How Perifractic from Retro Recipes got his hands on it I'm not sure. He does live in LA and work in the industry. Regardless I'd love to read that story some day (maybe he'll make a video about it). UPDATE: Turns out he did make a video about it.
There's an actual photo taken from the set of Titanic that shows the computer, too. That's pretty wild to ponder when you consider the movie was released in 1997.
According to the listing, the machine was used in the following manner:
- Record from the "video tap" for instant playback of test shots on set. A number of these never-before-seen test shots are still on its 1.02GB hard disk.
- Interface with the "motion control" camera on set using Amiga ARexx scripts, so as to coordinate repeat camera movements for adding multiple layers of the same moving shot, such as people, then fog, then effects, etc. More info on this process is in the video linked above, but essentially the Amiga would tell the camera when to start moving, the camera would tell the Amiga when to record, then the Amiga would tell the camera when it was done and to continue moving/tracking for that shot. This machine was integral to the making of Titanic, Apollo 13, etc.
- Using this machine, the Directors (James Cameron/Ron Howard) were able to immediately watch shots back, which otherwise would only be possible after waiting to develop the film reel from inside the camera. This technological leap was imperative on the set of these special effects laden movies.
Pretty cool, huh?