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CHARLOTTE BRUUS CHRISTENSEN
“THE SUPER F-64-D HAS SUCH A FINE GRAIN; IT’S A LOVELY STOCK.
sunshine,” she adds, “but we didn’t have too many sunny days. So we planned to light the exteriors as well, with the 64 daylight. Whenever the sun did come out it was perfect. It has such a fine grain, it’s a lovely stock.
“When we had more cloudy weather I changed to the 250D, which was great with mixed lighting. We had very little lighting equipment on this, and I had decided to shoot the day exteriors with tungsten lights. We had a couple of Dinos and a couple of 20ks and when needed we mixed it with some warm HMI light and an Antique Suede filter. But that worked really well with both of the stocks.”
Night interiors were shot on ETERNA Vivid 160T, and night exteriors on ETERNA Vivid 500T. The challenge through it all was to evoke the industrial cityscape of Swansea 35 years ago, and to make the film true to its period without feeling dated.
“We looked at David Gordon Green’s film George Washington, which
reflected some of the style we wanted to create with the film. It was real, it couldn’t be a Hollywood- looking film, and that was a challenge because we knew we had to light it AND to get the sunshine in there. This was such a stressful issue.
“I think Marc felt that especially because he was making a film that took place in 1976, which everybody knew to be the hottest summer in the UK.
“They didn’t have any extra days at all, as the schedule was so compact. This was stressful, because on many of the days it was pouring down with rain, so we had to shoot anyway,
sometimes moving exterior scenes to interior scenes.”
Such stresses were handled with equanimity, and taken in her stride. Ask Bruus Christensen to cite a particular mentor in the
daunting physical challenges posed by her latest film, Bruus Christensen speaks of it with pride. There is, she recognises, some element of the Welsh and Danish
weight. The home of Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinter- berg, Zentropa and the Dogma manifesto, as well as a clutch of esteemed cine- matographers, it is a proud and highly influential cinema hub.
Bruus Christensen shares this pride in her homeland, and is playing her part in burnishing that legacy. She has already worked with fellow native David Katznelson, shooting second unit for him on Miss Austen Regrets a few years ago, and is also planning to reunite with her Submarino director Vinterberg for her next feature.
Her all time cinemato- graphic heroes come from further afield, however. Sven Nykvist is one she mentions, Conrad Hall another. Together with Brian Tufano they are a trinity of influences who have informed the style that she is bringing to bear on successive movies now, to great effect.
And her enthusiasm is undimmed, despite the stresses of tight budgets, frantic shooting schedules and British weather. The phrase ‘Hunky Dory’ might seem an ironic comment on all that, but one suspects she would have none of it. It’s an education both on screen and off and Bruus Christensen wouldn’t have it any other way.
ANWAR BRETT
Hunky Dory was originated on 16mm Super F-64D 8622, ETERNA 250D 8663, Fujifilm ETERNA Vivid 160T 8643, and Fujifilm ETERNA Vivid 500T 8647
business and she will, in common with many an NFTS graduate, mention the name of Brian Tufano BSC. It is doubtless the lessons he instilled that helped her meet the difficult challenge of recreating one of the warmest summers on record during one of the wettest. Not easy.
“With cinematography you can’t tell people what to do every time. Brian can’t show us a lighting set up and then we use that for the rest of our career; he has to create something within us. Each person has a different way of thinking, and he had to find that and then develop it, and he did that so brilliantly.” Despite the long, arduous hours and
mindsets have in common, and this undoubtedly helped her tune into the subtext of the story.
“They’re very different countries, but the people are quite similar. This thing of being the smallest surrounded by other big countries who always look down on you a little bit, it makes you feel very proud of your country.
“I understood what Marc was talking about when we spoke about the movie, what it was he wanted from the country- side, and from the people, and what he wanted to be visible in the movie.”
Despite its size, in cinematic terms Denmark punches well above its
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