World Report: April 4, 2003 Vol. 8 No. 22
- This Issue:
- Table of Contents
- Cover Story
- Cover Story - Spanish Version
- Mini-Lesson
- Comprehension Quiz
- Teacher's Guide and Worksheets
An Eye Inside Titanic
 |  Director James Cameron (center) enters a submarine used to explore the wreck. |
It was the biggest passenger ship in history, built to be unsinkable. But as all the world knows, the Titanic struck an iceberg and plunged to the bottom of the sea on its first voyage in April 1912. Gone but not forgotten, the ship has been kept afloat in books and movies. Now, an amazing new look at the Titanic is coming to IMAX and other theaters on April 11.
The 3-D film, Ghosts of the Abyss, was created by using special underwater robot cameras to explore the sunken ship. "It takes you on a dive...to feel the romance of the wreck," says the movie's director, James Cameron. He also directed the 1997 movie Titanic, the most successful movie ever.
|  A robot camera flew by grand stairways and other Titanic features. |
Cameron and his team spent years developing the camera system for Ghosts. His brother, Mike, designed the Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), nicknamed Jake and Elwood, which moved the cameras through almost every nook and cranny of the decaying ship. "We were trying to duplicate human vision," says James Cameron.
|  Cameron and his crew caught a glimpse of fancy windows like these. |
Another ROV named Medusa lit the sea floor with 10 high-powered lights. Jake and Elwood were able to take clear 3-D pictures of sinks, beds, mirrors and other features that had not been seen since 1912. The coolest find? "A perfectly preserved decanter and water glass that, for some bizarre reason, just sit on a dresser!" says Cameron. The image appears in the film and in a companion book, also called Ghosts of the Abyss, written by Don Lynch and Ken Marschall.
Cameron uses a special effect to re-create the final night on board the Titanic. Over footage of the wrecked ship, he imposes ghostly images of actors playing passengers on that fateful journey.
