Trevor Hogg chats with Rob McLachlan about cycling, founding a production company, and working within the realms of film and television…
Before becoming a Primetime Emmy nominated cinematographer Rob McLachlan (Game of Thrones) was heading down a different career path which saw him become a Canadian Cycling Champion and Canada Games Gold medallist. “I was at the point that I was going to have to quit school and go train. I was on a shortlist to potentially ride in the Montreal Olympics but you couldn’t make a living at it back then unless you went to Europe and went whole hog. At the same time I was into photography and making Super 8 films. I got bitten by that bug. When I was looking at making a career that seemed like the best. My father was a commercial illustrator and painter who drilled into my brother and I that it didn’t matter what we did for a living when we grew up as long as we loved it. Towards the end of high school and first year of university I asked myself the question, ‘What do I love doing? How do I make a living do it?’ What I loved doing was making little movies with the super 8 and shooting photography and working in a darkroom. ‘Where do we go from there?’ I founded OmniFilm productions in Vancouver in 1979 and became partners with Michael Chechik in 1980. We did whatever we could get our hands on. No job too larger or small. We made documentaries for Green Peace, industrial training films, TV commercials, and funding raising films for the children’s hospital. Eventually, we moved into little dramas. I sold my share of OmniFilm in 2000 to Michael because I was not there. I was off shooting which was my first love. The last time I checked OmniFilm has 20 full-time employees and is one of the biggest production companies in Western Canada.”
A long-running CBC show revolving around the adventures of a professional lumber salvager in Gibson, British Columbia became a training ground for the native of San Francisco who shot the last two and a half seasons. “The Beachcombers [CBC, 1972 to 1990] was such a varied filmmaking experience. You had adventure, action, stuff on the water, and a lot of locations. A couple of Beachcombers alumni ended up on MacGyver [ABC, 1985 to 1992] and that’s how I got in there too, first doing all of the second unit shooting which was all of the action stuff; it compromised a big part of the show and went from there. At time it was one of the biggest shows on TV so it was a real break to get in on that.” Rob McLachlan became heavily involved with the Millennium [Fox, 1996 to 1999] from The X-Files [Fox 1993 to 2002] creator Chris Carter about a FBI profiler who has the ability to enter the minds of criminals on the behalf of a mysterious organization. “The wonderful thing about it was that we only had to please Chris Carter. Visually as a cinematographer you’ve got network executives who think that it shouldn’t be too light or dark. They hate when things are too dark. Chris had so much clout I only had to please him and I did. What that allowed us to do was to do absolutely ground-breaking atmospheric, moody and dark lighting on television which I don’t think we got as much credit for as we probably deserved. It was a hugely influential show. To this day people come up to me and say, ‘Oh, my god. Millennium there’s never been a show that looked like that on TV before.’ The thing about Millennium versus The X-Files there was no supernatural element. It was grounded in reality and the photography could be as grim as the subject matter when it was called for; that was liberating.”
The small screen experience led to doing the principle photography for the Final Destination movie franchise. “I did the first and third ones,” states Rob McLachlan. “In-between that I did a remake of Willard [2003] with the two guys who made had number one and three; that relationship came out of Millennium because in season two Chris was also doing an X-Files feature and Jim Wong [Dragonball: Evolution] and Glen Morgan [Black Christmas] came in and ran the show. I met them on that and they’re two of the best human beings in the business.” Another key creative partnership is with director David Nutter (Arrow). “I’ve worked with him on Millennium and the pilot for the Tarzan TV series [WB, 2003] which was shot in Toronto. They asked me to do the first three episodes to get it on its feet. It ended up not going for long. It had problems with the conceptual and network end. It was great to work with him on that too.” McLachlan also lensed the pilot episode for Tru Calling [Fox, 2003 to 2005] which focused on a city morgue worker who uses her ability to replay the same day in an effort to prevent crimes and disasters from happening. “That was so long ago. Phillip Noyce [Rabbit Proof Fence], the Australian feature director, was the director on it; he was at loggerheads with the two writers. We had no prep time. I didn’t think it was going to go. We had such limited resources shooting the pilot that I was surprised when it did get picked up but by then I was onto a feature.”
When it is suggested that Human Target [Fox, 2010 to 2011] missed the mark with the revamped casting, the cinematographer admits, “They had problems getting the scripts in on time which added to the budget and schedule in season one. They changed showrunners in season two. The original showrunner, Jonathan E. Steinberg, is now doing Black Sails [Starz, 2014]. I liked both of the showrunners a lot but I liked the first season better. It had more texture and was trying to be what it was – a James Bond winking at the audience action show. I was working with an extremely experienced crew. A lot of them I’ve known for 25 years from working on episodic and features. They all quite liked that show. I hate to say it but a lot of episodic crew wouldn’t watch in a million years the show that they’re working on but that was one that they did. Everyone liked it.” King & Maxwell [TNT, 2013] where two former secret service agents become private investigators had a funny start to the series. “Apparently, CBS wanted it but only had so many slots and they had done the pilot for it. The cast was good and was fun to work on. It was extremely low budget. We only had seven days an episode to shoot that thing. If they kept on the air it would have probably kept going.”
Rob McLachlan is enjoying spending time with the cast of crew for Ray Donovan (Showtime, 2013 to present), a show where the title character fixes problems for a powerful law firm while having to deal with some serious family issues. “I finished an episode that Liev Schreiber [The Painted Veil] our lead directed and it’s going to be the best episode of the show. Ann Biderman [Southland], the show’s creator, wrote it. The performances he got out of the other actors who are outstanding anyway and the ideas he brought to it were impressive. I really happy with a couple of the episodes I’ve seen finished on my end of it. It’s going to be a good episode. It’s a terrific series. Pretty much it’s got by far the best cast from an acting standpoint of any series that I’ve worked on. Liev is exceptional. Paula Malcomson [Tombstone] is incredible who plays Abby and Jon Voight [Deliverance] just knocks my socks off every day; the guy is 75 and turns up as if he’s a kid who wants to create. They bring so much to it. It’s a treat to sit there getting to watch them work. It’s really good.”
“In terms of a network, American episodic television get their pickup after the pilots have been turned in which is early to mid-May,” explains Rob McLachlan. “Then they have to hire a bunch of writers and get them in the room maybe by end of May or June. If they have a 12 or 22 episode pickup there’s no way they’re going to have all those scripts together yet because of all the levels they have to go through to get approved for one thing. A recent case and point, two or three years ago I was doing a series that was being produced by the CW for Fox. The CW was the production company and their executives had demands that needed to be satisfied. The writers also had to satisfy Fox which was ultimately going to broadcasting the show. What often happens with North American episodic is that you don’t get the script until a few days before you start shooting. The worse-case scenario is that you get an outline or a script a day before you have to start shooting the episode.” As for what the movie studios could learn from the television industry, McLachlan remarks, “You can make something that’s smart, engaging, and adult, and have an audience. People will watch it. It doesn’t have to be based on a video game or a comic book.”
Many thanks to Rob McLachlan for taking the time for this interview.
To learn more visit the official websites for Game of Thrones, Ray Donovan and Rob McLachlan.
Red Wedding & Zombie Babies: Rob McLachlan talks about Game of Thrones
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.
