Construction was a continuous, often 24-hour proposition, with sets being built and struck in succession as the nearly 100-day shoot progressed almost completely in sequence, with first and second units in sync – a process made possible largely because of Petersen’s work ethic. “One of the great things about working with Wolfgang is his confidence in what’s been shot,” says Henderson. “When he says ‘I’ve got it,’ there’s no need to revisit that set. When we finish, there’s a second unit right behind us. Then we clear that set, build another, and go through the cycle again. It takes a lot of discipline.” Adds Sandell with a touch of nostalgia, “They haven’t built sets like this in Hollywood for years, since the 1930s or 40s. This is old-time filmmaking on a grand scale.”
Cinematographer John Seale (The English Patient) helped facilitate this timetable with a system of multiple cameras, regularly employing four and adding more as various scenes warranted.
Shooting near or very often under water posed its own creative, logistical and safety challenges. Cameras were sealed in watertight soft housings and buttressed against the flow. Corrective ports (a domed glass piece fitted over the lens) helped adjust distortions in focal length caused by the way light refracts through water. Steadicam operators wrapped equipment in waterproof bags and carried on as usual, says Seale, “with water pouring on top of their cameras, they’d just walk straight through it. We got the shot every time. In fact, we only drowned one camera, which is pretty good for a movie with this much water and action.” Additionally, cameras attached to jib arms were tracked and operated by remote control, to avoid having operators and dollies alongside the actors in the confined spaces.
Reloading film was like a NASCAR pit stop with crews hauling hundred-pound housings out of the water, moving them to a dry area, doing their work, re-sealing and getting them back into position as fast as possible.
Seale opted for “reality lighting over cosmetic lighting,” positioning light sources as though they were part of the ship. After Poseidon capsizes, most of this natural lighting emanates from the floor, lending an eerie luminescence he could supplement with lights hidden in the debris, mostly in the form of durable Hydroflex waterproof fluorescent tubes.
Enhancing the metaphor that the ship itself is dying, Seale used light to present the ship first as, “an opulent, ultra-modern floating hotel where everything is warm and welcoming. Then, after the wave hits, all hell breaks lose and the lighting is turned upside down. As our heroes make their way to the top, the ship is dying and lights are going out so we slowly bleed the color out of the scenes. As they move toward the bowels of the ship the atmosphere becomes industrial and cold.”
Professional safety divers were always on alert. The potentially fatal mix of water with electricity was constantly monitored – and proved, fortunately, not to be a problem.
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