American Cinematographer - September 2017 - 24

Pro Perspective
David McFarland:
Be Prepared
"When you work in other countries,
you have to be respectful of their culture, be
malleable in your approach, and manage
your expectations," offers cinematographer
David McFarland.
McFarland's commercial work
includes clients such as Levi's, Estée Lauder,
Adidas, Samsung, Mazda and Stella Artois
- and among his documentary and feature
credits, he photographed The Boy Next
Door for Rob Cohen. In recent years,
though, McFarland has developed a reputation as an extreme cinematographer. He
shot director Sonia Nassery Cole's feature
The Black Tulip (AC Sept. '10) in
Afghanistan amid the daily war and
violence. He is next off to Palestine for
24

September 2017

another feature, and he recently finished
shooting The Sweet Requiem in India. That
film took McFarland from sub-zero temperatures at 16,000' in the Himalayas to 117
degrees in New Delhi.
"The biggest thing I've learned
about shooting in exotic places is to be
prepared," offers McFarland. "When you're
going into a place way outside of your
comfort zone, you have to accept the inherent challenges - diet, weather, work ethic,
living conditions - and be prepared to do
things quite differently. This holds true on a
lot of levels. If I try to force the 'Hollywood'
way of doing things when I'm shooting in
remote India or in Afghanistan, it's not
going to work. You've got to learn to adapt
to the crew's methods, to integrate yourself
with them. It's important to understand
their culture, vocabulary and methodologies, and make that all work for you instead
American Cinematographer

Photos by Pablo Bartholomew, courtesy of David McFarland.

Cinematographer
David McFarland
(holding camera,
both photos) at
work on location
in India for The
Sweet Requiem.

of against you. So I do as much research as I
can before I go in order to get a better understanding of the culture and how people work
and speak, so that I'm not offending. Then
you just have to go along for the ride and
keep a sense of humor! I really try to
approach these things with an open mind
and an open heart."
Such research is also crucial when
going into an extreme climate. "When you're
in extremely low temperatures up at 16,000
feet, you have to deal with situations that are
very foreign to most people," McFarland
notes. "The only way to survive this is to
prepare - mentally and medically - for the
elements."
Part of his preparation for the shoot in
India was to receive a prescription for Acetazolamide, also known as Diamox, which
helps to counteract the effects of altitude
sickness: nausea, dizziness, headaches,
fatigue, shortness of breath, etc. He also
reached out to other filmmakers who had
been in similar conditions. "Mandy Walker
[ASC, ACS] had just done The Mountain
Between Us up in high altitude, and she gave
me solid advice: 'Don't let yourself be cold,'"
McFarland recalls. "That might seem ridiculously simple, but it's so important. It's irresponsible to get into a situation and not be
prepared. Even if it doesn't create a health
issue for you, if you're really cold, you're not
going to be in the creative zone; it's going to
take away from your work. I did a lot of layering and came equipped with a lot of REI gear
that worked very well for me."
McFarland had an internal regimen as
well. "I was really nervous that I was going to
get sick there," he says. "It happens to Westerners in India all the time. The water contains
bacteria that we just don't face in the U.S. I
did a movie in the past in Mexico, and I got
sick and it was horrible. I was constantly
jumping off the dolly to throw up and finally
had to surrender and stop working for a few
days. To avoid that this time, I started taking a
hardcore probiotic about six weeks before the
trip, and I continued doing that until I was
back in the States. I also took vitamin B12
along with charcoal pills, which will coat your
stomach and fight off bad bacteria. Part of my
preparation was making sure that my stomach was ready for the job ahead!"
- JH
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