American Cinematographer - December 1997 - 84

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entirely in-camera. The rods
supporting the subs were removed
digitally by DD's CG artists, who
also added digital particles, only
visible in the subs' lights.
Titanic is a memory piece
told from the point of view of a
centenarian survivor of the

landmark, 1933's The Invisible Man.
As Stuart's character watches the

Mir subs

tanic
uses

exploring the sunken Ti¬

video monitors, Cameron
flashbacks to tie past and

on

present together. As the mini-subs
travel

over

the

shipwreck, the im¬

age subtly brightens as the rusticles
retreat, revealing the Titanic reign¬

ing above the water in 1912. Con¬
versely, shots of the ship underway
suddenly turn ghostly as rusticles
form along the bow, the passengers
slowly disappear and the ship
transforms into the sunken wreck it

today. "Psychologically, when
look at the wreck of the ship, we
almost automatically imagine what
it would be like in all its glory,"
Legato opines. "We therefore used

we

shot underwater. When

were

we

going the other way, we
brightened the wreck as if it were
being shot in broad daylight. Then
we mixed both ends
against the
were

middle to create the final look. It's

very subtle, which is something I
learned on Interview with the Vam¬

pire: audiences look twice at certain
subtleties - was it real or not real?
and those shots, when pulled off

-

correctly, evoke a subliminal feel¬
ing and leave people with some¬
thing haunting."
Legato's eerie sleight of
hand extended to the Titanic's pas¬
sengers as well: "As the ship with
the people on board is fading away
to the blue underwater look of the

wreck, the people themselves don't
just dissolve off, they dissolve to a
ghostly state, as if they're still

standing on the deck of the wrecked
ship, lit by the Mir subs. They have
this almost transparent, hazy qual¬
ity. It was very creepy to see these
ghosts walking around on the deck
of the sunken Titanic before they
eventually dissipate. It creates a
very haunting feeling."
Of course, that's some¬

thing nearly

everyone involved
experienced while
filming this tragic tale of man's
hubris in the modern age. "Every
with Titanic

once

mind, and transform the wreck

lifeboats, we'd realize that we were
the same vantage point as some of
the victims of the wreck," Legato

into what it

like when

people
were
walking down the stairs and
everything was in perfect condi¬
see

the Titanic

was

hand, when you

something as grand and cool as
underway, you imagine

ing

in awhile when

scenes

we were

film¬

in the water with the

says. "The difference was that we
could say 'Cut' and just walk away.
We realized what we were depict¬

But we're

ing - that this had really hap¬
pened - and it was staggering." ♦

steering you in that direction,
you're heading there already. It's
just human nature, so when we ac¬
tually go through this transition, it
seems natural, and not
'effecty.'"

Titanic will be detailed in AC's De¬

what it looks like

now.

not

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that idea to make seamless transi¬
tions that fill in the details in your

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absolutely real, Legato used "a
combination of every trick in the
book. We used morphs to transi¬
tion from the ship to the wreck and
back
just to get them to align
properly, not to show off the fact
that they were changing. The trans¬
formation involves very gentle re¬
veals of the rusticles starting to
form on the outside of the ship, and
then a portion of it appears as if it

is

4pc lens set

Light-

wreck,

played by actress Gloria Stuart, a
veteran of another special effects

tion. On the other

Chimera

the white

almost

Halogen Tungsten

remote

as

light falls off in depth, it naturally
becomes deep blue. The effect
looked perfectly natural and was a
footage."

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that it couldn't register on film if
photographed separately. Al¬
though you couldn't see the flash¬
ing itself, it broke the inertia of the
film in the blue layer, and with the
addition of white light in the fore¬
ground, where the mini-subs'
lamps were, it was enough expo¬
sure to
register the blue layer and

that these

jestic fantasies would

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Nationally (800)325-7674

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ensure

December 1997

ma¬

appear to

be

The

cember

sinking of the R.M.S.

posting on the ASC Web Site:
www.cinematographer.com.
American Cinematographer - December 1997

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 1997
