AVATAR – it is not just a visual boldness and penchant for exploring frontier worlds but a kind of romantic yearning. “My films might involve hard-hitting action, but at the center of each of them are love stories,” the director observes of his body of work to date. The best example of Cameron’s fascination with love came with TITANIC – so it was essential to him that the conversion add as much to the film’s intimate moments as to its action. He saw a chance to delve into how 3D can also be used not only to craft the otherworldly but also to dive deeper under our own human skin. “3D not only enhances spectacular environments and action — it also enhances human interactions,” the director points out. “The most intimate moments are more powerful because you feel like you’re there with the character’s passion or fear or hope. I think this is something that Hollywood has largely overlooked. 3D is often perceived as the thin layer of icing over action or animated films. But 3D also has the ability to pack an emotional wallop.” Adds Landau: “3D is actually perfect for the many scenes in TITANIC that are not about action. It lures the audience in and makes it a more voyeuristic experience. My hope is that the conversion of TITANIC will help filmmakers realize that 3D is as appropriate for dramatic films as color is. From the chance to feel like you’re at the dinner table with Kate and Leo to flying with them on the bow, people will be surprised by how they are enveloped into the story in an even greater way.” The conversion process began with the scanning of a pristine 4K digital master from the original 35mm negative, which scoured away all visual imperfections. That alone was exciting to the filmmakers. “If you watched the master in 2D, it still looks more amazing, I would say, than what was released in 1997,” notes Cameron. This crystalline print then kicked off a yearlong process, during which some 300 computer artists put in more than 750,000 man-hours to “sculpt” the original photography into 3-dimensional digital information full of depth and scope. “Converting a film to 3D is not like waving a magic wand,” explains Cameron. “There’s no killer app that somehow knows how to turn things into 3D when there’s no 3D information from the original moment of photography. We had to create everything. Hundreds of artists worked tirelessly to outline every object in the frame, right down to each character’s face.” Cameron collaborated closely with Stereo D’s founder William Sherak to inspire the team towards visual excellence. Sherak understood his mission. “It was very simple: set the gold standard with the best 3D conversion yet done,” he summarizes. “The technology has arrived at the point that we were now able to deliver what James Cameron wanted at a quality level he was happy with. He wanted the sense that the audience is part of the movie and not just a bystander.” That meant never settling for good enough. “I believe this is the deepest conversion ever done,” states Sherak. “We had around 295,000 individual frames to work with and every one of those frames had to have the same complexity and depth. “ The process required time, but more than that, it required inspired artistry. “It takes true artists to do this work,” Sherak explains. “Every frame has to be looked at as a piece of art and it takes a creative vision to see how we’re going to add depth to that frame.” Throughout, the team was motivated by Cameron at the helm. “It really was no different than if he was directing the movie for the first time,” Sherak observes. “He knew exactly what he wanted and was so passionate about it – and that led to a group of artists who wanted to do their best for him. He brings that out in people.” Sherak continues: “Cameron approaches 3D as a real tool. He doesn’t use tricks, because when you have such a great story, there’s no reason for tricks. But I think his films convert especially well because as a filmmaker, he perceives depth better than almost anyone. Even in 2D, his films feel like they have depth. I remember when I saw TITANIC for the first time and in that famous, sweeping shot of the ship, you really felt like it was real. That’s where the technology allowed him to go back then and this is where the technology allows him to go now.” In the trenches with Cameron and Sherak were the film’s two visual supervisors — Mike Hedayati and Yoichiro Aoki – who worked with teams of roto artists, depth artists and paint artists. “Jim was great to work with,” says Hedayati, “and always very honest as to what we could do better. He really pushed us. In the past we might have an artist work on a shot for 2 days, but on TITANIC 3D, an artist spent 2 or 3 weeks on a single shot getting it to a better place.” Aoki says the team was awed from the get-go by the digital master. “Before we started, we were so nervous, but then we looked at the digital master, and the color and lighting were so gorgeous,” he says. “That helped us to convert to 3D because we had so many cues from the 2D.” Soon Aoki’s early nerves were replaced with deep satisfaction. “I think there is a feeling to the 3D version of TITANIC that you could never experience any other way,” he concludes. “This was a movie that made history and now I think we are making history again.” One of the most essential things to Cameron during the original production remained key to the conversion: the feeling of life on the ship, best exemplified by the sweeping wide shots of the ship at sea. “It’s really a world of its own and just as in AVATAR, you live in that world through the duration of that film,” Cameron says. “I always wanted to bring the ship to life in all its majesty but with the feeling of this dark shadow hanging over the whole thing. It becomes a metaphor for how technology can create the most beautiful things and yet also fail us when we don’t see the dangers ahead.” Working with wide shots of the ship, however, was very challenging for the team. “We normally would want to give those shots extreme depth but that has a side effect of slightly miniaturizing the scene,” explains Hedayati. “Jim was very sensitive to that and had us pull back to make it feel more natural and like real life. “ At the same time, the artists focused intently on the one-on-one scenes. “We were very careful with the close-ups,” comments Sherak. “One of the things that separates Stereo D is our ability to sculpt faces so that they look real. And, of course, the closer you get to the faces, the more you have to sculpt them.” Yoichiro Aoki notes: “You feel the 3D even more in more intimate scenes, and if the conversion is not good, that is where you will feel it.” For Cameron, perhaps the greatest thrill of the 3D conversion became the chance to give his creation a second life with movie audiences. He is well aware that the film will mean something different when it comes to theatres in 2012 than it did in 1997, and that intrigues him. “TITANIC will have a very different meaning today to someone who first saw it 15 years ago. Maybe that person has gotten married, maybe they’ve had children, and likely they’re going to look at life and love in a different way,” he muses. “For them, the story might be less about romantic love and more about our sense of duty and what we’re here on this planet for. But if you’re an 8 year-old boy seeing it for the first time, then it will be about the coolness of the ship and the race for survival; and if you’re a teenager experiencing the first emotions of love, it will feel like it’s about you. The thing about TITANIC then and now is that it has something for people of all ages.”

ABOUT THE ORIGINAL Inspiration At the start of the 20th century, the allure of a wondrous seaworthy creation called Titanic brought together a wide spectrum of humanity, each with their own reasons to be a part of her maiden voyage. To captains of industry and hopeful emigrants alike, Titanic was a towering symbol of man’s progress toward a modern age. Declared “unsinkable,” her precious cargo of more than 2,200 began the journey from Southampton, England to New York City with a sense of anticipation, awe and optimism . . . only to cruise into a haunting and historic catastrophe. A powerful mythology would grow around Titanic – with tales of bravery and cowardice spun through countless historic accounts, poems, music, films and novels. After decades of searching, the wreck of Titanic was found by an expedition team led by Dr. Robert Ballard in 1985 lying in two massive pieces 12,378 feet under the ocean surface – and the discovery would feed boundless controversy and fascination that continues to this day. It was this hulking specter below the sea that first inspired the imagination of James Cameron – and his vision of a love story entangled with the ship’s fate. He envisioned two people from different worlds colliding on a ship physically designed to prevent them from meeting. When third-class passenger Jack Dawson and first-class passenger Rose DeWitt Bukater come together, they take the ultimate risk: to defy the oppressive conventions of their time and fall in love. “The tragedy of Titanic has assumed an almost mythic quality in our collective imagination,” Cameron said in 1997. “But the passage of time has robbed it of its human face and vitality. I hope that Rose and Jack’s relationship will be a kind of emotional lightning rod, if you will, and allow viewers to invest their minds and their hearts to make history come alive again.”

Casting

With such a clear image of who Jack and Rose were as people, Cameron sought to find a pair of actors who could breathe life into these dynamic characters. He would ultimately select two young rising stars, both Oscar® nominees before the age of 21 – Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet – who would go on to become the leading actors of their generation. DiCaprio has since been nominated for two more Oscars® and won the Golden Globe for Martin Scorsese’s THE AVIATOR. Winslet received her second Oscar® nomination for TITANIC, and went on to numerous nominations and to win the Academy Award® for her role in THE READER. She has also won Emmy and Golden Globe Awards, most recently for HBO’s MILDRED PIERCE. “Luck was a major factor in casting Leo,” Cameron said then. “I just felt you would care about him. He has tremendous vitality on screen. Leo has a kind of wiry, survival quality about him that’s pretty cool. As for Kate, there was such a luminous quality in her face, voice and eyes that I knew audiences would be ready to go the distance with her, which was critical because it’s a hell of a journey and she’s ultimately the person you’re making that journey with.” Today, in 2012, Cameron is extremely gratified by the choices he made then. “Kate and Leo were not really stars when we cast them,” the director says. “We were taking a chance on them. But the film was successful in part because audiences really believed and really cared about them. They played so beautifully against each other and I could see that right from the beginning.” In 1997, Winslet explained her attraction to Rose. “She’s a very spirited girl,” she said. “She has a lot to give and a very open heart. She wants to explore the world but knows that’s not going to happen. When we first meet her, there’s a sense of resignation and despair about her. Then she meets Jack Dawson and an amazing love surfaces, which is based completely on trust and communication.” Though she boards Titanic thinking she is headed to a destiny of polo matches, cotillions and the other trappings of her privileged class, all the class lines blur when she realizes Jack sees her better than anyone she has known. “Jack is the first person, the first man certainly, who shows interest in her desires and her dreams,” Winslet said. “This story takes you to the point where you would do anything you could to stop that ship from sinking in order for them to be together.” DiCaprio felt a similar affinity for Jack Dawson, a struggling young artist who wins his third-class ticket aboard Titanic in a lucky game of poker. “Jack is a sort of wandering person,” Leonardo DiCaprio said then, “who seizes on the opportunities life presents to him. At a young age, I think he realizes how short life really is, and that’s a big factor in who he is as a person.” Seduced by Jack’s artist soul, Rose at first cannot find the strength to extricate herself from her engagement to wealthy Caledon Hockley, played by Billy Zane. He was drawn to the tumult of the times. “The world of 1912 was on a precipice,” Zane noted. “You have the birth of a new era, embodied by Jack, who is kind of a reminder of the frontier spirit. Cal represents a more imperious sensibility that is flawed and collapsing. Cal is the guy you love to hate. He’s coming to terms with exactly what a relationship is all about. Cal’s relationship with Rose is built more upon public appearance. She is a catch — a bauble — and there lies the root of the problem.” Portraying the modern-day pirate Brock Lovett, who roams through the wreck of the Titanic, is Bill Paxton, who had previously worked with Cameron on ALIENS, THE TERMINATOR and TRUE LIES. “Lovett is the character who brings you into the whole story,” described Paxton.“He knows all the technical details of the ship’s demise but has never really connected with the human drama that unfolded that night.” The emotional core of that drama comes to life via the performance of the late Gloria Stuart, the film’s grown-up Rose. “Jim structured the story to bring a modern-day audience back to Titanic through her character,” Paxton explained. “He interviewed quite a few women for the role, but there’s a kind of mischief about Gloria. Her irreverence is really like the character of Rose.” Stuart, who passed away in 2010, was then 87, having initially pursued an acting career in the 1930′s, until World War II prompted her retirement. It was not until the mid-1980′s that Stuart would return to the screen, dancing with Peter O’Toole in the opening moments of MY FAVORITE YEAR. Then came TITANIC. Said Stuart at the time: “After all the years and all my films, this one is the frosting on the cake.” Stuart recalled that Cameron drew inspiration for Rose after meeting famed Ojai artist Beatrice Wood, who was renowned for her vivid persona. It was Paxton who first suggested to Cameron that he should interview Wood, now 102 years old. Ultimately, Stuart found the parallels between her character and Wood to be quite inspiring. “She was still working and very feisty,” Stuart said in 1997. “Very colorful. Like Beatrice, Rose is a woman who survived. She knew what she wanted at a very early age. She didn’t want the kind of life her mother had in mind for her.” For Stuart, Rose offered a profound message in her moments on screen. “The strongest lesson is that you must live a good, productive life,” Stuart said. “Be generous and open. The material things in the long run don’t really pay off. What ultimately counts is the richness of your relationships with people. Only life is priceless.”

Historical Authenticity The filmmakers of TITANIC spent more than five years prior to production researching the ship — both her life and her loss — to make sure that, within the drama, they were able to bring the audience all the riveting details, great and small, that added up to the ship’s glory and loss. “We wanted to tell a fictional story within absolutely rigorous, historically accurate terms,” Cameron explained in 1997. “If something is known to have taken place, we do not violate it. Likewise, there’s nothing that we show that could not have happened. Our fictitious characters are woven through the pylons of history in such a way that they could have been there. All the accuracy and all the special visual effects are intended for one purpose: to put the viewer on Titanic. It’s a very you-are-there kind of experience.” Their determination to create the definitive account of this historical event was exemplified by the early involvement of Titanic experts Don Lynch and noted artist Ken Marschall, authors of Titanic: An Illustrated History, who came aboard as consultants for the motion picture. “Jim was extremely impressed with Ken’s art work and wanted to bring it to life on the screen,” Lynch said. “We sat down with Jim’s treatment, going through it page by page for physical and historical accuracy. Jim wanted to know if, for instance, a character could be in the racquetball court one minute and by the swimming pool the next. He wanted all the action to be possible, even if only die-hard Titanic enthusiasts would know.” Marschall and Lynch had spent years studying archives and photographs, and were also able to provide samples and photos of furnishings and fabrics from their personal collection from Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic. Upon seeing the completed ship set for the first time, Marschall says he felt an intense flood of emotion. “It was like stepping back in time,” he said. “Seeing the White Star dock as it looked in April of 1912 was every bit as impressive as the ship itself. The lights hanging down from those little gantries on the top, the passenger galley running alongside. Just to see it built in three dimensions for the first time, I was speechless. I spent a lifetime imagining what it would be like to walk the decks of this ship. And suddenly, I was. There were no words.”

Deep Dives

The quest for authenticity would also bring Cameron and his team deep under the ocean to the long-submerged wreck itself, which he insisted on capturing in a series of technologically challenging dives. The filmmakers chartered a Russian scientific vessel, the Keldysh, which housed two of only five manned submersibles (Mir 1 and Mir 2) capable of reaching the requisite depths. Prior to making a series of 12 dives to the wreck site, a number of technical and logistical problems had to be solved. While there had been previous efforts to film the wreckage, the cameras had been limited in both scope and movement. So the first challenge was to design the necessary technology to liberate the camera, moving it outside of the sub and into a treacherous environment of freezing temperatures and pressure of over 6,000 pounds per square inch. “No one had ever taken a camera that deep before,” Cameron said. “The crushing force of the water would implode any normal camera housing. I wanted to have it outside in the water, attached to the submersible, but able to pan and tilt naturally and be able to use wide-angle lenses to get the most out of the shots. So we had to create a camera system.” Michael Cameron played a key role in this engineering effort. Working with Panavision and several submergence technology companies, an off-the-shelf 35mm camera was modified to fit within custom-made titanium housings on a specially designed pan-and-tilt, remote-operated platform. A custom lighting system as well as an “ROV” (remotely operated vehicle) that could be piloted around the wreck were also designed under Michael Cameron’s supervision. Because of the limited volume of the titanium camera housings, the camera could only hold one 500-foot roll of film, and reloading was obviously out of the question. Each sub’s three-man crew had to endure a perilous two-and-a-half hour journey (each way) packed in a seven-foot diameter crew sphere. Efficiency became a critical factor. Utilizing a model of the wreckage based on photo mosaics supplied from previous Titanic expeditions, Cameron and his team held several planning sessions aboard the Keldysh to devise the optimal strategy for capturing the best images. “We had a little pre-visualization bay set up where we would take a little video camera,” Cameron explained, “and mount it on a miniature submersible with fiber-optic lights that corresponded to the actual light we’d be using. We would do dry test runs of the shot in smoke, and I would get the Russian sub-pilots to move their toy subs the way they were going to move their actual vehicles so that they would understand the shots.” The experience was invaluable – as much for its emotional impact as the specifics it revealed. Cameron recalls, “I went there as a director, so when we made our first dive, it was ‘Shot one, shot two, shot three.’ We had a schedule to make. It wasn’t until the third or fourth dive that I let it hit me emotionally — the awe and mystery of being two-and-a-half miles down on the floor of the Atlantic, seeing the sad ruin of this great ship.” “We were able to come back with this rich harvest of film and video images,” Cameron continues. “We sent our remote vehicle inside and explored the interiors. We literally saw things that no one has seen since 1912, since the ship went down. We integrated these images into the fabric of the film and that reality has a profound impact on the emotional power of the film.” Following the dives to the Titanic wreck, Cameron took the film reels to the art department to begin construction of the models used in the film. The director asked production designer Peter Lamont to recreate several specifics he saw inside the ship, including such items as a bronze fireplace box Cameron photographed inside a ghostly suite, restored to its pristine 1912 glory. In July 1996, the second leg of the film’s journey began in Escondido, California. It was here, in a shooting tank, that Cameron filmed the wreck’s recreated interiors, replete with authentic window frames, doorjambs, a light fixture hanging on a wire, even a brass doorplate he saw in the First Class Reception that read, “PULL.” “When you see the interior and exterior of Titanic in this film,” said Cameron, “it is as close as you can get to going in a time machine and being on that ship.”

The Ship Among the most striking moments in TITANIC are its transitions from present to past as 101-year-old Rose Calvert recounts her amazing tale. With video monitors displaying the shattered ship in the background, Rose paints her own vivid image of an April day in 1912. Slowly, the ruin of Titanic is dramatically restored on screen to its regal glory at Southampton. The creation of that ship would become one of the most complex undertakings in modern filmmaking. The magic took place at Rosarito Beach, in Baja California, where the combined efforts of a massive team of artists, craftsmen and engineers crafted the 775-foot long exterior shooting set of Titanic as well as the seven-acre, 17-million-gallon seawater tank in which she was sunk. The decision to build the largest shooting tank in the world in Rosarito was made after a global search. “No single existing site in the world could contain the scale of our production and the attendant facilities that were required to film the scenes that Jim Cameron envisioned,” Jon Landau said. “In order to support the scope of the film and to be able to facilitate both interior and exterior production, it was more efficient to custom-build it all in one place.” Construction on the Fox Baja Studios began May 30, 1996 on a 40-acre beach front parcel of land. The facility featured a 17-million-gallon exterior tank, a 5-million-gallon interior tank housed in a 32,000-square-foot sound stage and three traditional stages. A scant 100 days later, principal photography began. And looming majestically against the breathtaking Mexican coastline was the set of Titanic, standing 45-feet from the water line to the boat deck floor, its four distinctive funnels towering another 54-feet against a timeless horizon.

Period Design

The realism of TITANIC extended deep into the ship as the filmmakers took the same unceasing efforts to ensure that the actors’ dress and mannerisms were as true to the period as their environment. Housed in a building as large as a football field, a skilled international team of wardrobe, hair and makeup artists dressed as many as 1,000 extras as well as the principal cast. The work of capturing the fashions of a Victorian era on the cusp of liberating change fell to costume designer Deborah Lynn Scott, who won the Oscar® for TITANIC and reunited with Cameron for AVATAR. Scott dove into researching a period when wardrobe, perhaps more than ever, reflected a person’s stature. “This was an era of great formality,” Scott said in 1997. “People of wealth changed their wardrobe four and five times a day. Their clothes were so elaborate that personal maids and valets were absolutely necessary . . . Although they still wore corsets, the robust Victorian look was out; the new silhouette was lean and more youthful.” Key makeup artist Tina Earnshaw complemented Scott’s wardrobe with a period palette. “After the no-makeup look of the Victorians, the elite of the Edwardian period were thrilled to wear makeup. Very subtle, though — a bit of powder, a little kohl around the eyes, lipstain made from berries and a touch of rouge,” she commented. Earnshaw’s research extended to the effects of extreme cold as she learned that tears freeze and wet hair breaks off in icicles as a result. Key hair artist Simon Thompson also poured over research materials and ultimately purchased 450 wigs and hundreds of hairpieces for the large cast. In his research, Thompson also found an exquisite tortoise hair comb, which prompts Rose Calvert’s vivid recollections of the past. Dialect coach Susan Hegarty worked closely with the cast to reflect both High Society and emigrant accents. Choreographer and etiquette coach Lynne Hockney further ensured the actors absorbed the manners and mores of period behavior. “The Edwardian period produced hundreds of etiquette manuals,” Hockney noted. “From their clothes to their body language to their conversation, there were strict rules to follow.” For Leonardo DiCaprio it was a major change of pace. While he studied the gentlemanly comportment of such minutiae as holding a fork, DiCaprio sought a more realistic compromise with a timeless performance. “I worked with the etiquette coach and halfway into it,” he said, “I realized that in order to make Jack the character he is, he sort of needs to ignore such things . . .. Communication between men and women was different then. Jack disregards all that, and that’s why Rose is interested in him.” Further rounding out Jack’s character as a free-spirited artist of the period is his drawing style, displayed in the sketch of Rose that he completes the night Titanic sinks, later recovered in the salvage. As Cameron explains, “When the art department was unable to locate an artist who could complete the sketch as I envisioned it, I decided to draw it myself from photographs of Kate.”

The Score Another layer of TITANIC’s resounding success became its music, with the expressive compositions of James Horner garnering the Oscar® for Best Score and the soundtrack quickly blossoming into one of the best-selling albums of all time. In addition, the song “My Heart Will Go On,” performed by soon-to-be-superstar Celine Dion and written by Horner and Will Jennings, won the Oscar® for Best Song and was soon indelibly entwined with memories from the film. Horner collaborated closely with Cameron to create something that eschewed sentimental conventions, yet still captured the shifts of the period, the starkness of the love story and the twin themes of human hubris and transcendent courage. With a mix of synthesizer, choral vocals and orchestra, Horner fused an emotional connection not only between Rose and Jack but also between their story and audiences the world over. “I knew from the first piano sketches that James played for me that we were going to have a great score,” recalls Cameron in 2012. “I told him, I want you to write two great themes and he just went off and watched dailies, dailies and more dailies until he got into the heart of the movie. He went off on his own and I didn’t hear from him for a month or so . . . then he invited me to his studio, and he played the themes. I felt like I was going to cry – just from the beauty of the music and how perfectly it captured the feelings of TITANIC.” Cameron goes on: “He played the theme as the ship is leaving Southampton, full of optimism, and the more tragically romantic Rose theme and he played me a third theme that would later become the Celine Dion song. When he was done playing those three themes – which took maybe 15 minutes — I said, ‘I don’t know if this is going to be a good movie or a bad movie, but I know it’s going to be a great score.’ There was still a lot to be worked out — fitting the music to the picture, modulating all the moods and emotions — but from that point on, James and I found ourselves in a tighter and tighter collaboration, which was really fulfilling for both of us.” Cameron recalls that he was initially skeptical about using an end-credits song at all. Then he heard Celine Dion sing “My Heart Will Go On.” “By the second stanza, I was so moved by the heights that she hit, by the power in her voice,” he remembers. “I had no idea who Celine Dion was but I just liked the song. Later, the song had a whole life of its own. If you’d seen the film, and you heard it while shopping or driving around, it would bring back all those emotions.” Sums up Jon Landau: “The score of TITANIC is inextricably linked with the success of the film. It’s the emotional heartbeat of the film.”

Facts About the R.M.S. Titanic:  R.M.S. stands for Royal Mail Steamer.  Titanic was the second of three superliners constructed by White Star Line to ply the Atlantic  Titanic measured 882 feet, longer than the tallest skyscraper in New York at the time.  The rudder alone, in excess of 101 tons, was heavier than Christopher Columbus’s Santa Maria.  There were approximately 100,000 pounds of meat on board Titanic.  There were enough lifeboats to accommodate only half of Titanic’s passengers.  The top speed of Titanic was 23 knots.  Titanic’s top first-class ticket price was $3,100 while the cost of a third-class ticket was $32  To build Titanic in 1912 cost approximately $7.5 million.  Shortly after she sailed on April 10, 1912, Titanic nearly collided with the liner New York while departing the docks, sparking concern about the ship’s safety and maneuverability  The first-class lounge was designed after the palace at Versailles.  Titanic received numerous messages from other ships regarding icebergs in the vicinity.  Titanic had 16 watertight compartments to reduce its risk of sinking. The iceberg ruptured 5 of the 16, enough to pull the liner into the freezing waters.  Women and children in first-class and second-class were given priority in the lifeboats.  The first lifeboat to be lowered had a capacity of 65 yet carried only 28.  As Titanic sank, the band played on deck in an effort to calm passengers awaiting rescue.  Crewmen blocked exits from the third-class area to prevent men from accessing the deck.  Of the lifeboats lowered before Titanic sank, only one returned to pick up more passengers.  Titanic broke in two shortly before completely sinking into the Atlantic.  Even as the boat sank, many passengers still refused to believe the superliner could go under.  After Titanic hit the iceberg, people were out on the decks playing with chunks of ice.  A mysterious ship was reportedly spotted not far from Titanic, which never responded to her distress signals and steamed off into the night.  The ocean liner Carpathia, responding to Titanic’s distress calls, arrived nearly two hours after Titanic had sunk.  Sixty percent, or 199, of the first-class passengers were saved while only 25%, or 174, of the third-class passengers survived. Only 32% of all on board Titanic survived.

THE ENDURING FASCINATION TITANIC 3D marks the third time in history the ship has captivated the world. The first time was in 1912, after she was constructed in Belfast, then launched with an unprecedented wave of global publicity. Titanic left Southampton dock midday on Wednesday, April 10, 1912, stopping at Cherbourg, France, where the “unsinkable” Molly Brown and John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest of her passengers, boarded and made her last stop at Queenstown on the south coast of Ireland. From Queenstown, with some 2,223 people aboard, she steamed at top speed for New York City. Despite repeated warnings of ice along its route, the ship struck an iceberg at 11:40pm on April 14th. By 2:30am on April 15th, she lay torn in half at the bottom of the North Atlantic. As with most epic disasters, we know today that there was no single cause, but multiple human errors that piled up on each other – navigational blunders, communication gaps, lack of emergency procedures and lifeboats, upper-class privilege, fierce cold, the moonless dark, sheer physics, disbelief and denial, all contributing to the deaths of 1,500 men, women and children. A century later, the fascination hasn’t faded at all – if anything it has become even stronger, a cautionary legend that speaks to our times of great technological advances and even greater perils. Cameron says the unending allure lies therein. “Titanic was the first big wake-up call of the 20th century,” the director concludes. “Technology had been delivering a steady diet of miracles for the better part of two decades — the automobile, sound recording, radio communication, the airplane, motion pictures. Everything was just exploding with possibilities; it was all going to be great and wonderful in the never-ending upward spiral of progress. And then, boom – 1500 people die in what had been advertised as the best, safest, most luxurious ship ever built. Our so-called mastery over nature was completely refuted and forever destroyed.”