The following are answers to questions that I am most frequently asked about the movie or this web site in general. If you don't see your question answered here, feel free to mail me. Q. How do you make this set of pages look so professional? A. It's all about the motivations. I have such a deep passion for this movie, that I can do nothing else but to make a set of web pages devoted to it that are as close to perfect as I can achieve. I wanted a site that reflected my respect for this film. I wanted an original page that had graphics that I created; not just stole off other sites. Basically, I wanted to have a page that I would find appealing and want to visit. Q. Does Rose die at the end? A. If you've seen the movie, then you can certainly decide for yourself. The screenplay is rather ambiguous about it, so I believe James Cameron wants it to remain that way; namely, the viewer can decide for himself. I believe he even said in a recent interview when asked that question that he couldn't answer, because that would "give it away". Q. Why don't you add "My Heart Will Go On" or other full-length tracks from the soundtrack? A. I don't want to get into copyright infringement issues. To digitally encode and distribute more than just a 30-second clip of any copywritten material is illegal by US Federal law, so I would rather avoid any complications. If you want the track, why not support Sony Classical and James Horner by buying the soundtrack? Q. Okay, when Murdoch calls for "hard a'starboard", the wheel is turned to port and the ship turns to port; what's the deal? A. That convention for calling "hard a'starboard" when you really want to go port (left) is from the old days when ships were steered by tillers. In order to turn left, you would push the tiller control right. Therefore, a call to "starboard" would actually mean a call to turn the boat left (port). However, the Titanic was controlled directly by the wheel in the bridge where turn to port (counter-clockwise) would turn the ship port, but the order convetion carried over from the days of the tiller. The order of "hard a'starboard" was therefore entirely correct, however counter-intuitive that may seem. Q. Is the story of Rose and Jack true? A. No. The story of Rose, Jack, and Cal was created by James Cameron. All the details of the ship's voyage and sinking are entirely (and almost painfully) correct, though. Q. I need more info; where can I get it? A. I've set up a mailing list for this purpose. For subscription information, see this page. This mailing list is called CQD, and is used for general discussion about the movie.

Michael Sherman <mset@cmu.edu>