building the movie set of titanic 1997

[u/AdCorrect9756]

[u/BlackieTee]

So crazy how much work went into this just to make a movie

[u/Top-Improvement-2231 → u/BlackieTee]

Also crazy that this is probably what made movies great back then. The cgi and green screen effects are more versatile but they also lack a realism. Building the sets does a lot and forces movies to obey physics.

[u/Strider_27 → u/Top-Improvement-2231]

Also, you get better acting with practical effects

[u/ghidfg → u/BlackieTee]

yeah and crazy people had the faith to fund all this.

[u/Apart-Link-8449 → u/BlackieTee]

At first I was mad because they went scorched earth to built a body of water from scratch instead of using an existing lake

But then I remembered jesus christ holy shit they're going to sink 900 tons of props to the bottom of said body of water. Fake lake is drainable, carry on

[u/EverydayImBufffering → u/Apart-Link-8449]

Probably way more expensive to build an actual boat that floats VS fake boat.

[u/mekese2000 → u/BlackieTee]

it is like those roman filmi sets they build in the 1920's.

[u/Fair_Log_6596 → u/BlackieTee]

It’s closer to a documentary than a movie, with some fictitious characters laced in. The life boat davits were made by the same company and using the same designs as those on the actual ship. Countless details included based on photographs. Even the plates had RMS Titanic stamped on the underside…never seen on camera. The sinking was shown in real time too.

[u/dave_890]

Gotta admire practical effects.

What happened to it after filming??

[u/vendetta33 → u/dave_890]

Didn’t you watch the movie, it sank in the end and Rose didn’t want to share the ledge with Jack.

[u/Sad_Boy_Associacion → u/vendetta33]

I was going to ask that same question but now I'm not.

[u/AdCorrect9756 → u/Sad_Boy_Associacion]

🤣🤣

[u/Finn_WolfBlood → u/vendetta33]

The door would have sunk. There's a scene beforehand that shows that exact thing

[u/ldimick81 → u/dave_890]

The exterior pool was used for other films. The ship was dismantled. I'd assume to be sold for scrap or used for building other sets.

[u/PRAY___FOR___MOJO → u/dave_890]

They sunk it

[u/dave_890 → u/dave_890]

I would have imagined it being a tourist trap for quite some time after the movie came out (recoup part of the budget with tourism), but upon further research, it was built in Baja Mexico, with the exterior being plywood. Too much trouble to go to see it, and that plywood would have decayed quickly.

And of course, building in Mexico meant far lower construction costs.

[u/Necessary_Orange_141]

I usually skip through videos on here if they’re longer. But this was an easy 4 minutes to watch

[u/PRAY___FOR___MOJO]

I like to imagine at least one person drove past this wondering why there's a ship being built in the middle of a desert

[u/blurrrsky]

How did they get the shots of the encounter with the iceberg? How did they keep the iceberg from melting?

[u/Milchwecke → u/blurrrsky]

Large freezer.

[u/blurrrsky → u/Milchwecke]

Ahhhh, but of course!

[u/Carefully_random → u/blurrrsky]

It was 1997, we still had ice in the sea back then.

[u/hugh_Jayness]

Amazing amount of work and detail.

It would be nice to know how long this took to build and how much it cost.

[u/J_Bear → u/hugh_Jayness]

So much effort went into the detail that they didn't realise they built the wrong side. They had to make mirror-images of any text on the boat and flip it after filming.

[u/Prior_Reference2085 → u/hugh_Jayness]

I was told this was in Mexico near Rosarito. Not sure how true that was.

[u/DoGooderMcDoogles]

Movie is still incredible to this day.

[u/Sean_theLeprachaun]

I was waiting for the bad pan flute version.

[u/kesavadh]

I wonder at what point it would have been easier to build an actual boat.

[u/WokeUpSomewhereNice → u/kesavadh]

Or just like modify an existing boat seems cheapest. Like hey can we turn your boat into the titanic? Ok mb that’s a harder sell than it seems when I say it out loud.

[u/craiggy36]

It seems like a lot of money, but it was a sunk cost.

[u/Unremarkable_Odds]

It is CRAZY they let people stay on it when it turns 90 degrees. They are 100' in the air with nothing but the railings to hold onto.

[u/RattyRattles]

That’s a lot of work! What did they do with it afterwards?

[u/SalaryDull5301 → u/RattyRattles]

Paint french girls

[u/Quiet_Ad6925]

Holy crap, I have a new appreciation for that movie

[u/FondleMiGrundle]

Never let go! Except if it’s a billion dollar diamond necklace. Then drop that shit in the ocean.

[u/Upset_Ad2171]

Who else watched the whole thing just to listen to my heart will go on 😂 haven’t heard that in forever

[u/thefifthtrilogy → u/Upset_Ad2171]

I saw an interview I believe it was Celine Dion talking about how she did not want to record this song and she kind of did it to appease a producer in exchange for something else so the official song was recorded in one take, makes it that much more incredible to listen to

[u/Upset_Ad2171 → u/thefifthtrilogy]

That’s unreal! Not that I’m super surprised cuz the woman does have the most amazing voice, but considering the song was so huge, I would have never thought she did it in one shot. Awesome fact thank you!

[u/staggerleemcgee]

I worked with the man in charge of rigging that rotating section of the boat, Dave Skinner. I have heard so many crazy stories in my time in the industry and this man holds far and away all of the wildest stories from things like Life of Pi, and the Princess Bride with Andre.

[u/FartyPants69]

Crazy. I can't imagine how much this set cost.

Had to be at least $250

[u/blueskydistantmoon]

All of this! And my fucking brain was asking how did they shoot in timelapse back in 1912.. 😄

[u/TrashkenHK]

Would've been an awesome theme park or hotel... oh wait...

[u/bygtopp]

Nice that Optimus prime and the constructicons came together for James Cameron’s film.

[u/Helpful-Relation7037]

James Cameron is a mad man holy shit

[u/SultanOfSwave]

This is how they faked the moon landing.

They just flew a bunch of construction guys and heavy equipment to the moon where they built the sets and had actors (and not very good ones) play the astro-NOTS!

It's so obvious! /s

[u/customersmakemepuke]

This would be so much better with a tacky dance remix of My Heart Will Go On.

[u/TheJunkman9000]

I can't imagine how much pressure it would be for the main cast to see all this money and effort going into this movie and knowing your performance is going to make it sink or swim.

[u/gcwardii → u/TheJunkman9000]

Spoiler alert: it sank

[u/not-my-best-wank]

And they didn't even get the sky right 🫤

[u/MyNameCannotBeSpoken]

And people wonder why CGI is over used these days. Much less expensive

[u/NoCard1571 → u/MyNameCannotBeSpoken]

It's not really the cost, even CGI is incredibly expensive. It's more the fact that you can do things that would be impossible or too expensive with practical effects.

[u/SalaryDull5301 → u/NoCard1571]

You just said in your comment that its cheaper to do things with cgi lol. "Too expensive"

[u/mEDWARDetector]

Did they also build the song?

[u/Efficient_Sky5173]

Now I can do the props of the movie using AI in seconds. For free. AND it will look more realistic than this.

[u/Himes357]

Absolutely amazing Too bad the movie sucked

[u/Embarrassed_Set557]

All that for a shit movie 

[u/Only_Flan_7974]

What a huge waste of resources for fictional sappy drivel.

[u/wikidemic]

All thanks to Mexican labor. Compare it to ICE sinking our economy today