As filming "Titanic" - rare photos from the shooting

This year marks the centenary of the death of the legendary "Titanic," and on the big screen again came the famous film Cameron, this time in 3D. The people again reached out to the movies (or trackers) to reconsider a landmark masterpiece, the shooting of which in 1998 spent a record $ 200 million.

Do you want to look "behind the scenes" and see how all the familiar scenes were filmed? Today you have such an opportunity!

At the beginning of 1996, on the coast of Rosarito Beach, located in the State of Baja California (Mexico), it began construction of a new pavilion giant 20th Century Fox studio, which had to shoot most of the scenes for the film. There, with the help of five tons of dynamite, the pool was created with the displacement of four million liters, which in the future will "float" the largest model in the history of cinema.

Production designer Peter Lamont paintings (Peter Lamont), managed to get in the shipbuilding company Harland & Wolff copies of drawings of the Titanic. By using them, as well as the diary of Thomas Andrews (Thomas Andrews), the main ship designers, builders, work began on the construction of an almost complete copy of the Titanic. Final model created ship reaches 231 m in length, whereas present liner was only 34 meters long. It was on board this "ship" have been made shooting the actors, the replaced later in the film on digital doubles. "With filming on our ship layout number of special effects fell by almost a thousand episodes," - says the producer of the film Jon Landau (Jon Landau).

According to Rob Legato, one of the reasons for the special effects in "Titanic" look so believable is the continuous improvement of software and hardware to monitor the position of cameras and the "motion capture".

"We have used the system" motion capture "for the filming of the movie as the characters move, stand, sit," - he recalls. "Then we scan the tape to a computer, and laid our actors on their computer models."

During the filming of the actors were dressed in costumes, hung with sensors for the "motion capture". Their actions seemed arbitrary, although they were told in advance what to do. People shaking hands and introduce themselves to others. They drank tea, waving to their friends and perform other movements that seem natural and appropriate in a given place and a given time. In the depths of Digital Domain whole library of digitized motion was created, which was available to each animator's studio.

"The person in charge of the process of filming on the" motion capture ", said:" Let the three men stand back and shrug their hands to one another. Then let the other pass trio behind this. " "In principle, the process resembles a regular survey of actors in any given scene. Then our artists, with the help of computers, "cut out" of the face and clothes of these actors and put it into digital stand-ins. We also used data from the shooting to emulate natural light. When digital actors go on deck, they come in both shaded and in the contrary, the lighter areas, thereby, achieved greater compliance with these scenes shot Russ (Russell Carpenter (Russell Carpenter) the operator of the film). "

During the filming of scenes with the use of technology "motion capture" was used services forty actors. By simply copying the three-dimensional models in the scenes of the ship wreck, took simultaneous participation of 1,000 or more people. According to Rob Legato: "Jim could hire another thousand people, but they would have to transport, feed, clothe, and hire additional masters to impose makeup My rule during filming was simple:. If something can be recorded at with a standard film camera, we're shooting on film. If a scene or an object it can not be removed, we use a computer. For scenes in which the Titanic passengers falling from a great height into the water, we shot real splash from falling ordinary object thrown into the ocean. the place of the expected three weeks out, to simulate the dynamics of water bursts with a computer, we have gone only an hour. "

In continuation of the theme of the process of shooting the falling into the water people, Legato notes that after film footage was filmed the scanned and transferred into the computer, Digital Domain animators "lengthened" stuntmen jumping from a 6-meter-high and 21-meter. At the same time, has been used in the simulated water machine allows you to make a collision with it more dramatic and natural. Supervisor explains that even the best stuntmen will contract just before falling into the water.

"Just one glass dome crowning the upper deck of the ship, picked up from the budget of" Titanic "500 thousand dollars!"

In addition to three-dimensional passengers and water to create special effects for the film it was necessary miniature model of the Titanic museum detailing, which was built a few pieces. Doing this, as previously mentioned, Digital Domain (DD) and Donald Pennington Inc (DPI).

"To create this episode was made up filming Titanic in scale of 1:20, the deck of which were later installed" digital "is worth praise passengers Digital Domain employees for the great rotoscoping scene:. The picture is clearly seen that all passengers are outside . mechanical rope railings of the ship over this episode and worked BFTR: during the filming of the ship's hull was covered with rust bloom, moreover, the paint due to the scorching sun faded ElectricImage Using the software, and Adobe After Effects, BFTR studio replaced the real painting of the new "digital".

In addition to them, in the creation of models attended another Studio, Vision Crew, Produce Digital Domain detailed miniatures of the ship, such as lifeboats, cranes, propellers, as well as about 2,000 portholes! On the creation of the Titanic interiors separately from Digital Domain and Donald Pennington worked and other studios.

The basic tool of Digital Domain during the creation of the digital ocean water to the "Titanic" was the software created by Arete using the results of the analysis of satellite imagery sailing ships. According Legato developers wave dynamics studied being left floating vessels, the effect of wind speed in waves, the amount of light reflected and absorbed by water. Digital Domain has improved the program by adding to it the possibility of the removal of the virtual camera over long distances, as well as the creation of various trajectories of its flight. Furthermore, there were added, and other options: to choose the height shooting angles, lens sizes sky water reflections, as well as objects on or in the water surface, reflecting sunlight.

Studios have been created: 7, 5 th (scale 1:35, DD), 13 m (scale 1:20, DD) and 18th (scale 1:14 5, DPI) models, as well as 44 m (scale 1: 6, DPI) miniature that during the filming fractured in half (DPI), 7, 5th bow (DD), 7th and 15th fodder (DPI) of the ship. Both studios have also collaborated in the process of construction of full-size copies of the submarine "Mir".