# Robert McLachlan (cinematographer)

Robert McLachlan is a Canadian cinematographer. 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. His professional career began with documentary work for Greenpeace, 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 and Walkabout to choose his career path, would go on to find recognition as the chief cinematographer for the television series Millennium, 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 Game of Thrones. He founded the documentary production company Omni Film Productions 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 was not cold enough for ponds to freeze over to play ice hockey 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 1976 Summer Olympics, 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 after viewing the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; 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 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; however, when he began work in 1987, he was mentored by Richard Leiterman. McLachlan also cites influences outside the field of cinematography, drawing influence from the chiaroscuro, Dutch art and pre-Raphaelite movements of visual art, and the works of Andrew Wyeth and Georges de La Tour in particular.

## Career

Having graduated, McLachlan and Michael Chechik founded the production company Omni Film Productions in 1979, and began to work with Greenpeace, 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 Exxon oil tanker and scarcely missing being assaulted by trophy hunters in British Columbia. 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 Fox 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 Strange Luck. McLachlan was initially offered a position shooting Carter's other active series, The X-Files, 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 David Nutter, McLachlan was able to parley this connection into a role on the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones. 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 Ray Donovan, and has based that series' cinematography on both film noir 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.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Director |
| 1986 | Abducted | Boon Collins |
| 1992 | Impolite | David Hauka |
| 1992 | Ellen's Story | Robert A. Duncan |
| 2000 | Final Destination | James Wong |
| 2001 | The One | James Wong |
| 2003 | Willard | Glen Morgan |
| 2005 | Cursed | Wes Craven |
| 2005 | King's Ransom | Jeffrey W. Byrd |
| 2006 | Final Destination 3 | James Wong |
| 2006 | Black Christmas | Glen Morgan |
| 2009 | Dragonball Evolution | James Wong |
| 2021 | Nightbooks | David Yarovesky |

### Television

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1988-1990 | The Beachcombers | Rex Bromfield Marc Strange Bruno Gerussi Brad Turner Sturla Gunnarsson Alan Simmonds Stefan Scaini René Bonnière Don S. Williams Neill Fearnley | 19 episodes |
| 1989-1995 | Neon Rider | | |
| 1991-1994 | Northwood | | 29 episodes |
| 1991 | MacGyver | Michael Preece | Episodes "Trail of Tears" and "Hind-Sight" |
| 1991 | Max Glick | George Bloomfield Al Waxman Stacey Stewart Curtis Stephen Surjik Stefan Scaini Patrick Corbett | Season 2 |
| 1992 | The Odyssey | Jorge Montesi Brad Turner Graeme Campbell William Brayne Don McBrearty T. W. Peacocke Rex Bromfield | 12 episodes |
| 1993 | Cobra | Brad Turner | Episode "Push It" |
| 1993-1995 | The Commish | | 45 episodes |
| 1995 | Strange Luck | | 16 episodes |
| 1996-1999 | Millennium | | 65 episodes |
| 2001 | The Lone Gunmen | Rob Bowman | Episode "Pilot" |
| 2002 | Pasadena | Sanford Bookstaver Roy H. Wagner | Episodes "The Truth Hurts" and "A Lie Worth Fighting For" |
| 2003 | Out of Order | Henry Bromell Tim Hunter Roger Kumble Wayne Powers | 4 episodes |
| 2003 | Tarzan | David Nutter David Solomon Perry Lang | 4 episodes |
| 2003 | Tru Calling | Phillip Noyce | Episode "Pilot" |
| 2007 | Bionic Woman | Tim Matheson Steve Boyum Paul Shapiro | 3 episodes |
| 2009 | Harper's Island | | All 13 episodes |
| 2011 | Human Target | | 24 episodes |
| 2011 | The Secret Circle | | 21 episodes |
| 2013 | King & Maxwell | | 8 episodes |
| 2013-2017 | Game of Thrones | David Nutter Michelle MacLaren Matt Shakman | 8 episodes |
| 2013-2019 | Ray Donovan | | 54 episodes |
| 2016 | Westworld | Neil Marshall Jonny Campbell Frederick E. O. Toye Stephen Williams | 4 episodes |
| 2019 | Batwoman | Marcos Siega | Episode "Pilot" |
| 2020 | Lovecraft Country | Yann Demange Daniel Sackheim Victoria Mahoney Misha Green Nelson McCormick | 6 episodes |
| 2022 | Shining Girls | Michelle MacLaren Elisabeth Moss | 4 episodes |
| 2022 | American Gigolo | David Hollander Tucker Gates Gregg Araki Damian Marcano Natasha Braier Cheryl Dunye | 7 episodes |
| 2023 | 1923 | Guy Ferland | Episodes "Ghost of Zebrina" and "One Ocean Closer to Destiny" |
| 2024 | Yellowstone | Taylor Sheridan | Episode "Life Is a Promise" |
| 2024-2025 | Landman | Taylor Sheridan Michael Friedman Stephen Kay | 6 episodes |
TV movies
| Year | Title | Director |
| 1989 | What's Wrong with Neil? | Brad Turner |
| 1993 | Adrift | Christian Duguay |
| 1993 | Other Women's Children | Anne Wheeler |
| 1995 | When the Vows Break | Eric Till |
| 1996 | Abduction of Innocence | James A. Contner |
| 1996 | Murder at My Door | Eric Till |
| 2000 | A Vision of Murder: The Story of Donielle | Donald Wrye |
| 2000 | The New Adventures of Spin and Marty: Suspect Behavior | Rusty Cundieff |
| 2000 | High Noon | Rod Hardy |
| 2002 | The New Beachcombers | Brad Turner |
| 2004 | The Robinsons: Lost in Space | John Woo |
| 2005 | Once Upon a Mattress | Kathleen Marshall |
| 2006 | A Little Thing Called Murder | Richard Benjamin |
| 2010 | The Boy Who Cried Werewolf | Eric Bross |
| 2010 | Betwixt | Christian Duguay |
| 2011 | Heavenly | Mimi Leder |

## 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 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 The Lone Gunmen. McLachlan's work on Game of Thrones received Emmy Award 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.
Canadian Society of Cinematographers
| Year | Category | Work | Episode | Result |
| 1985 | Outstanding Documentary Cinematography | Various | — | Won |
| 1986 | Outstanding Documentary Cinematography | Various | — | Won |
| 1987 | Outstanding Documentary Cinematography | Various | — | Won |
| 1994 | Outstanding TV Drama Cinematography | The Commish | — | Nominated |
| 1996 | Outstanding Feature Cinematography | Impolite | — | Won |
| 1997 | Outstanding TV Drama Cinematography | Millennium | — | Won |
| 1996 | Outstanding TV Drama Cinematography | Millennium | — | Won |
| 1999 | Outstanding TV Drama Cinematography | Millennium | — | Won |
| 2000 | Outstanding TV Drama Cinematography | The Lone Gunmen | — | Won |
| 2000 | Outstanding TV Drama Cinematography | High Noon | — | Nominated |
| 2000 | Outstanding Feature Film Cinematography | Final Destination | — | Nominated |
| 2004 | Outstanding Feature Film Cinematography | Willard | — | Won |
| 2015 | TV series Cinematography | Game of Thrones | "Oathkeeper" | Nominated |
| 2015 | TV series Cinematography | Ray Donovan | "The Captain" | Nominated |
American Society of Cinematographers
| Year | Category | Work | Episode | Result |
| 1998 | Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Regular Series | Millennium | "The Thin White Line" | Nominated |
| 1999 | Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Regular Series | Millennium | "Skull and Bones" | Nominated |
| 2000 | Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Regular Series | Millennium | "Matryoshka" | Nominated |
| 2000 | Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Movie of the Week, Miniseries or Pilot (Basic or Pay) | High Noon | — | Nominated |
Primetime Emmy Awards
| Year | Category | Work | Episode | Result | Ref. |
| 2013 | Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series | Game of Thrones | "Mhysa" | Nominated | |
| 2015 | Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series | Game of Thrones | "The Dance of Dragons" | Nominated | |