Rick McFarland was born in Whittier, California in July 1970, and spent his early years in Southern California before moving to Utah at the age of 10. He developed a passion for aviation, obtaining his private pilot's license while still in high school.
Rick graduated from Brigham Young University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music, and worked his way through college as a freelance producer, sound designer, and editor. During this time, he contributed to various documentaries, including "Out of the Ashes," "Immortal Fortress: A Look Inside Chechnya's Warrior Culture," and "Roots & Wings."
As a freelancer, Rick developed a specialty in language replacement pieces for various companies and produced the PBS documentary film "Truth and Conviction," which tells the story of a young boy who defied the Nazis during World War II. This experience allowed him to interview Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass about his thoughts on Helmut Huebner, and has since inspired additional research, books, and a feature-length screenplay on the subject.
In 2003, Rick joined Cosmic Pictures in Salt Lake City, where he produced hundreds of broadcast and non-commercial pieces, including the feature-length film "Stalking Santa," narrated by William Shatner. He also wrote numerous commercial scripts and feature screenplays, and founded his own production company, Fiftyfilms, in 2006.
Rick has continued to work with a range of clients, including Intel, Verizon, BAE, Purina, Sabick, and Microsoft, and has produced and edited several films, including "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend," starring Alyssa Milano, Christopher Gorham, and Michael Landes.
In addition to his work in film and television, Rick has developed a particular expertise in aerial photography, and has traveled extensively throughout the world, including Germany, Australia, Costa Rica, and Guam. For his latest screenplay, he took a research trip to Kathmandu in 2011, where he found a country that was both foreign and strangely similar to his home state of Utah.
Rick's latest film, "Highway to Dhampus," is an independent feature film shot entirely in Nepal by a foreign director and crew. It is a deeply personal film for Rick, drawing heavily from his own experiences and transposing them into a Nepali setting.
