Principal photography began on July 31, 1996[15] at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the modern-day expedition scenes aboard the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh.[52] In September 1996, the production moved to the newly built Fox Baja Studios in Rosarito, Mexico, where a full-scale Titanic had been constructed.[52] The poop deck was built on a hinge that could rise from zero to 90 degrees in a few seconds, just as the ship's stern rose during the sinking.[69] For the safety of the stuntmen, many props were made of foam rubber.[70] By November 15, the boarding scenes were being shot.[69] Cameron built his Titanic on the starboard side as a study of weather data revealed it was a prevailing north-to-south wind, which blew the funnel smoke aft. This posed a problem for shooting the ship's departure from Southampton, as it was docked on its port side. Implementation of written directions, as well as props and costumes, had to be reversed; for example, if someone walked to their right in the script, they had to walk left during shooting. In post-production, the film was flipped to the correct direction.[71] A full-time etiquette coach was hired to instruct the cast in the manners of the upper class gentility in 1912.[24] Despite this, several critics noted anachronisms in the film.[72][73]
Cameron's sketch of Rose wearing the Heart of the Ocean. The scene was one of the first shot, as the main set was not ready.[30]Cameron sketched Jack's portrait of Rose; Winslet posed in a bathing suit.[74][75] Cameron felt the scene had a backdrop of repression and freedom: "You know what it means for her, the freedom she must be feeling. It's kind of exhilarating for that reason," he said.[74][30] The sketching scene was DiCaprio and Winslet's first scene together. "It wasn't by any kind of design, although I couldn't have designed it better. There's a nervousness and an energy and a hesitance in them," Cameron stated. "They had rehearsed together, but they hadn't shot anything together. If I'd had a choice, I probably would have preferred to put it deeper into the body of the shoot." Cameron said he and his crew "were just trying to find things to shoot" because the big set "wasn't ready for months, so we were scrambling around trying to fill in anything we could get to shoot." Cameron felt the final scene worked well.[30]
The shoot was an arduous experience that "cemented Cameron's formidable reputation as 'the scariest man in Hollywood". He became known as an "uncompromising, hard-charging perfectionist" and a "300-decibel screamer, a modern-day Captain Bligh with a megaphone and walkie-talkie, swooping down into people's faces on a 162ft crane".[76] Winslet chipped a bone in her elbow during filming and had been worried that she would drown in the 17m-gallon water tank in which the ship would sink. "There were times when I was genuinely frightened of him. Jim has a temper like you wouldn't believe," she said.[76] "'God damn it!' he would yell at some poor crew member, 'That's exactly what I didn't want!'"[76] Bill Paxton was familiar with Cameron's work ethic from his earlier experience, and said: "There were a lot of people on the set. Jim is not one of those guys who has the time to win hearts and minds."[76] The crew felt Cameron had an evil alter ego and so nicknamed him "Mij" (Jim spelled backwards).[76] In response to the criticism, Cameron said, "Film-making is war. A great battle between business and aesthetics."[76] More than 800 crew members worked on the film, a large number for any Hollywood production.[77]
On August 9, 1996, during the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh shoot in Canada, an unknown person, suspected to be a crew member, put the dissociative drug PCP into the soup that Cameron and various others ate one night in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.[19][78] It sent more than 50 people to the hospital.[78] Paxton and Cameron ate the soup and went to the hospital but Paxton decided to leave, telling Cameron "Jim, I'm not gonna hang out here, this is bedlam. I'm gonna ... wander back down to the set and just drink a case of beer."[79] "There were people just rolling around, completely out of it. Some of them said they were seeing streaks and psychedelics," said actor Lewis Abernathy.[19] Cameron managed to vomit before the drug took a full hold. Abernathy was shocked at the way he looked. "One eye was completely red, like the Terminator eye. A pupil, no iris, beet red. The other eye looked like he'd been sniffing glue since he was four."[19][76] The Nova Scotia Department of Health confirmed that the soup had contained PCP on August 27, and the Halifax Regional Police Service announced a criminal investigation the next day. The investigation was closed in February 1999.[80] The person behind the poisoning was never caught.[63][81]
The filming schedule was intended to last 138 days but grew to 160 (filming officially wrapped on March 23, 1997).[15] Many cast members came down with colds, flu, or kidney infections after spending hours in cold water, including Winslet. In the end, she decided she would not work with Cameron again unless she earned "a lot of money".[81] Several others left the production, and three stuntmen broke their bones, but the Screen Actors Guild decided, following an investigation, that nothing was inherently unsafe about the set.[81] Additionally, DiCaprio said there was no point when he felt he was in danger during filming.[82] Cameron believed in a passionate work ethic and never apologized for the way he ran his sets, although he acknowledged:
I'm demanding, and I'm demanding on my crew. In terms of being kind of militaresque, I think there's an element of that in dealing with thousands of extras and big logistics and keeping people safe. I think you have to have a fairly strict methodology in dealing with a large number of people.[81]
The costs of filming Titanic ballooned and eventually reached $200 million,[4][5][6] a bit over $1 million per minute of screen time.[83] Fox executives panicked and suggested an hour of specific cuts from the three-hour film. They argued the extended length would mean fewer showings, thus less revenue, even though long epics are more likely to help directors win Oscars. Cameron refused, telling Fox, "You want to cut my movie? You're going to have to fire me! You want to fire me? You're going to have to kill me!"[19] The executives did not want to start over, because it would mean the loss of their entire investment. The executives initially rejected Cameron's offer to forfeit his share of the profits as an empty gesture, as they predicted profits would be unlikely.[19] Worried about the mounting costs, Fox wanted to find a partner studio to co-finance the film; Fox approached Paramount Pictures in May 1996, and the two studios agreed to split the costs and distribution rights.[84] Fox retained the international distribution rights and sold the domestic rights to Paramount in return for $65 million, in an effort to recoup their investment.[85]
Cameron explained forfeiting his share as complex. "... the short version is that the film cost proportionally much more than T2 and True Lies. Those films went up seven or eight percent from the initial budget. Titanic also had a large budget to begin with, but it went up a lot more," he said. "As the producer and director, I take responsibility for the studio that's writing the checks, so I made it less painful for them. I did that on two different occasions. They didn't force me to do it; they were glad that I did."[30] Amidst the film's successful box office run, a Fox executive, William Mechanic, commented that "Jim Cameron told us we could have an expensive bad movie or a more expensive potentially great movie. We made our judgment. And we made the best choice."[86]
