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Does anyone know how JC did those great reciprocating engine room shots in his movie "Titanic"? ADavid

ADavid,
The engines were shot aboard the Jeremiah O'Brien,an historic liberty ship in San Francisco bay.

There's a Youtube video that explains the making of the Titanic movie, and how it's done.
Since the O'Briens' engines are only a fraction of the size of the ones on Titanic, Cameron filmed them with correctly scaled ladders and catwalks, and used CGI to insert the engineers.
It was pretty convincing...hunh??
Take a look at the "Making of.." videos on Youtube!!
Charles

Attachment #1, (jpg file)

I'm surprised about this; i always thought they used a scale model.
Thanks for the info!
Regards,
Mike.

I'm sure they used a large scale model, then green screened the actors/engineers and inserted them in post production. I remember seeing the model at the Fox/TITANIC movie tour. Plus it is covered in the making of books.

Jonathan Smith
TRMA Trustee (United Kingdom)

'The Olympic Class Liners' Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/groups/138884062810106/

Both right, it was a combination of real shots from the Liberty ship and also a scale model (I think 1/20th scale), oh and also some full scale sets shot on a stage against green screen. The Cinefex book issue 72 and the Delux 4 disc dvd set shows and explains most of it. The model is still with Fox I believe and was on display at Fox Baja but no longer there.

Here are some images and sources of info;
http://www.fxguide.com/featured/titanic-stories/
http://wefald.com/movie.html
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/engine-room

Just chiming in to agree - a variety of techniques were employed to create the illusion. One of the fun games to play during the film's engine room sequences is to 'spot the effect'. Some general rules of thumb:

- Up close shots of parts of the machinery working tend to be shot on the JOB and enhanced with green-screened actors.

- Wider shots showing whole engines at work tend to be the model, enhanced with CGI motion-captured people (except for those really close to the camera, possibly?)

- Even wider shots (that would have been physically impossible to make in the real engine room!) showing the C.E. Bell and the starting platform in the foreground with the engines in the background are a mix of live action (the foreground) and model (background), matched by motion control.

- Some shots have no trickery at all, I think: Aside from a variety of close-ups of dials, valves, etc., I believe shots showing the propellor shafts exiting the aft-end of the engine room were full-scale sets that were made on-the-cheap towards the end of the shoot, and don't bear too close examination (hence there's probably less than half a dozen shots showing them!) - or so I read.

I guess that were the film being made now, the whole lot would just be CGI with only one or two 'real' actors being composited in.

Ronnie

>ADavid,
>The engines were shot aboard the Jeremiah O'Brien,an historic
>liberty ship in San Francisco bay.
>
>There's a Youtube video that explains the making of the
>Titanic movie, and how it's done.
>Since the O'Briens' engines are only a fraction of the size of
>the ones on Titanic, Cameron filmed them with correctly scaled
>ladders and catwalks, and used CGI to insert the engineers.
>It was pretty convincing...hunh??
>Take a look at the "Making of.." videos on Youtube!!
>Charles
>
Thanks, Charles. I've been in the J. O'B.'s engine room twice. Once at San Francisco and once at West Sacramento with the engine running. I love being able to explore the machinery spaces that are off limits on most ships. ADavid