Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/679317
P E R S P E C T I V E | M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 6 49 P E R S P E C T I V E | M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 6 49 Steering Room The first of the interior sets built on a gimbal was the steering gear room. This compartment, at the stern of the tanker, sits atop the rudder, which is turned hydraulically by the quadrant, marked in degrees, in order to steer the ship. Gaining control of the stricken tanker required the crew to insert a large steel I-beam into the quadrant, and then struggle to maneuver the ship manually by using this beam as a giant tiller. The unique shape of this room at the stern of the ship provided great opportunities to show an audience the nautical hull structure. Set Designer Clint Wallace carefully worked out all of the compound geometries that required nineteen different arcs to execute. The I-beam emergency tiller had to be reversed engineered so that its length, when seated in the quadrant, was enough to strike and breach the hull, creating yet another crisis. Engine Room The engine room interior commanded a substantial amount of screen time and presented, by far, the greatest challenges of any individual set. This was a cathedral-like space, four and a half stories tall and lit through a large skylight. As the events unfold, this room sees its hull breached, the entire compartment Opposite page, top: Set Designer Clint Wallace modeled the entire steering gear room set in Rhino ® . Clockwise from center left: Three stills of the steering gear room under construction. The development of the emergency tiller evolved from a spar to an I-Beam; its length was calculated to strike the hull between the structural ribs. The steering gear room looking aft showing the quadrant. The final image shows the quadrant itself, modeled after the one on the SS Lane Victory, to which a "keyhole" was added and a channel for receiving the emergency tiller. This page, left: Mr. Wallace's Rhino model of the gimbaled set allowed a series of different and very informative views of the room. Below: A production still of the set during filming as the crew struggles with the jury- rigged tiller. flooded, its skylight smashed and the engines in flames, so its construction had to be durable and safe enough to allow for multiple takes with large physical effects. Creating a flooding compartment in a vessel being rocked by 60-foot waves required bold solutions in engineering, construction and physical effects. The initial challenge to overcome was creating a gimbal that could accommodate a 45-foot-tall set weighing half a million pounds, then filling that set with a quarter million pounds of water, and containing © Walt Disney Studios – Production photographs by Claire Folger