American Cinematographer - May 2000 - 76

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into the shadow areas."

the ASC

recognized the final episode
22-episode season. "Shooting a
TV series is like [running] a
marathon, and for us to get nomi¬
nated for the last show of the year is
a tribute to my crew and their
stamina," he says with a laugh. "A lot
of crews have given up by that point."
Jean Oppenheimer

McLachlan adds that

of the

his

own.

"I rented

a

second

one

from

chocolate
way, we

gel for both Varicons. That
injected some nice, warm

tones

into the shadows. I then used

some

Schneider Classic Soft filters,

Robert McLachlan, CSC

which

Millennium, "Matroyshka"

like classic old Mitchell filters, but

are

really fabulous. They're

they're very consistent. They gave
those sequences a bit of an aura and

canceled last year, the
series Millennium earned Vancouver-

[on the show] always embraced

based

idea I had."

Before it

was

during its three-season
run.
(The cinematographer was
nominated for the 1998 episode

among the episodes of Millennium
that aired last year, not only because

"Skull and Bones" and for the 1997

flashback, but also because it doesn't

glow. Also, in the lab, I timed the
flashbacks to be fairly warm as well. It
wasn't as extreme as something like
the flashback sequences in The
Godfather, but it was something
along those lines. Throughout the
[episode], there was some nice

episode "Thin White Line") After the
series wrapped, McLachlan shot the
feature Final Destination, written by
James Wong and Glen Morgan
(former co-producers of The X-Files
and Millennium) and directed by
Wong, and he has just finished
shooting the pilot for Chris Carter's
X-Files spinoff series about the Lone

feature the show's main characters.

contrast

cinematographer

Robert

McLachlan, CSC, three ASC Award
nominations

"Matroyshka"

a

"As it opens, we are

in this rather
dingy, very Millennium-esque retire¬
ment

home; then, when he finds his
we match-cut back to the

old fedora,

credits include the telefilms

an

Murder

at

the

Door,

unique

Instead, the episode "follows an old,
retired FBI agent, who's living in a
retirement home, as he goes through
all of his issues," McLachlan explains.

mid-1940s

Sight

was

any

majority of the show unfolds in

Gunman trio. McLachlan's other

Unseen,

as we

unfold the story

of

unsolved mystery from this char¬
acter's past. I wanted the flashbacks
feel

tough deciding which
episode to submit [for ASC consid¬

distinctly different from the
to] evoke
the feeling of a certain era if you light
the way the films were lit during that
era, so I went for a fairly glamorous,
slightly diffused film-noir style -
like classic, black-and-white photog¬
raphy. Any time you do period stuff,

eration],"

it's fun."

Abduction

of Innocence, My Name Is
Kate, Courting Justice, The Comic
Book Chase and Always a Bridesmaid,
as well as the series Strange Luck, The
Commish,
The
Odyssey and
MacGyver.
"ft

was

states

"Usually there's

McLachlan.

episode that
during [the final
season] I had three or four episodes
I felt were exceptional. I finally
chose 'Matroyshka' because the visu¬
als had a nice variety - most of the
episode takes place in a flashback.
One of the great aspects of doing a
series of that scale with

[Millennium

creator] Chris Carter is that you're
not
was

to

rest

always stuck in the same look. I
really lucky, because everyone

of the show. [It's easier

The director of

one

stands out, but

May 2000

of

Clairmont for the B camera," he says.
"For the flashbacks, I used a Rosco

-

70

one

the Varicons he used on the show was

photography

used the Arriflex Varicon, which he
had

already employed a few times on
the series, to establish the look he
wanted. "We didn't want to go to
black-and-white for the flashbacks,
and

we

didn't want

look, either,

so

our

normal color

I used the Varicon.

Normally, Millennium had a very
contrasty look; I never used anything
to

reduce the contrast. But with the

Varicon, I could inject some color

more

between the two eras."

Although "Matroyshka" has a
noir look, the lighting style

McLachlan used wasn't too different
from that of

regular episode,
employs more of a
black-and-white lighting strategy to
create the show's highly contrasty,
a

because he often

desaturated look. "The noir look [of
the nominated episode] was mainly

achieved with

lighting and exposure,
more of a totally
hard-light style of lighting. I used a
nice, strong Baby for the key and
and I used

made

a

a more

little

traditional

use

of fill,

kickers and

backlight. However, I
occasionally back off on the
backlight - if I felt if it was a bit too
contrasty, for instance - and let the
fill side just melt into the shadows in
the background, which had a really
nice feel. The thing I like about using
hard light is that you can cut the light
so nicely; it's so much easier to
control compared to softer light."
Although McLachlan fre¬
quently used different stocks (includ¬
ing 16mm emulsions) to create
specific looks throughout the series,
he shot "Matroyshka" entirely on
would

Eastman Kodak's EXR 5298. "We

shot the

episode in December, and
in Vancouver is so

that time of year
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