TITANIC FACTS AND FIGURES
In total, there were about 18,000 extras hired, including a core team of 150 that stayed for the whole six month shoot of the film, a group of 500 swimmers that were there for two weeks, and 2,000 extras that worked for three days.
The filmakers of Titanic spent more than five years researching the ship and the details of her sudden sinking.
In the space of only 100 days, a nearly full-size, 775-foot long exterior set of the titanic, as well a a seven-acre, 17 million gallon seawater tank in which to sink her, was created.
The crew had to create a new kind of camera so they could film tha actual Titanic at the bottom of the ocean, as normal cameras could only hold one roll of film, and reloading it was obviously not an option. "Whan you're making a 16-hour drive and you have 12 minutes of film to shoot,it's a little scary says director, James Cameron.
Apparently, in between filming, Leonardo played Nintendo in his dressing room and went through a stage of playing poker in the hotel bar.
The world premiere of Titanic was at Tokyo fim festival on November 4 1997.
Since the hull was only completed on the starboard side, the scene had to be "flipped around" when they were shooting the port side. It was not uncommon to see people walking around with "White Star Line" written backwards on their hats.
James Cameron actually went down to the Titanic wreck to see it for himself - 12 times at an average of 16 hours each - and to take the real footage that you see at the beginning of the film. A camera was fashioned that could withstand the pressure and only had 12 minutes of film. There was no way the film could be reloaded, so the crew did test shots with a small model of the ship in smoke to make sure of the exact movements.
Every woman in the film wore a corset, even if they were extras that were barely able to be seen.
Most of the shots of Titanic at sea aren't real, but the real scenes were shot in Baja, Mexico. Many of the extras were Mexican people.
When Jack and Rose are "flying" and they kiss, the sunset behind them is real. They had to film the scene in only a few minutes before the sun went down.
James Cameron did many of the camera shots in the film.
The "frozen" people in the ocean were covered with a powder that crystallizes when water touches it.
The band that played below decks during the "third-class dance" is actually a band from Santa Monica called Gaelic Storm.
All of the extras in the film went through an etiquette class so they would know how people in 1912 talked, acted and moved. The waiters learned how to serve and what to say.
When the ship started to go down, it sent up flares. During the real disaster, there were no red emergency flares on Titanic, so instead the celebration flares were used. A ship did happen to see the flares but thought nothing more of them than a party on a ship.
Most of the dancers in the "third-class dance" were professional dancers.
When Molly Brown is telling the story about burning money in the stove. That's one of the famous tall tales she always told.
It was James Cameron's hands you saw doing the sketch of Rose nude. He also did the other drawings in Jack's portfolio.
Although the water rising in the corridors of the ship was as cold as it looked, the water temperature when Rose was floating on the drift board was about 80 degrees.
The lifeboat requirement at the time was 16 boats. Titanic had 20, which more than met the requirements, although there was room enough for only half the people on board.
If you had the money, you could get a private message sent across the wire through the Marconi Room. These were considered more urgent than even the iceberg warnings. The Marconi operators received many messages about icebergs that they ignored, considering the information unimportant.
When Jack (Leo) said the line "sit over there on the bed, I mean, couch!"That was not in the script. Leo actually said that on his own and the crew loved it and kept it in! Well, we all know what the real Leo was thinking now!
Kate was doing her makeup getting ready for her nude scene, so she wasn't wearing anything, and Leo walked in and said "Whoa!" and went on to say they might as well get used to it, they were going to be there all day.
Kate said she was a little nervous doing some underwater scenes by herself, but not to worry, she she was less flustered with Leo under her stroking her legs. Not flustered with Leo stroking her legs?
The scene that Kate Winslett spits in Cal's face was actually thought of by Kate herself. They took 20 some takes of the scene. Her mouth became dry so director James Cameron put KY-Jelly in her mouth as a substitute for spit.
Only half the ship was built on the set, the rest was computer imaging.
On the real Titanic only three of the smokestacks were supposed to have smoke coming out of them, (the 4th was some sort of ventilating thing), but you'll notice all 4 in the movie are spewing smoke.
LSD was put into the punch bowl one day on the set and production for the day was cancelled.
The people that fell into the rudders of the ship during the movie were computer-generated.
The dolphins in the sunset swimming beside the ship were real.
The bill came to $8.4 million dollars for all of the beautiful costumes.
There was 12 - 18 minutes of real footage of the 'Titanic' ship. Director James Cameron went on a dive to retrieve some of the shots, which totaled to $1.2 million dollars. It also took 2 hours of freefall to get to the bottom of the ocean to see 'Titanic'.
Since the corsets the women were wearing were so hard to get off, they were literally hung up to dry in them when they got wet (with the women in them). It took approximately six hours for them to dry completely.
There were jacuzzis all around the set during break so the cast could get all warmed up.
Both DiCaprio and Winslet admit to peeing in the water tank to:
1. To stay warm
2. Because they were too lazy to get out and use the bathrooms.
The water in the tank in which the ending scenes were shot was 50 degrees at first, but then it was warmed up to 80 degrees. The half of the ship that Winslet and DiCaprio were on during the sinking was mainly computer-generated. Part of it was made, however, and it moved. The cameramen filmed the scenes on an angle so the ship looked like it was actually vertical.
While Jack and Rose were a fictional couple, the instance when Rose jumped back on the ship from the lifeboat really did happen with a real couple on the ship.
In real life, the captain of the 'Titanic' did go down with the ship. It was also accurate that the creator of the 'Titanic' did get onto a lifeboat, because he was a coward, and was shunned for the rest of his life in society.
Somewhere in the vicinity of the film, DiCaprio says, "Cool!", even though the phrase was not used back then. He says it very fast, and it's very faint. He says it during the scene in which he is drawing Winslet.
