Director of photography Russell Carpenter, ASC and an experienced crew capture the famed Titanic catastrophe on a grand scale often via surprisingly simple methods.
When the supposedly "unsinkable" R.M.S. Titanic was launched in 1912, its builders believed that they had thought of everything. The ship's design was supposedly flawless; no one could conceive that such a magnificent vessel would ever take on water.
As history has shown us, however, even man's best-laid plans can be undone by the whims of nature. Perhaps this is why the filmmakers behind the epic motion picture Titanic were willing to trust their own ability to work out problems on the fly. "In terms of the extensive period of formal testing that I wish I'd had on this film, well, there was none of that," cinematographer Russell Carpenter, ASC says with a wry laugh. "My prep basically consisted of [director] Jim Cameron saying, 'You know what you're doing, right?' And of course I replied, 'Yes.'"
Carpenter, who had previously collaborated with Cameron on True Lies (see AC Sept. 1994) and the 70mm special-venue production Terminator 2 3-D (AC Aug. '96), is certainly one of the few cameramen who could honestly offer such an answer in the given situation. The battle-tested director of photography's other credits include The Lady in White, The Lawn-mower Man (AC April '92), Hard Target (AC Sept. '93) and The Indian in the Cupboard (AC Aug. '95).
The sinking of the Titanic remains one of the most momentous events of the 20th Century, an incident that shattered society's heady belief that nature was subservient to science. The ship, which embodied the day's state-of-the-art technological advances, became an icon of this folly at the expense of more than 1,500 lives. Not incidentally, similar themes have formed the crux of several of Cameron's previous pictures, including The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as well as his screenplay for Strange Days.
Cameron's fact-based yet fictional Titanic tale consists of two different primary storylines woven together with key visual cues. The first takes place in modern day aboard a research vessel skippered by an American adventurer (Bill Paxton) exploring the wrecked ship. He retrieves the captain's safe, which he thinks may hold great riches. Opening it, he instead finds a waterlogged pencil sketch of a beautiful young girl a revealing nude portrait inscribed with the legend "Jack Dawson" in the corner. Intrigued, he interviews one of the last living survivors of the Titanic tragedy and asks who the sketch might depict. Shaken by the sight of it, she begins to tell what she knows.
The second portion of the story begins in 1912 Southhampton, England as poor-yet-crafty Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) wins the jackpot in a high-stakes card game: a third-class ticket for the Titanic's maiden voyage to New York. During the cruise, he falls in love with Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), an upper-class American debutante suffocating within the rigid confines of Edwardian society. She returns Jack's infatuation, but is engaged to another man: a dour, monied bore named Cal (Billy Zane). Just as this triangular romance comes to a boil, an immense iceberg tears a 100-yard gash along the ship's starboard bow. The remaining drama is played out deep in the belly of the wounded behemoth, and among the crowds of increasingly panicked passengers on the frigid decks.
The Titanic shoot began in September of 1995 as Cameron himself made the first of a dozen 12,378' dives to the actual wreck of the infamous ocean liner. The director's expedition employed twin Mir submersibles launched from the Russian research vessel Keldysh the same craft used during the production of the Imax film Titanica. One sub served as the filming platform, while the other served as an on-camera star and provided HMI lighting to pierce the inky depths. Cameron photographed these sequences with 35mm Panaflex cameras cradled within high-pressure titanium housings, specially designed by Panavision and the director's brother, Mike. A remote-controlled rover probe was also used to enter the rust-encrusted vessel's innermost compartments, documenting the scene on video. The resulting footage would later be integrated into the contemporary portion of the film, motivated by the fictional salvage operation.
Principal production on the contemporary story thread began in July of 1996 aboard the Keldysh off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia with cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, ASC (The Right Stuff, The Black Stallion, The Natural, Fly Away Home) overseeing the photography. At the conclusion of the Halifax portion of the shoot, Deschanel departed the production for artistic and personal reasons.
In September with the Titanic production headed for the newly built Fox Studios Baja in Rosarito Beach, Mexico for the period/ship portion of the shoot Cameron asked Russell Carpenter to join his crew. Despite having less than three weeks to prepare for this exceptionally complex production, the cameraman decided that his previous experiences with Cameron, as well as the strong professional bonds he'd developed with his camera team, would help him fill the gaps. "If a crew works with a director of photography for any length of time, they're going to know what his favorite solutions are for any given problem," Carpenter reasons. "Also, most importantly, most of the people I brought to the shoot had worked with Jim before, so they knew the kinds of physical and spiritual demands that would be made on them. I wasn't going to bring any untested people into that situation."
Gaffer John Buckley was one of the first people Carpenter hired for Titanic. The two first worked together in 1990 on the action film The Perfect Weapon; they had wanted to collaborate again ever since, but the opportunity had failed to materialize. "Gaffers and best boys don't have the luxury of sitting around for six months while waiting for a job," Buckley jokes. "Overlaps in our schedules started to occur, and Russell and I could never get back to it. Fortunately, I was available for T2 3-D. After that, I told Russ that I'd try to stay available for him.
"I like working with Russell because he's open to new ideas, but on Titanic, we were working on a grand scale, so there just wasn't time to be experimental. When we were on top of the ship trying to light something, there were usually hundreds of cast and crew people waiting between each setup. We often had to resort to simple lighting methods just to get the shots done."
Carpenter inherited other key members of the Titanic crew. "One of my key grips, Lloyd Moriarity who had worked on True Lies and operator Jimmy Muro were on the show before I was," he notes. "Jimmy knows how Jim thinks and cuts, and he can put the camera in the exact storytelling place that Jim will want. This is a process that I participate in, but the three of us really work in more of an English system, where the director talks directly to the operator."
Muro first teamed with Cameron on The Abyss, as a dayplayer Steadicam operator working with cinematographer Mikael Salomon, ASC. "Jim and I hit it off pretty well," Muro recalls of the experience. "I chalk our continued relationship up to one simple fact: I was very inclusive of his opinion. He wants a collaborative effort, and if he feels that you're nudging him out, he does not like it."
After Cameron had recommended him, Muro worked with Don Peterman, ASC on Kathryn Bigelow's film Point Break, and later became the full-time Steadicam operator on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, photographed by Adam Greenberg, ASC. Muro joined Cameron again on True Lies, operating both A-camera and Steadicam for Carpenter. "It's sometimes tricky when you're brought in by a director to operate for the cinematographer," Muro reasons. "When Caleb [Deschanel] was on the show, I told him, 'I work for you as well as Jim, but you're the head of the department.'
"I've never really analyzed my relationship with Jim, but he did give me some kind words at the beginning of Titanic, saying, 'I've come to rely on you, I expect you to be there, and you are.' It was a very human moment. But we have a purely professional relationship and I come and go, because fortunately I've been getting calls for other work. We only work together when our schedules click. I missed out on T2 3-D because I was on Heat."
Muro describes working with Cameron as being exceptionally demanding, but he also finds the relationship to be inspirational. "I'm blown away by the intensity that Jim works with and the amount of brain capacity he's using to do several things at once," Muro describes. "That's why Jim works well with Russ and me. There are some great cinematographers out there who have a lot to offer, but Jim has enough filmmaking knowledge that he'll ask, 'Why is this light motivated through here? What's your idea for the next scene?' He doesn't like being surprised. The key to working with Jim is welcoming him into your domain and asking for his input."
Filmgoers familiar with Cameron's previous pictures will be interested to see how the director applies his kinetic, decidedly modern visual style to Titanic's predominantly Edwardian-era milieu. "I think Jim got around that really well," Carpenter offers. "There are actually two very different photographic styles within the period section. In the first part, the camerawork is rather polite, graceful and even eloquent. I was trying to reinforce the opulence and beauty of the time with the lighting."
Adds Muro, "At that point, the camera is examining the spaces aboard the ship, drawing the audience into the elegance, showing them how snotty the rich people were, and illustrating how wonderful the third-class passengers were."
Muro says that the photographic treatment of the film's preceding contemporary scenes adds to this effect, explaining, "In that section [aboard the research ship], we were trying to create some fairly blasé tones a gray, industrial feeling. We wanted to have the essence of being out at sea, but when we go back in time, it's like, Technicolor! As an audience, we never see the past in anything but black-and-white, but Jim wanted the images to just burst off the screen, dripping with colors."
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