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"It's a very unusual film," remarks veteran cinematographer Owen Roizman, ASC, of Grand Canyon, the forthcoming 20th Century Fox release. "It's not like anything else I've done before. If s about characters from all walks of life - rich, poor, black, white - who meet by circumstance and forge unlikely friendships amid the harsh, often very frightening realities of Los Angeles today. Through each other they're able to find new meanings in this difficult environment, and become attentive to the little 'miracles' that happen around them.
"For instance, an immigration attorney (played by Kevin Kline) meets a tow truck driver (Danny Glover) when his car breaks down in a gritty section of Inglewood, and they become friends. The attorney introduces his new friend to a friend (Alfre Woodard) of his secretary (Mary-Louise Parker) and a romance begins. Meanwhile, the tow truck driver's sister has a teenage son in trouble in a less privileged area of LA. It's these kind of things, very human moments that are typical of everyday life in Los Angeles now. It's a very sensitive story and a great movie, I think. There's really nothing else like it." Though the story concludes with a poignant, very moving scene at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the title of the film, according to Roizman, represents a state of mind.
Grand Canyon is Roizman's second collaboration with director Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote the original screenplay with wife and associate producer Meg Kasdan.
"From the beginning, Larry said he wanted to take chances," Roizman says. "He wanted us to be bold. He wanted us to follow our instincts, to go places we'd never been before, artistically and in all ways. Anything went."
Since the story focused on life in LA, an important part of Roizman's job was to give the city a strong presence in the film. More than 45 practical Los Angeles locations were incorporated in the story, from the affluent suburb of Brentwood to sordid inner city areas more familiar with gang conflict than with filmmaking.
To depict the many locations and emotions of Grand Canyon, Roizman addressed each scene individually. "Most of the time I would go to the set and watch Larry stage the scene," Roizman remarks, "and then I would...