While James Cameron did actually go down to the wreck of Titanic in real life, the majority of underwater shots were taken using a scale model of the wreck, suspended upside-down from the ceiling. Models were also used for the wreck's interiors. HOWEVER, there is SOME genuine footage of the wreck in the film.
The ocean liner's actual wreck is shown in the film
Incredibly, some of the images shown on screen come from the real wreck, which James Cameron explored many times in preparation for the film. These shots of the Titanic were filmed with a special camera that could withstand the pressure down at the ocean floor.
The rear portion of the ship could rotate a full 90 degrees. They used this to capture the final moments of the sinking ship. The front of the ship could dip further into the water to capture the initial sinking. The practical effect of angling the set did the major lifting of selling the illusion of a sinking ship.
Over a quarter of the movie was shot across Los Angeles County. Notably, Belmont Olympic Pool provided the backdrop for many water scenes near the climax and S.S. Lane Victory served as partial inspiration for sequences showing aftermath of shipwrecking events in the film.
How James Cameron Directed the Titanic Sinking Scene — Sets, Gear, and SPFX Illusions Explained
Does the iceberg that sank the Titanic still exist?
The average lifespan of an iceberg in the North Atlantic is typically two to three years from calving to melting. This means the iceberg that sank the Titanic "likely broke off from Greenland in 1910 or 1911, and was gone forever by the end of 1912 or sometime in 1913."
In an interview with Los Angeles Times back in 1997 when the film premiered, Kate Winslet, who was just 22 at the time, called the six-month shoot “an ordeal.” In the interview, Kate talks about many of the issues she faced while filming, such as the aforementioned hypothermia, contracting the flu, and some injuries.
It was hard! During the filming of Titanic, the actors faced challenging conditions while shooting the aquatic scenes. In reality, the seawater around the Titanic was about -2 degrees Celsius, and people in such freezing waters would typically succumb to hypothermia in 15-40 minutes, depending on various factors.
A few shots of the real shipwreck do appear at the beginning and end of the movie, but bringing in giant replicas — not to mention hundreds of extras — to the middle of the ocean was too ambitious of an idea even for the perfectionist director.
In under three hours the ship had sunk, taking more than 1,500 passengers and crew to their deaths. The wreck now lies nearly 3.8km (12,500ft) beneath the waves at a site nearly 400 miles (640km) southeast of the Newfoundland coast.
Part of the reason the Titanic struck the iceberg was because there was no moon that night, so light couldn't reflect off any icebergs. For this same reason, and even if the moon was full, no photographs of the sinking were taken.
Fewer than 250 people in the world have visited the shipwreck at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean since its discovery in 1985. Among them is the film director James Cameron, who directed the 1997 movie Titanic.
What could have happened to the bodies? Some Titanic experts say a powerful storm the night of the wreck scattered the life-jacketed passengers in a 50-mile-wide area, so it's likely the bodies scattered across the seafloor. Other experts say hundreds of people were trapped inside the ship when it sank.
The Heart of the Ocean in the Titanic film is not a real piece of jewellery, but is hugely popular nonetheless. The jewellery is, however, based on a real diamond, the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond. The Hope Diamond is one of the world's most valuable diamonds; its worth is estimated at around 350 million dollars.
Although Titanic is ultimately based on a true story and even added some real life characters, not everything in the movie actually happened. James Cameron had to either change, add, or embellish some details to fit the story he wanted to tell.
It took two hours and 40 minutes for the Titanic to sink to the bottom of the ocean, according to History.com. The Titanic's compartments were not capped at the top. This led the water filling each compartment to overflow into the next, causing the bow to sink and the stern to move into a near-vertical position.
When the Titanic hit the iceberg and consequently sank, the Atlantic Ocean was around 28°F (-2°C), which is below freezing. The wreck caused roughly 1,500 out of 2,224 passengers and crew onboard to perish. In total, RMS Titanic was equipped with 20 lifeboats that were able to accommodate roughly 1,178 people.
The only one known to have seen it, Eleanor Johnson Shuman, was only 18 months old at the time of the sinking, so no one who could actually recall the event saw it. Mrs Shuman related that she enjoyed the movie, seeing it 4 times, though understanding what her family must have experienced did upset her emotionally.
James Cameron says he got the Titanic's sinking 'half right' in his film after multiple model tests. The director admitted that his 1997 classic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet is "wrong on one point or the other" depending on how the actual ship went down.
How old was Leonardo DiCaprio during the filming of Titanic?
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet boarded the fictional version of the RMS Titanic as production kicked off in summer 1996 — when the stars were just 21 and 20, respectively.
No, the Titanic survivors could not hear the Titanic hitting the bottom of the ocean. The sound would have been muffled by hundreds of feet of water and ice cold temperatures.
While Captain Smith was responsible for the decisions he made when navigating the dangerous conditions on the night of the disaster, Beesley asserted that it could have been any other liner to strike an iceberg as the Titanic did because many other captains would have likely done the same in Smith's position.
