American Cinematographer - January 1996 - 54

90

Bridget Gregory, the black-hearted

to the ground as possible. "John
likes that dynamic of being low all
the time," says Jur. "Everything is

femme fatale of director

at waist level

Few
screen sirens
have
audiences
quite
as stirred
much up
as

degrees, operator Randal Platt
right across the floor.
The prism isn't without its

could shoot

Dahl's neo-noir thriller The Last

different movie

below. It's like a
on the
ground;

hazards. Flare is an obvious one
since the glass in the prism isn't

Seduction (1994).

you're suddenly dealing with a lot
more
foreground - tables and fur¬
niture, seeing under chairs. It cre¬
ates a real sense of depth.

recessed (and thus protected) like a
normal lens. Key grip Kevin Black

John

Cleverly plotted
stylishly conceived and ex¬
ecuted, the film brought long-over¬
and

due attention to Dahl (Kill Me

or

"Often

would start

Again, Red Rock West), cinematog¬
rapher Jeff Jur and actress Linda

low, looking straight across a floor,

Fiorentino. Now the trio has

and

re¬

teamed for Unforgettable, a gritty
murder mystery with a sci-fi twist
which casts Fiorentino in a totally

as we

we

made

it forced

our move

to tilt

in

on

That
creates a whole other perspective,
because as you're moving in you're
someone

us

up.

spent long hours floating flags to
counter the threat. Rain

other

was an¬

while

using the
prism, and Jur admits it took a lot
of busy work to keep the glass
concern

clear.
Dahl concedes that he's a
stickler about where to place the

different role, but retains many of
the earlier film's stylistic flourishes.

"John kept saying, 'Bigcity crime movie - this movie
should look like a big-city crime
movie,"' recalls Jur. "To

me

that

gritty, shadowy and wet.
We wet down just about every¬
thing. Plus, you want to get as
meant

much of

a sense

of the urban envi¬

possible."
Unforgettable concerns a
medical examiner (Ray Liotta) who
is suspected of murdering his wife
and is trying to track down the real
killer. Fiorentino portrays a scien¬
tist who has developed an experi¬
ronment

mental

as

serum

which, when in¬

An

Unforgettable World
of Light and Shadow

Director

John Dahl and cinematographer
Jeff Jur recall the dark vision of
their

previous neo-noir for a
science-fiction-tinged mystery.
by Jean Oppenheimer

jected into Liotta's body, allows
him to experience the memories of
his dead wife and other victims of
the killer.
"The movie is the Liotta
character's search for the truth,"
continues Jur, whose other credits

going from one view of the set or
space to another one. You're now
looking up." The tilts were never
so
exaggerated, however, that
they took away from the sense of

include

Cinematogra¬
pher Jeff Jur (in
black cap) and
director John

Dahl (in white

cap) confer on
location. Like
many great
films of the

noir

past, Unforget¬
table makes

of low

use

angles

for dramatic

impact. Jur
relied

on a

Panavision

Low-Angle

camera,

but that's not such

he is not

Dirty
Dancing, The
Big Picture and
four pieces for

realism Dahl

PBS' American

get the camera

constant

Playhouse. "He

(a Panavision

almost

Gold II and later

a

fan of the

Steadicam,

feeling that it ties him down too

wanted for the

much and also lacks the

picture.

and accuracy

In order to

a sur¬

prising confession from a former
storyboard artist. And while he
likes to keep the camera moving,

precision

of a dolly. On Unfor¬
gettable the dolly enjoyed nearly
use

because the

camera

almost

stops in the film

a

and neither does
the camera." The

low to the ground

cinematogra¬
pher estimates

Jur made fre¬
quent use of a

always on the move.
Jur had high praise for dolly grip
Glen Forrieter, who managed to
push the 400-to-500-pound unit
even at the
extremely slow speeds
often required.
Dahl likes to shoot long,

that 80 percent
of the shots in

Panavision

continuous takes. Some will end

Low-Angle

up

Unforgettable are
moving, some¬
times so slowly as to be almost im¬
perceptible. But that deliberate
motion created just the subliminal

Prism. "It's

screen;

never

as

undercurrent of tension the film¬
makers were seeking.

Prism

Heightening the film's
the placement of the

throughout the

drama

shoot.

camera,

which Dahl wanted

52

American

Cinematographer

Platinum)

was

as

low

as

possible,

one

of those oddball

was

playing out their full length

cause

on

others will be edited. Be¬

these shots tend to be

com¬

used it in al¬

plex, and the space available on the
set limited, Jur frequently relied
upon a remote head. As an ex¬
ample, he points to the scene in

every scene." By mounting
the device - basically a 45-degree

which Liotta goes into the room
where his wife was murdered and

things you usually keep in the back
of the truck and pull out once in a
while," he laughs. "But John fell in

love with it and

we

most

prism mirror - in front of the lens
and then

January 1996

tilting the

camera

down

injects himself with her memories.
was one of
only two built

The set
American Cinematographer - January 1996

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 1996
