After a decade on the East Coast, Turrett relocated to Los Angeles.
Almost immediately, he landed work as a camera operator on several
commercials. Another break came when well-respected filmmaker
Vic Armstrong (best known for his work on action films such as Gangs of
New York, Charlie's Angels, The World Is Not Enough, and Tomorrow Never
Dies) was sufficiently impressed by Turrett's experience with West to hire
him as second unit director of photography for Universal Soldier.
"I went to Arizona for a month and photographed the second unit--
amazing action footage. Vic and I became friends on that film. He has
been very helpful and a big influence on my career." Later, when
Armstrong prepared to direct Joshua Tree, he again hired Turrett as cine-
matographer. The pair worked together a third time on Starship Troopers
with Armstrong serving as second unit director and Turrett as second
unit director of photography.
Over the past decade, Turrett has worked as a camera operator or cin-
ematographer on numerous feature films, including American Buffalo,
American Pie, Bad Girls,
Volcano, and The X-Files, and
made for television movies
And the Beat Goes On: The
Sonny and Cher Story, The Late
Shift, and Running Delilah.
He also served as second
unit director of photography
for the critically acclaimed tele-
vision series The Fugitive, which
was principally shot in Seattle.
Turrett was charged with
filming all the location photog-
raphy in places like New York,
Philadelphia, Atlantic City,
New Orleans, Phoenix, and
San Francisco. When the series
ended, he worked on a televi-
sion movie for Disney, was
immediately hired as second
unit director of photography
for the series That's Life, and
went on to work on the pilot
for Birds of Prey.
"Anybody who
thinks they want to
become a cameraman
ought to be very sure
of it and focused. It's
very, very competitive, so you need to be
serious about it. Seize all opportunities to
go to seminars and shoot on their own.
Get a video camera, an old Super-8, or a
camera of any kind, and go out and shoot
film."--Daniel Turrett
"Be prepared: study films and know
film history, as well as knowing lenses. I'm
always disturbed when I meet young kids
who want to be filmmakers and they have no
film history background. It's disarming to
mention classic movies that we all know, and
they have never heard of them. It is an
important part of the process to know the
history of film and to be familiar with the
work of other filmmakers."--Daniel Turrett
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