Today would have been Otto Nemenz’s 84th birthday. He passed away on November 1 at his home in Maui. This story is very difficult to write. If anyone has additions, anecdotes, corrections or more photos, please add comments or send.

Otto was a friend, mentor and colleague. We spoke on the phone every couple of weeks. His office was often the first place to visit on landing in LA. The second destination was the Otto Nemenz table by the window at Chinois on Main restaurant, opened by fellow Austrian Wolfgang Puck in 1983 and run by Bella Lantsman—always welcoming with care and delicious Asian fusion cuisine. Cinema icons like Otto always seemed to have a regular tables: Bobby Arnold, Denny Clairmont, etc.

Otto and I met at his first rental house at 7531 Sunset Boulevard shortly after he opened it on February 1, 1979.  It was long like a bowling alley and about as wide as one or two lanes. Alex Wengert was the employee. Otto’s ten cameras were stored in his Mercedes parked outside. I was a fledgling camera assistant to Herbert Raditschnig, the famous Austrian cinematographer, mountaineer, sailor and skier. We were in Los Angeles to pick up equipment from Otto, enroute to Switzerland for a mini series about (naturally) skiing.

Otto and I compared bruised shins. Before becoming a cameraman himself and opening Otto Nemenz International, Otto had been Herbert’s assistant. Here’s the origin story of Otto Focus and haptic focus feedback. This was pre-Preston, before wireless lens control. Hand on follow-focus wheel, you were next to the camera and close enough to smell the camera operator’s aftershave. If you buzzed focus, Herbert kicked, gently at first, until you got things sharp.

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Otto Constantin Nemenz was born on November 12, 1941 in Styria (Steiermark), Austria. Or it might have been early in the morning of November 13. “My mother was very superstitious and never disclosed the exact time of my birth,” Otto recalled in his biography by Andrea Schneider-Manndorff (translated by Helga Kollar). “My father was an admirer of the Habsburgs and that was probably the inspiration for my first name, after Otto von Habsburg. My middle name was chosen by my mother after Constantine, the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire.”

Otto’s mother, Diana Petalas, was a Byzantine Greek living in Istanbul. Otto’s father, Gustav Nemenz, had recently graduated from business school in Austria and met Diana on the Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn. After moving to Austria when Gustav got a job at Leykam-Josefstal, the paper manufacturing company, they were married.

Diana returned to Istanbul with Otto in 1943. Otto said, “Some of my most influential childhood memories are the negotiation rituals with street vendors. I tenaciously managed to drive the toughest barterers nearly insane.” Years later, camera and lens manufacturers would agree.

Otto moved back to Austria to finish school and get a degree in Precision Mechanics and Optics. He had two ambitions: to become a cameraman and to drive on California Highway 1. He was told that to become a cameraman, he should apprentice at Panavision, where many other Austrian, German and Swiss technicians worked. As for State Route 1, after watching a documentary about the PCH three times, Otto flew to Los Angeles, got a car, drove up and down California, and knocked on Panavision’s door soon after. A big 1962 Cadillac pulled up. Otto, being a car buff, started talking with the owner. It was Bob Gottschalk. Otto let slip that he was an optical engineer.

“I have a job for you,” Gottschalk said. “As a filter cleaner.” Otto was put to work cleaning filters, at $2 an hour. After several months, he grew tired of the job, but they wouldn’t promote him. He started dropping filters “by accident.” They put a rubber mat under his workbench.  George Kramer rescued him with an offer to work on building anamorphics. Every three months, Otto asked Bob Gottschalk for a raise. Bob asked why. Otto said, “surely my work is worth more money.”

In 1966 Panavision got the contract to supply Grand Prix, directed by John Frankenheimer, starring James Garner, Yves Montand, and Toshiro Mifune. It was filmed in Super Panavision 70, which makes the car-rig shots all the more technically notable. Johnny Stevens, the 2nd Unit DP, told Otto, “If you show up in London at teatime next Thursday, I’ll make sure you’re hired.”

So Otto gave up his apartment in LA, drove from California to New York, boarded an Icelandic Airlines DC-7A bound for Glasgow with 5 suitcases and everything he owned, including toolboxes and depth gauges, arrived at 5pm in the appointed place, and said, “Hi, Johnny.” Johnny looked at Otto and said, “What are you doing here?” The Production Manager asked, “Who are you?” Otto was thinking quickly on his feet and replied, “I’m here from Panavision to service the job, take care of the cameras, collimate your lenses, and so on…”

He was hired on the spot, because they had the only Super Panavision 70 handheld camera in existence at the time, and a lens that kept binding. “That lens was my lifeline,” Otto said. It had to be constantly taken apart, adjusted, reassembled. Six weeks later, they were short of assistants. Otto was promoted to assistant, in addition to working as camera technician.

Next, he worked on skiing, mountaineering films and commercials with Herbert Raditschnig, Christian Skrein and others. In 1968, Otto returned to the US, and worked as Rental Manager at F&B Ceco, where he met DP Paul Lohmann. They worked together on Hells Angels 69, To Catch a Pebble, Woodstock, documentaries, commercials all over the world, music videos for Country Joe and The Fish, The Turtles, The Animals and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

From 1975 to 1981, Otto worked as Director of Photography on shorts for ABC Circle Films, and on many features.  In 1976, he shot a documentary for the National Park Service to commemorate 200 years of American history.

After 2 years on Sunset Boulevard, there were 6 employees and it started to get cramped. In 1983, Otto moved the company into new facilities at 870 North Vine Street. With 8 employees, they were awed by all the space. By the company’s 30th anniversary in 2009, there were 40 employees and 150 camera packages that included Arriflex and Moviecam. A fully-outfitted machine shop “Nemenzised” lenses, cameras and accessories. The Canon/Nemenz was used by Adam Greenberg, ASC on Terminator II and the Deakinizer which was used by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC on Assassination of Jesse James. A custom monitor that always faced the camera operator was built for Alwin Kuchler, BSC.

By 1992, Otto had stopped shooting to devote all his time to running the company. He was fully involved in the day to day management  of the company.

In 2003, Fritz Heinzle became Marketing Manager after having learned and mastered the art of camera repair for the previous 7 years at Otto’s. He did not drop filters the way Otto did.

At Otto’s Pacific Palisades home in June 2009, he introduced me to Dr. Andreas Kaufmann. “We have an interesting story to tell you,” Otto said, as Santa Monica Bay glistened in glorious magic hour light. “It’s about Leica cine lenses.” The saga involved several degrees of separation that began more than 30 years ago, with Otto and his good friend Christian Skrein dreaming of Leica lenses for high-end 35mm motion picture production.

In 1968, at age 23, Christian Skrein began shooting film. In 1970, he opened a film production company, Skrein Films, with offices in Vienna, Milan and Hollywood. Herbert Raditschnig was one of his regular DPs. Otto was the camera assistant.

Jump cut to December 2005. Christian Skrein met with Andreas Kaufmann, and said, “I have a concept and a friend in Hollywood, Otto Nemenz. He and I have had a dream for many years” Later that evening, Otto received a phone call from Christian. “Otto, we have our dream.” Otto said, “Leica Cine lenses? How is that possible?” Christian replied, “We know the new owner of Leica Camera.”

Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Leica Supervisory Board and ACM, said at the time, “The Cine Lenses project essentially started toward the end of 2006 when Christian Skrein introduced me to Otto Nemenz. The initial idea of Leica lenses for cinema has been brewing for quite some time. Members of the movie industry were forever trying to convert M and R lenses into Cine Lenses. I didn’t like that approach.

December 17, 2009. A new set of motion picture camera PL mount prime lenses were unveiled in Hollywood. They were all T1.4, lightweight and small. Called the “Mystery” lenses because of lack of corporate provenance emblazoned on the barrels, all would be revealed very soon. The event took place at the Band Pro One World Open House. The first 25 sets of lenses were to be delivered to Otto Nemenz International.

At the ASC Awards in Hollywood on February 8, 2014, the Bud Stone Award was presented to Otto Nemenz and Denny Clairmont. Business competitors by day, friends at night, car enthusiasts and cinematography gurus, they never saw a camera they couldn’t retrofit and make more user-friendly.

August 7, 2020: Otto Nemenz International (ONI) moved for a third time. It took 45 truckloads of equipment to move from the former place on Vine St to the new 38,000 square foot facility at 5700 Buckingham Parkway in Culver City, CA. There are 21 prep bays, 2 large feature prep rooms, 1500 sq. ft storage area for camera assistant carts, a 1250 sq. ft. machine shop, 1085 sq ft projection and lens test room with Chrosziel Large Format Projectors and a new Trioptic Lens Tester.

Otto summed it up in 2022: “This move has been in the works for a long time. We were running out of space in the Vine Street location. Thanks to all the cinematographers, assistants, crews, directors and producers for all their years of support.”

All of us—cinematographers, assistants, crews, directors and producers—will miss Otto Nemenz very much.

 

 

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