The techniques used by 'James Cameron' - 'Titanic' stormed into the box office in 1998 as the epic tragedy of love and loss for 'Jack and Rose'.

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Daniel Wagner Titanic Essay 28th February

The techniques used by 'James Cameron'

'Titanic' stormed into the box office in 1998 as the epic tragedy of love and loss for 'Jack and Rose'.

For this film to be a success, James Cameron, the director had to modernise it. He had to include all the aspects of a hit film, along with the attraction towards a wide audience. This he achieved by incorporating the well-known story of the "unsinkable ship" with the new and 'hottest' stars. In theory the older generation was intrigued to see how Cameron interpreted the story, and the younger generation wanted to see the latest actors. Because there was already a film about the "ship of dreams" Cameron had to make it more exciting and frantic than the previous.

The director's objective was to produce a film, based on the true story that would appeal to all age groups, particularly the younger generation. So Cameron used Leonardo DiCaprio to play the role of 'Jack', a young American living life as it comes"making his own luck". He chose Leo to play this part because he was the latest heartthrob of teenaged girls across the nations and would there fore attract a vast majority of the targeted audience, for the male population, Kate Winslet 'the girl next door' was cast as the young, fresh and rich 'Rose'. The combination of the two up and coming stars was a sure hit teamed with the theme of love.

However the story needed to keep the facts of the true event which took place in 1912 yet have enough action, excitement and romance to keep the target audience interested for the record three and a half hour film. The director achieved this by using many different techniques of lighting, sound effects and camera angles.

By using many dramatic camera angles it is possible to involve the viewer in the scene as opposed to watching the film from a cinema perspective. You are instantly drawn in to the scenery with the technique of 'panning'. This is a wide shot of the scene, which slowly moves on a fixed point to allow the viewer to see the full atmosphere and action occurring around that point. Using different camera angles helps to create the affect of where the actor/ actress are. For example, to establish the background behind a character, a long shot is appropriate. This was used in such a scene as the opening view of the ship, because Cameron wanted to show the true size of the masterpiece. However to get the most dramatic effect of action, a wide angle shot would work better because this will focus on the characters, and the mood of their surroundings. This was used when Jack is seen playing cards in the bar on the dockhands, with titanic visible through the window.

The way, in which Cameron managed to persuade the audience that they were within the scene, added emotion to the production, concentrating on a particular subject at each time as not to lose the attention of the viewers. The use of romantic, slow calming music allowed the viewer to feel emotionally involved in the scenes. This, combined with the techniques used on the camera angles and the stunning computer graphics, made the whole film come together.
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A long shot was used when 'Rose' is in immense confusion about her life and decides to try and end it by jumping off the back of the ship one evening. The camera shot used to open this scene was a wide shot of 'Rose' running away from the banquet at which she had been in an argument with her fiancé. To show the full size of the ship Cameron used a panning wide angle shot. This is most effective because as the shot zooms in to where rose is situated on the half a mile long boat, ...

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