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< I worked on films with Roger Deakins BSC, Oliver Stapleton BSC and Dick Pope BSCas well as John, all really great British cinematographers.
THE BRØKEN
WILL MAKE
AUDIENCES FEEL
ILL AT EASE.
PRIMARILY SHOT
ON 35MM
ETERNA 500T WITH EXTERIORS SHOT ON ETERNA 250D, IT’S A MOODY PIECE THAT TAKES THE AUDIENCE INTO THE INKY BLACKNESS OF THEIR WORST NIGHTMARES.
ANGUS HUDSON
“YOU NEED TO START FORGETTING ALL THAT TECHNICAL STUFF AND BEGIN BEING A BIT MORE CREATIVE.”
“I think there’s obviously going to be a subtle influence from their work but when you’ve been a techni- cian for 15 years you start to realise that you’ve become slightly institu- tionalised. You need to start forget- ting all that technical stuff and begin being a bit more creative.”
Creativity in his own right came with his feature debut as lighting cameraman, Hari Om – “it’s lovely and has an innocent charm,” Hudson explains, “and it did really well on the film festival circuit,” – which was shot on Fujifilm and released in 2004. His next opportunity came two years later when Sean Ellis decided to make his Oscar-nominated short film Cashback the centrepiece of a full-length feature.
With Ellis’s own highly success- ful background in photography it would have surprised no-one that it was such a visually arresting film. The same can be said of their next collaboration, The Brøken, which ventures into a claustrophobic world of tension and terror. Lena Headey heads the cast of a film that sits squarely in the horror genre, but which harks back to an older style of filmmaking.
“It’s very atmospheric and it re- ally takes its time,” Hudson smiles. “It’s evocative of a lot of films you saw in the 1960s and 70s. If it had been made then, it’s the sort of film that might have become something of a cult.
“There are elements of Rose- mary’s Baby and of Klute; in fact, Klute ended up being a real visual reference in the film in terms of the levels of the darkness, with single source lighting and the use of a lot of practicals. We did a DI on the film
and went for a very de-saturated look, which again is very cinematic. There’s not a lot of dialogue in the film either. I think The Brøken will make audiences feel ill at ease.”
Primarily shot on 35mm ETERNA 500T with exteriors shot on ETERNA 250D, it’s a moody piece that takes the audience into the inky blackness of their worst nightmares.
It may be no coincidence for such an atmospheric piece that Hudson cites the importance of painters as much as film camera- men when making his lighting choices. John Singer Sargent, the Camden Town Group and Walter Sickert are just a few of those that spring to mind. There are a great
many things that have made Hud- son the DP that he is today, from post-Impressionist painters to cine- matographers like Deakins and Mathieson as well as a Steadicam legend such as Pete Cavaciuti.
But he modestly recognises his good fortune, and notes the biggest stroke of luck was joining Studio Lambert one summer all those years ago. “I look back on it now and I can’t think of a better way of starting out. It was a proper apprenticeship.” ANWAR BRETT
The Brøken was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8573 and ETERNA 250D 8563
Photo top: Angus Hudson shooting in India; above l-r: scenes from The Broken and Hudson on location
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