By Our Man in LA – Iain Blair
Located on a quiet back street in bustling Culver City, Keslow Camera has served the global filmmaking community with cinema cameras, lenses, and technical support for close to four decades since being founded by former camera assistant Robert Keslow in 1990. I recently toured the impressive 40,000 square foot building facility with host and COO Dennis McDonald who gave me an inside look at the whole operation.
“We’ve been here 12 years now, and it was a free-standing building when we purchased the building,” he reports. “So, after speaking to multiple people in the industry who are in rental houses every day, and getting their input, we brought in a top architect and designed the space and created a workflow that we think is unparalleled.”
Dennis McDonald, Keslow Camera COO.
Copyright: © Keslow Camera, Inc.
As I follow McDonald up to the first of two airy mezzanines and look down across the huge lobby, it’s easy to appreciate what he means; the kitchen, dining area and prep area where clients can hang out are all up front as you walk in. “We didn’t want it to be hidden away at the back, like an afterthought,” he explains. “The client is the focal point of what we do.” We continue past all the stylish executive offices, including those for McDonald, CEO Robert Keslow, CFO Charlie Borsheim, Senior VP of marketing Mel Mathis, and Brad Wilson, VP of Business Development. We also tour the key departments where the sausage gets made, including Operations, run by Tom Boelens; Service & Lenses, run by Chad Martin; and R&D, overseen by Michael Kramer.
“Our centralised logistics team supports eight offices across the U.S. and Canada, managing our inventory as a single, shared asset pool accessible to any location on demand. To maximise operational efficiency, our facility features shipping & receiving at opposite ends, creating a streamlined, one-way workflow,” he notes. “When equipment returns, logistics scans & fully accounts for every item before transferring it to our service team for thorough inspection. Service is paramount in our industry, so every camera, monitor, and lens undergoes rigorous testing. We maintain two specialised optical departments: one focused on daily turnarounds and immediate job preparation, and another dedicated to deep technical servicing and collaborating directly with cinematographers to realise their creative vision.”
The Keslow Camera Los Angeles lens service shop.
Credit: Ryan Rosenblum/Keslow Camera. Copyright: © Keslow Camera,
Inc.
We pass state-of-the-art test equipment rooms, an inventory control training room, and arrive at another key part of the operation – the R&D department. “We manufacture proprietary equipment in-house as well,” McDonald reports. “When we join a project and a DP requires a specialised tool, we design & fabricate it ourselves.” He points at an imposing bank of 3D printers. “
We manage all rapid prototyping using these machines, allowing us to respond immediately whenever new equipment hits the market. For instance, when Sony announced the Rialto Mini, we secured the exact specs early and printed prototypes to develop custom bracketry, ensuring we were fully ready the day it was officially released.”
Keslow Camera’s R&D department, 3D printer room.
Credit: Ryan Rosenblum/Keslow Camera. Copyright: © Keslow Camera,
Inc.
“We engineer our own electronics rather than relying on off-the-shelf hardware,” he stresses. “We consult directly with camera assistants and operators to identify operational challenges, design solutions around their needs, gather user feedback, and refine the hardware into custom bracketry.” Keslow’s ability to innovate so rapidly is driven by their 3D printing capabilities. “This department operates 12 hours a day, while the printers run around the clock,” he says. “Even mid-production, if a crew conceives a new idea, our core strength lies in how quickly we can engineer and deliver a custom solution.”
We pass the huge equipment room where a team is busy prepping the next job and laying all the gear out on the floor, ready to load out, and we exit the main building and walk across the courtyard to the Backlot annex, a beautiful, light-filled 5,000 sq. ft. space. “If we have a big feature prepping, we give them the entire building,” he explains. “They have their own parking lot, their own kitchen, and more than enough space for a big prep where they could be there between two and six weeks. Otherwise, we use it for wrap-outs or if we have overflow preps from the main building, we’ll prep in here. It just gives us more space.”
Keslow Camera’s R&D department. Credit: Ryan
Rosenblum/Keslow Camera. Copyright: © Keslow Camera, Inc.
Back in McDonald’s office, I ask him about the biggest challenges facing the rental business today. “Obviously, the writers’ and actors’ strikes decimated our industry, and the subsequent Palisades fires, where a significant portion of television executives reside, further compounded production delays,” he notes.
“While production did begin to rebound, studios remain exceptionally cost-conscious. We’re also contending with runaway production to Europe as projects seek foreign tax incentives and reduced costs. California did recently increase the incentive from $330 million to $750 million, which was a big help, and we’ve seen quite a few features get that incentive and LA has been doing more features recently. But we’ve got a lot of work to do in the TV space. I wish the streamers would greenlight more shows, but I’m optimistic things will turn around and we’ll get busier. I don’t think we’ll ever get to 2022 levels, but if we can get to 2018-2019 levels, I’ll be happy.”
Keslow, the largest privately held cinema camera rental house in North America, has racked up such recent A-list projects as the billion-dollar hit Michael, and the Emmy-nominated TV shows Spider-Noir, Widows Bay and The Testaments. Spider-Noir was shot by DP Darran Tiernan whose job was further complicated by the fact that the retro-fresh series was shot in two different versions; “Authentic Black & White” and “True-Hue Full Color.”
The Keslow Camera Los Angeles service department.
Credit: Ryan Rosenblum/Keslow Camera. Copyright: © Keslow Camera,
Inc.
“The testing that goes into doing a show like that took days and days and multiple sets of lenses to find the perfect combination for shooting black and white and colour,” McDonald reports. “And for Apple TV’s Widows Bay, DP Christian Sprenger, ASC chose a set of rare vintage lenses, known as the ASC Todd-AO lenses, which were originally used to film such classic films as Around the World In 80 Days, Patton, The Sound Of Music, and Hello Dolly. The ASC found these lenses in their basement, essentially forgotten about. We worked with ASC President and cinematographer Shelly Johnson ASC and his team, along with the team at Zero Optik who beautifully rehoused them. Christian used these on the 6th episode of Widows Bay for which he was Emmy-nominated. For The Testaments, we provided the camera and lens package for DP Greta Zozula who also did a lot of tests and shot on the Alexa 35, combining spherical K35s with anamorphic Atlas Orions and Canon FD lenses”
Other current projects include quite a number of reality series, as well as Apple TV’s Dark Matter S2 which was shot in Chicago by DPs John Lindley ASC and Jeff Greeley; Ron Howard’s upcoming feature, Alone at Dawn, shot by Salvatore Totino ASC AIC; and How to Rob a Bank directed by David Leitch and shot by DP Jonathan Sela. “That movie was shot on 35mm film, so we still have a bunch of film cameras and they are constantly in demand. Film is by no means dead,” he stresses. “We also do Little House on the Prairie in Winnipeg for Netflix, numerous projects for Taylor Sheridan out of our Texas office, and we’re doing Alien: Earth. We did season 1 in Thailand and season 2 is currently underway at Pinewood in London.”
The Keslow Camera Los Angeles equipment room, lens
aisle. Credit: Ryan Rosenblum/Keslow Camera. Copyright: © Keslow Camera, Inc.
With an eye to the future, Keslow recently partnered with two rental houses in the UK – One Stop Films and No Drama – and entered into an agreement with Ancient Optics. “They have an amazing portfolio of lenses, ranging from vintage spherical lenses to anamorphic, as well as 65mm format lenses and the incredibly popular Tamashii Primes,” he reports. “So, we’ve created an alliance with them and a dozen or so companies throughout the world, and we’re offering these lenses exclusively through the Ancient Alliance.”
The company has also partnered with The Helm, a global expert in cinematic live broadcast and high-end production workflows, and recently introduced Keslow LIVE, powered by The Helm. This new collaborative offering is designed to deliver premium cinematic multi-cam and live production solutions to Keslow’s extensive client network across the United States and Canada, and combines Keslow’s trusted reputation, world-class inventory, and deep relationships in the film and television community with The Helm’s expertise in cinematic live production, fiber-based workflows, and turnkey execution. The result is a single-source pathway that allows clients to access the full spectrum of cinematic equipment, services, and live production capability.
The Keslow Camera Los Angeles prep bays. Credit:
Ryan Rosenblum/Keslow Camera. Copyright: © Keslow Camera, Inc.
Summing up, he notes that “while the rental industry is currently facing a challenging market, adaptability is essential. That is why we’re establishing strategic partnerships, expanding our network, and providing our clients with cutting-edge technological advances, alongside our decades of industry expertise to help bring their productions to completion. This is a relationship-driven business, and we are deeply passionate about the work we do,” he adds. “The cinematographers, camera assistants and other crew members we serve are long-standing partners and personal friends who view us as an integral part of their creative process. It’s those deep connections that give me confidence, and why I remain cautiously optimistic about the future.”
