How James Cameron Made Titanic

With 11 Oscars and over $2 billion at the box office, the now legendary Titanic remains the most memorable tribute to one of the world’s most staggering maritime disasters. but the story behind the storytelling is perhaps even more jaw-dropping.

Taking the plunge: Before making Titanic, James Cameron sank to the bottom of the ocean to see the actual wreckage of the doomed ocean liner himself. An avid and passionate deep sea diver, he ended up spending more time on the ship than any one of the original passengers did.

The Prep: The sheer scale of the film required building an entire studio and the largest standing set of all time. Rosarito, a beach resort on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula was chosen as the site for the studio complex, vast water tanks and ten-storey-high, 775-foot-long ‘big Boat’ set.

First Assistant Director Josh McLaglen remembers his first visit to Rosarito. “Jim and I drove down to what was then a vacant lot. We bought a model of Titanic in the back of a pickup, carried it out and set it up on two sawhorses. Then Jim started studying the elements. He triangulated the light, the solstice of the sun, the wind direction, the position of the ship, how close it would have to be to the cliffs so we could see the ocean. it was incredible, watching him envision everything we needed to do to pull the movie off.”