Brian Trenchard-Smith

Brian Trenchard-Smith
Born	1946 (age 70–71) England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Film director, film producer, screenwriter

Brian Trenchard-Smith (born 1946) is an English-Australian 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 theatrically released. He generally works in the drama, action and horror genres. He has directed 42 films and television series including Turkey Shoot, StuntRock, Dead End Drive-In, The Man from Hong Kong, and Leprechaun 3.

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

He was born in England, the son of a senior officer of the Royal Air Force, and lived for a time in Libya, where his father was stationed. His family moved to Odiham, Hampshire and he made his first film at the age of 15 on 8mm, a 2-minute short called The Duel. The following year he made the ten-minute The Chase 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. However he was unable to get into the union so he moved to Australia in 1965 (his father was Australian).

Trenchard-Smith 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 1968 he returned to England and 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.

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 Stuntmen featuring Grant Page. This was a success and 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. Throughout this decade Trenchard-Smith also worked cutting trailers.

...
Wikipedia