James Cameron reveals an incredible secret: that’s why ‘Titanic’ seems so powerful

Fans of “Titanic” can put a very special Christmas present under the Christmas tree: on December 15, 2023, the cult film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet will be released in 4K for the first time – extensively restored and with better picture and sound quality than ever before. On this occasion, director James Cameron spoke to the and revealed the trick he used to make “Titanic” seem so powerful. The incredible thing: instead of spending millions more on it, he actually saved money!

And saving money became necessary at some point during the filming of “Titanic”. The enormous sets, including the replica of the ocean liner itself, consumed the largest film budget of all time to date. And the studio panicked, Cameron recalls. So money had to be saved somewhere, including eliminating an entire set. But the filmmaker had no intention of making any concessions to the visual impact of his mega-blockbuster…

And to do this, James Cameron used a very simple and cheap trick: to make everything in the film look huge, no extra could be taller than 1.73 m! This rule did not apply to the main characters; For example, Leonardo DiCaprio is 1.83 meters tall.

Even though there are only smaller people in the background, everything around you seems even bigger. “We just haven’t thrown anyone over six feet tall,” Cameron said. “It’s like we added an extra million dollars with this casting.”

Smaller extras, gigantic effect – now enjoy in 4K

So with this incredible trick, Cameron both saved money, which in the end did not have to be put back into the size of the set, and at the same time did not give up his vision that everything in the finished film should simply appear gigantic. If you want to remind yourself of the mega-scale of ‘Titanic’, the Oscar blockbuster’s 4K re-release is now a wonderful opportunity.

Besides, we’re lucky we even saw the Titanic sink in the movie! Cameron revealed in the interview namely that the studio would have preferred to remove the ship’s sinking entirely. But here the solution was very simple: “We played it smart and filmed the demise last. It wasn’t even meant to be a strategy – it’s just that you have to get your set off last or it won’t look so good the next morning when you try to get back into it…”