Hey! Did everyone enjoy the chat? We missed some of you! Okay anyway, I was wondering - how cold was the water used in the tank in the movie? I think it was somewhere around 50 degrees, but I'm not sue and I'm a tad curious. To me, 50 degrees is freezing! I can't have my hand in the pool for two long with that temp, and 50 for the actors is pretty cold. No wonder Kate got hypothermia. And I can't imagine 28 degrees. It must have been unbearable. Anyway, thanks! :-)

-- Kelly (foo@bar.com), December 21, 1998

Answers

Response to How cold was the water in the movie?

I remember reading somewhere that the water in the tank was heated but the water in the ship was pretty cold, Kate wanted it that way so her reactions while in the water would more realistic. It's hard to pretend to be freezing while in heated water, isn't it?

The real thing would have been absolutely unbearable and I get really sad whenever I think about all those poor people in the water.

-- Emma (dilemma76@hotmail.com), December 21, 1998.

Response to How cold was the water in the movie?

The water in the tanks probably wasn't heated, but it was most definitely NOT 28 degrees. The cast, crew and extras were working in those tanks 10-12 hours a day, for many days, so the production company certainly wasn't going to expose them to the risk of hypothermia.

There was some discussion of cooling the air in the soundstage, so that the actor's breaths would be visible as they exhaled, but again, the producers decided that that would also put the cast and crew at risk, so the condensation of the actor's breaths was added as a digital visual effect.

Regards,

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), December 22, 1998.

Yes I know. And the water at the actual ship was below freezing, but the salt in the ocean kept it from being ice. So the people that died that would have been the same temp in a block of ice. BRRRRRRRRRRR

-- Claire Titanicfreak (Oreogirl99@cs.com), March 26, 2003.