Owner of North Hollywood's Clairmont Camera Honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Unless you live under a rock and have never seen a movie, chances are high that you've looked through one of Denny Clairmont's camera lenses. Since 1976, on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood has provided equipment to thousands of movie and television productions, including, most recently, the Oscar-nominated The Kids Are All Right. On Saturday night, Clairmont received an award of his own. 

He was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at an event at the where he received the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation. According to a statement issued by the Academy, this award is given for "outstanding service and dedication." Honorees are selected by the Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards Committee.

Speaking Sunday about the honor, Clairmont said that when he received the award he "thanked all the people that helped me. I thanked my wife for putting up with all the long hours, and my brother who helped me start the company, who's deceased now, and the technicians I work with. I couldn't have got it without help from all my people."

Clairmont was born in Hollywood, lives in Sherman Oaks, and goes to work most days in North Hollywood; that is, when he's not traveling–he also has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The NoHo location is a one-stop shop. Camera equipment is constructed and altered on huge machines on the lower level, while equipment is stored, tested, leased, modified and cleaned on the upper floors. Last Friday afternoon, before taking me on a tour of the building, we chatted in Clairmont's office area, which overlooks Lankershim. His desk was covered with camera-shaped ornaments, clocks and paper weights.

He smiled when he spoke about the Bonner award, and how he found out that he had been selected to receive it.

"I'm involved with the Academy. They were having a meeting on Dec. 4. I couldn't attend, I was out of town. I was at an industry event on the 16th, and three of the key people at the meeting were there. During the night I went to them and apologised for not attending, and they all said 'it was fine, don't worry, everything went fine.' I got home that night and there was the letter saying I was getting the award."

Clairmont's history with the industry stretches back to his childhood. His father, Leonard Clairmont, was a cinematographer during the silent era of Hollywood movies. "My father was very, very, very well connected to the studios," said Clairmont. From the age of six months on he appeared as an extra in movies that his father worked on, including The Gay Desperado ("they couldn't call it that now," he said) and alongside Carrie Grant in the 1941 movie Penny Serenade. As a young man, he said, he rebelled against the idea of following in his father's footsteps, and built hot rod cars with his brother, Terry.

"Our cars were very fast, but we didn't make any money," he recalled.

He quit making cars and went to work for Birns and Sawyer, a company that leased cameras to studios, as well as documentary and educational film makers. Clairmont spent his time learning everything he could about the business. One day, he had an argument with his boss. "We had a dispute and he fired me," Clairmont said. He went home, told his brother, and they decided to go into business for themselves. Today, alongside Panavision and Otto Nemenz, the company is one of the largest of its kind.

He has over 300 film and 100 digital cameras that cost anywhere between around $80,000 to $180,000, and thousands of pieces of equipment and accessories. He talked at length about anamorphic lenses, aspect ratios, and the difference between two, three and four perforation film sizes (essentially, the lower the number, the lower the film and processing costs). This is a man fully engrossed by the technical aspects of movie production.

At one point he noticed my camera's lense cap, which is attached to the lense by a thin piece of elastic so that I don't lose it. It cost about three dollars. "Where did you get that?" he said, "I need one of those."