Robert McLachlan (cinematographer)
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Robert McLachlan is a Canadian
cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
. A successful cyclist in his youth, McLachlan quit the sport to take up cinematography, and entered the field after studying at Simon Fraser University, McLachlan was mentored by
Richard Leiterman Richard Leiterman (March 7, 1935 – July 14, 2005) was a Canadian cinematographer, best known for documentary and feature film work in the 1960s and 1970s. His cinéma vérité, or direct camera, style helped define Canadian cinema at the time. ...
. His professional career began with documentary work for
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, before he became involved in both television and feature films; his work has subsequently earned him several industry awards and award nominations. McLachlan, who was inspired by both his father's photography and his own appreciation for the films ''
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' is a 1969 American Western buddy film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman. Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch C ...
'' and '' Walkabout'' to choose his career path, would go on to find recognition as the chief cinematographer for the television series ''
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'', for which he was scouted specifically. McLachlan's style on this series led to several industry awards and briefly became popular in the medium, as well as leading him directly to future work on ''
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''. He founded the documentary production company
Omni Film Productions Omnifilm Entertainment is a television and film production company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Omnifilm produces content in a variety of genres including drama, factual, and lifestyle series and documentaries for the Canadian a ...
in the 1970s, later selling his share of the company.


Early life and education

In his youth, McLachlan was an avid cyclist, accrediting this to the fact that his home town
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
was not cold enough for ponds to freeze over to play
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
on. During his teenage years, he trained upwards of six hours a day, and won several national championships in the sport. He qualified to represent Canada in the
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, but the lack of funding for cycling in North America at the time would have necessitated him funding his own journey and leaving school to do so; McLachlan opted instead to remain in education and focus on his interest in photography. McLachlan first became interested in
cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
after viewing the 1969 film ''
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' is a 1969 American Western buddy film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman. Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch C ...
''; Nicolas Roeg's work on the 1971 film '' Walkabout'' further cemented his interest in the field. McLachlan was also motivated by his father, who was an avid photographer. An early school assignment to create a Super 8 film project, for which he received an A grade, also proved a formative influence. McLachlan studied fine art at the
University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
for a year, before changing courses to attend classes at Simon Fraser University's film department. McLachlan's education focussed on the documentary style of
John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Fla ...
; however, when he began work in 1987, he was mentored by
Richard Leiterman Richard Leiterman (March 7, 1935 – July 14, 2005) was a Canadian cinematographer, best known for documentary and feature film work in the 1960s and 1970s. His cinéma vérité, or direct camera, style helped define Canadian cinema at the time. ...
. McLachlan also cites influences outside the field of cinematography, drawing influence from the
chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
,
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and
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movements of visual art, and the works of
Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In his ...
and Georges de La Tour in particular.


Career

Having graduated, McLachlan and
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founded the production company
Omni Film Productions Omnifilm Entertainment is a television and film production company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Omnifilm produces content in a variety of genres including drama, factual, and lifestyle series and documentaries for the Canadian a ...
in 1979, and began to work with
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, filming documentary footage on a range of subjects. McLachlan narrowly avoided trouble on several of these shoots, finding himself arrested for filming too close to an
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oil tanker and scarcely missing being assaulted by trophy hunters in
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
. McLachlan would later sell his stake in Omni, but remains proud of their documentary work. At the time, McLachlan was unsuccessful in joining an industry union, relegating his work to advertising and small-scale productions; his first union-backed project was on the revival of the television series '' Sea Hunt''. McLachlan found success on the
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television series ''Millennium'', earning several awards for his work on the show. He was head-hunted for the series by its creator Chris Carter, who had seen his work on the series ''
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''. McLachlan was initially offered a position shooting Carter's other active series, ''
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'', then in its third season, but was unable to start work in time. He developed a distinctive style for the series, shooting it with desaturated colours and lighting scenes as though they were to be filmed in black and white; he also made use of high-intensity strobe lighting usually employed for advertising and macro cinematography. McLachlan has noted that this style briefly became popular after the series' broadcast but that other cinematographers had difficulty adjusting to it. Having worked on ''Millennium'' with director
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, McLachlan was able to parley this connection into a role on the
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fantasy series ''
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''. McLachlan has called working on the show's ten-person cinematography team "a major logistical challenge", noting the complexity of its out-of-sequence filming schedules as something unseen on a television series before. McLachlan has also worked on the programme ''
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'', and has based that series' cinematography on both
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aesthetics and those of 1970s cinema, specifically citing '' The Long Goodbye'', '' The Parallax View'' and '' All the President's Men'', as well as the work of Gordon Willis.


Accolades

McLachlan has been nominated for, and won, several awards over the course of his career. He has been nominated four times for the American Society of Cinematographers awards, three times for his work on the television series ''
Millennium A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...
'' and once for the television film ''High Noon''. He has also won several Canadian Society of Cinematographers awards, including wins for the films '' Willard'' and '' Impolite'', as well as for several episodes of ''Millennium'' and ''
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''. McLachlan's work on ''Game of Thrones'' received
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
nominations in 2013 and 2015, and a Canadian Society of Cinematographers award nomination in 2015; he was also nominated by the latter society for his cinematography on the series ''Ray Donovan''.


Partial filmography


Film


Television


Notes


References

*


External links


Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:McLachlan, Robert Canadian cinematographers Living people People associated with Greenpeace People from Vancouver Simon Fraser University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)