Only the starboard side of the exterior set was completed. In the scenes portraying the ship at the Southampton dock, all shots were reversed to give the appearance of the port side of the ship, as it was actually docked in 1912. This required the painstaking construction of reversed costumes and signage to complete the illusion, which was achieved by reversing the image in post-production. One cast member joked, "I wasn't dyslexic before starting this show. I am now."


The entire set was mounted on hydraulic jacks and could be tilted up to 6° intact within the depth of the tank.


To achieve tilt angles beyond 6°, the "underwater" parts of the facade were simply detached from the set and the support structure adjusted accordingly.


After the ship breaks in half, the bow section sinks rapidly. To film this, the full-size set was in fact divided into sections. But the bow section would not sink fast enough, due to its own buoyancy and the narrow clearance between it and the tank. James Cameron observed that once "God's 10,000,000 kW light" had risen they would have to wait until the next night, and suggested sinking the set, letting the air space between the two decks fill with water, then raising the set again and quickly sinking it before the water ran out. This worked.


The detached stern section of the full-size set was moved onto a separate tilting platform which would allow it to be rapidly turned vertical for the final phase of sinking. There were 10 takes, each requiring 100 stunt players to fall from or along the set while 1,000 extras were attached to the railings by safety harnesses.


In some shots the apparent tilt angle was steepened using various tricks such as tilting the camera and horizon.


Rather than use expensive helicopters, most high-level exterior shots were done by taking a 162-foot crane originally intended for construction and lighting, and mounting it on railway tracks. The camera platform was big enough for a gyro-stabilized Wescam plus a Steadicam and a handheld camera.


Interior shots also involved hydraulically tilted sets in tanks (in various studio soundstages).


Long shots showing the whole ship's exterior were produced by Digital Domain. A 1/20 scale model was filmed and computer-generated images of people, ocean, and smoke were added. For one scene, Cameron instructed them to "Imagine we're making a commercial for White Star Lines and we need beautiful shots sweeping around the ship from a helicopter