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==Biography==
==Biography==
He was born in England and made his first film at the age of 15 on [[8 mm film|8mm]]. Called ''The Chase'', it was about a lunatic who escapes from an asylum and chases a boy around the countryside with a bayonet. He was commissioned to make a film about his school, [[Wellington College, Berkshire|Wellington College]], for prospective parents. He showed this around once he left school, and it helped him get work as an editor's assistant and camera assistant. He moved to Australia in 1955 and worked at [[Network Ten|Channel Ten]] as an editor, doing news, documentaries and trailers. He moved over to [[Nine Network|Channel 9]] to work as promotions director, then in 1958 went to work in London as a junior writer/producer of feature film trailers at National Screen Service. In 1970 he returned to Channel 9 as network promotions director, and made his directorial debut with a French TV special ''Christmas in Australia''.<ref>Brennan p599</ref>
He was born in England and made his first film at the age of 15 on [[8 mm film|8mm]]. Called ''The Chase'', it was about a lunatic who escapes from an asylum and chases a boy around the countryside with a bayonet. He was commissioned to make a film about his school, [[Wellington College, Berkshire|Wellington College]], for prospective parents. He showed this around once he left school, and it helped him get work as an editor's assistant and camera assistant with a French news company in London.<ref>Jones p27</ref>
Trenchard-Smith moved to Australia in 1955 and worked at [[Network Ten|Channel Ten]] as an editor, doing news, documentaries and station promos. He moved over to [[Nine Network|Channel 9]] to work as promotions director, then in 1958 went to work in London as a junior writer/producer of feature film trailers at National Screen Service. In 1970 he returned to Channel 9 as network promotions director, and made his directorial debut with a French TV special ''Christmas in Australia''.<ref>Brennan p599</ref>


===Documentary Films===
===Documentary Films===
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Forthe last twenty years, Trenchard Smith has worked mostly in America. He says his passion project is to do a revisionist history of [[Richard III of England|Richard III]].<ref>[http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/03/21/brian-trenchard-smith-interview/ 'Brian Trenchard-Smith on 'BMX Bandits,' Forgotten Gems and the Current State of the Film Industry' by Peter Hall, Cinephone, 21 Mar 2011]</ref>
Forthe last twenty years, Trenchard Smith has worked mostly in America. He says his passion project is to do a revisionist history of [[Richard III of England|Richard III]].<ref>[http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/03/21/brian-trenchard-smith-interview/ 'Brian Trenchard-Smith on 'BMX Bandits,' Forgotten Gems and the Current State of the Film Industry' by Peter Hall, Cinephone, 21 Mar 2011]</ref>


==Career Appraisal==
Trenchard Smith once said this of his own films:
<blockquote>There is something you always get in a Trenchard-Smith movie: pace, a strong visual sense, and what the movie is actually about told to you very persuasively. Whatever I do, I'll still be applying a sense of pace: trying to find where the joke is and trying to make the film look a lot bigger than it cost.<ref>Jones p27</ref></blockquote>
==Selected Filmography==
==Selected Filmography==
===Features===
===Features===
Line 80: Line 85:
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}
*Brennan, Richard, 'Brian Trenchard-Smith', ''Cinema Papers'', Dec-Jan 1979-80
*Brennan, Richard, 'Brian Trenchard-Smith', ''Cinema Papers'', Dec-Jan 1979-80
*Jones, Brian, 'A Horse for all courses', ''Cinema Papers'', March 1986 p 27-28

==External links==
==External links==
* {{IMDb name|id=0872062|name=Brian Trenchard-Smith}}
* {{IMDb name|id=0872062|name=Brian Trenchard-Smith}}

Revision as of 08:08, 10 October 2012

Brian Trenchard-Smith
Born1946 (age 77–78)
England, UK
Occupation(s)Film and television director, Film and television producer, Writer

Brian Trenchard-Smith (born 1946) is an English film and television director, producer, writer, consultant and actor who is notable for his contributions to the horror and action genre during the 1970s and 1980s in Australia. Most of his work has been in television, and the majority of his films have been direct-to-video releases. His 1970s and 1980s Aussie films were theactrically released. He generally works in the drama, action and horror genres. He has directed 42 movies and TV series including Turkey Shoot, StuntRock, Dead End Drive-In, The Man from Hong Kong, and Leprechaun 4: In Space.

In addition, he also has been credited by Quentin Tarantino as one of his favorite directors.[1]

Biography

He was born in England and made his first film at the age of 15 on 8mm. Called The Chase, it was about a lunatic who escapes from an asylum and chases a boy around the countryside with a bayonet. He was commissioned to make a film about his school, Wellington College, for prospective parents. He showed this around once he left school, and it helped him get work as an editor's assistant and camera assistant with a French news company in London.[2]

Trenchard-Smith moved to Australia in 1955 and worked at Channel Ten as an editor, doing news, documentaries and station promos. He moved over to Channel 9 to work as promotions director, then in 1958 went to work in London as a junior writer/producer of feature film trailers at National Screen Service. In 1970 he returned to Channel 9 as network promotions director, and made his directorial debut with a French TV special Christmas in Australia.[3]

Documentary Films

After two years at Channel 9 Trenchard Smith formed his own production company, borrowed $16,000 and made a one-hour television special about stuntmen called The Suntmen featuring Grant Page. This was a success an enabled him to make a number other TV specials, usually with a theme of action and/or danger. Kung Fu Killers, which also featured Page, was particularly successful.[4] Throughout this decade Trenchard-Smith also worked cutting trailers.

Trenchard-Smith was going to Hong Kong to make an $8,000 documentary on Bruce Lee called The World of Kung Fu but arrived on the day Lee died. He turned the documentary into a tribute on Lee, and in the course of making it met Raymond Chow who helped fund Trenchard-Smith' first feature, The Man from Hong Kong (1975). The film was successful internationally launching his career as a feature director.

Feature Director

The Man from Hong Kong was made for The Movie Company, a production company half owned by Trenchard-Smith and Greater Union. The Movie Company then made the documentary Danger Freaks before Greater Union pulled out. Trenchard Smith then made Deathcheaters (1976) which performed disappointingly and spent nine months on a proposed film that never got up, The Siege of Sydney. However he then made a dramatised short Hospitals Don't Burn Down which won a number of awards and was highly successful. Trenchard-Smith then made a film in the US called Stunt Rock which he once called "probably the worst film I have made".[5]

Among his most fondly remembered credits are the cult classic Turkey Shoot (1982)[6] and BMX Bandits (1983), where he worked with a young Nicole Kidman.[7]

Forthe last twenty years, Trenchard Smith has worked mostly in America. He says his passion project is to do a revisionist history of Richard III.[8]

Career Appraisal

Trenchard Smith once said this of his own films:

There is something you always get in a Trenchard-Smith movie: pace, a strong visual sense, and what the movie is actually about told to you very persuasively. Whatever I do, I'll still be applying a sense of pace: trying to find where the joke is and trying to make the film look a lot bigger than it cost.[9]

Selected Filmography

Features

TV Specials

  • Marty Feldman in Australia (1972)
  • The Big Screen Scene (1972)
  • For Valor (1972) - about winners of the Victoria Cross
  • The Stuntmen (1973) - one hour
  • The World of Kung Fu (1973)
  • Inside Alvin Purple (1973) - promotional film for Alvin Purple (1973)
  • Kung Fu Killers (1974)
  • Danger Freaks (1976) - 4-part
  • Hospitals Don't Burn Down (1977) - 24 minute TV short made for $90,000[10][11]

Unmade Films

  • Siege of Sydney (1977) - project written by Michael Cove with Trenchard Smith wanted to make after Deathcheaters about ex-CIA operatives who plant a nuclear device on Pinchgut Island and demand $5 million - the budget was $450,000 and Trenchard Smith raised $200,000 from CIC but they pulled out after the box office failure of Black Sunday (1977)[12]
  • Time Warp (c. 1980) - a $20 million science fiction film for the Disney Corporation which was to be made in 1982 but was put on the back burner after the disappointing performance of The Black Hole (1979)[13]

Trailers

Dring the late 60s and 1970s, Trenchard Smith was one of the leading makers of film trailers in Australia. Among the films whose trailers he edited are:[14]

  • US/UK movies: Landraiders, Gross Plot, Mission Impossible versus the Mob, Once Upon a Time in the West, A Man Called Sledge, Destiny of a Spy, Run a Crooked Mile, Take a Girl Like You, The Last Grenade, The Virgin Soldiers, The File of the Golden Goose, Hell Boats, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Horror of Frankenstein, Moon Zero Two, The Vampire Lovers, Julius Caesar, Kill Them All And Come Back Alone, The Bellstone Fox, The Italian Job
  • Australian movies:Libido, Sunstruck, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Mad Dog Morgan, The Love Epidemic, The Man from Hong Kong, Deathcheaters, Petersen, Break of Day, Summerfield, The Irishman, Snapshot, Thirst, The FJ Holden, The Journalist, The Last Wave, Money Movers, Blue Fin, Long Weekend, My Brilliant Career, In Search of Anna, The Fourth Wish, Stone

See also

References

  1. ^ Moore, Tony (16 August 2008). "Larrikin streak". The Australian. Retrieved 30 September 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ Jones p27
  3. ^ Brennan p599
  4. ^ Brian Trenchard-Smith, 'Kung Fu Killers', Australian Centre for the Moving Image - Australian Perspective Essays, August 2008
  5. ^ Brennan p602
  6. ^ Brian Trenchard-Smith, 'No Film for Chickens', Australian Centre for the Moving Image - Australian Perspective Essays, 23 June 2008
  7. ^ 'Check out a 16-year-old Nicole Kidman! Her first director says she had 'IT' by Chris Nashawaty, Inside Movies, 6 March 2011
  8. ^ 'Brian Trenchard-Smith on 'BMX Bandits,' Forgotten Gems and the Current State of the Film Industry' by Peter Hall, Cinephone, 21 Mar 2011
  9. ^ Jones p27
  10. ^ "COMPACT". The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982). 1933 - 1982: National Library of Australia. 21 June 1978. p. 57. Retrieved 5 August 2012.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  11. ^ Brennan p601-602
  12. ^ Brennan p601
  13. ^ Brennan p603
  14. ^ Brennan p674
  • Brennan, Richard, 'Brian Trenchard-Smith', Cinema Papers, Dec-Jan 1979-80
  • Jones, Brian, 'A Horse for all courses', Cinema Papers, March 1986 p 27-28

External links

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