Once filmmakers had their ensemble cast (both actors and sharks), all systems were go for filming at a facility practically tailor-made to meet the challenges (both wet and dry) present in the script -- Fox Studios Baja. (The facility, after all, had been built to specification for the filming of the most successful motion picture of all time -- James Cameron’s "Titanic.")

Harlin explains, "If you shoot in the real ocean, you’re trying to control waves, currents, winds, the sun -- water pictures have a reputation for being horribly difficult shoots. By shooting at Fox Baja, we could maximize the resources available and eliminate a lot of the potential for danger, maximizing safety in the process. They’ve also got the biggest water tanks in the world."

On August 3, 1998, principal photography began on "Deep Blue Sea."

Another character with more screen time than any of the actors (or the sharks) is the ocean. Visual effects supervisor Okun was Harlin’s waterboy.

Okun says, "If you watch water, it has a magic and a mystery. But shooting on the ocean is notorious for its difficulty and its destructiveness -- salt water is corrosive. So filming in a controlled environment is advantageous. With the state of the art of tanks being built around the world, like at Baja, we’re able to accomplish so much more. Combined with the abilities of visual effects, and we can take a drop of water and turn it into an ocean."

Fox Studios Baja (three miles south of Rosarito, Mexico) is a completely self-contained production facility that features some of the world’s largest stages and filming tanks (that hold a combined volume of more than 20 million gallons) and a filtration plant capable of delivering 9,000 gallons of filtered and chlorinated sea water per minute. In addition, the studio features a full range of other offices and services necessary to accomplish any filming requirements (office space, scenery shops, dressing rooms, wardrobe facilities and post-production areas).

The centerpiece of the Deep Blue Sea sets, the Research Station Aquatica, was constructed in the studio’s Tank #1, a poured-concrete pool covering a total area of more than 360,000 square feet. (Tank 1 housed the largest set of "Titanic" -- the 90%-scale model of the H.M.S. Titanic herself.) The majority of the tank is three-and-one-half feet deep, but it also features two sections which, when flooded in combination, provide tank space up to 40 feet in depth; when totally flooded, Tank 1 holds a staggering 17 million gallons of sea water.

Tank 1 also features an overflow wall on the ocean side which, when filmed from the "land" side, provides an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean and creates the illusion of an infinite seamless horizon -- nothing but water. This feature proved useful to production designer Sandell and crew, who constructed the Research Station Aquatica as two halves of a circle; by simply reversing some smaller set pieces, the illusion could be created that the research station was being filmed from opposing sides (when, in fact, the camera would stay mounted on the "land" side.)

Other major sets (Dr. McAlester’s research lab, crew quarters and various other offices, hallways and service and elevator shafts) were constructed on the studio’s four additional (and two of which are floodable) stages and tanks.

One of the most challenging scenes (officially Scene 133) became known as the "elevator shaft" sequence. As the research station floods, surviving Aquatica team members are forced into an elevator shaft in order to escape from their deadly experiment subjects -- and not everyone escapes. The shaft is a tall and somewhat narrow space (basically a concrete tower), and when filled with actors, equipment (and water), provided a challenging and cramped work environment. In order to pull it off, actors and technicians had to put all of their faith in each other.

Sandell comments, "The storyboards alone for that scene are the size of a small phone book. I don’t know how anybody kept it straight in their heads; we barely could and we designed it."

Okun observes, "This film is full of major challenges, mostly anytime anyone is killed by the sharks. Conti’s sharks are huge, powerful and incredibly fast machines. So when one of the characters is interacting with Gen I or Gen II…it’s like dancing with an automobile on a freeway. Even given the fact that they are incredibly facile and controllable, we often chose to do things at a slow speed, or chose to use a visual effect (CGI) in combination with the animatronics."

During Scene 133, one of the unlucky cast members becomes lunch for the shark, ending up in the mouth of the beast and being slowly (and dramatically) pulled under the rising water in the elevator shaft. The scene required the actor to be in the jaws of Conti’s shark for repeated takes. The actor’s reaction ("I’m not getting in there!") was tempered with confidence after watching the large machine go through the scene over and over, never varying in its execution.

* * *

Filming Deep Blue Sea left each cast and crew member with varying reactions to the experience of coming face-to-face with sharks…animatronic and otherwise. Michael Rapaport perhaps speaks for a majority of Deep Blue Sea-ers when he closes, "No more swimming with sharks for me. Goldfish, that’s what I swim with now, goldfish. You can keep them in a tank, keep them under control if they try and get out of hand. Now, I’m a goldfish kind of guy."

Warner Bros. Presents, In Association with Village Roadshow Pictures - Groucho III Film Partnership, An Alan Riche-Tony Ludwig/Akiva Goldsman Production of A Renny Harlin Film: "Deep Blue Sea," starring Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, LL Cool J, Jacqueline McKenzie, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson. The music is by Trevor Rabin. The co-producer is Rebecca Spikings. It is edited by Frank J. Urioste, A.C.E., Derek G. Brechin and Dallas S. Puett and the production designed by William Sandell. The director of photography is Stephen Windon, A.C.S. The executive producers are Duncan Henderson and Bruce Berman. The film is written by Duncan Kennedy and Donna Powers & Wayne Powers. Deep Blue Sea is produced by Akiva Goldsman, Tony Ludwig and Alan Riche and directed by Renny Harlin. Distributed by Warner Bros., A Time Warner Entertainment Company.