biography

A.J Carter is a Director, Producer & Cinematographer by trade. A.J. started his journey in the film industry at the humble age of just 16 as Assistant Producer for the Channel 7 children’s T.V show A*mazing hosted by James Sherry, forging his pathway as the youngest person in Australia ever to fill such a position. After the first season, he continued on for a total of 3 series, 195 episodes of the show which led to the show becoming the longest running and most successful children’s show in Australian history. The next two years would see A.J. working at every major television station in Perth (2, 7, 9 & 10) shooting News, Current Affairs, Sports & lifestyle programs and at Australian T.V giant Global Television (Big Brother, Australian Idol). At the age of 18, A.J. had successfully achieved on screen credits in over 200 television productions.

At 25, A.J. spread his wings from his beloved home town of Perth, Western Australia to the U.S.A in the pursuit of challenging projects more suited to his love and passion for narrative film. This presence in Los Angeles, led to the formation of Smooth Motion Films USA Inc, the sister company to Smooth Motion Films in Western Australia. The U.S.A based office has afforded A.J. much invaluable directing experience through many Hollywood based productions such as TV Series pilots for MTV and E! and TruTV along with several high profile TV commercials for the likes of UFC’s Gracie family and Criss Angel. A.J.’s production company is currently in developmental stages for several big productions and is quickly becoming recognized as one of the most innovative new production companies in Hollywood.

2010 saw the release of the Australian production Ronan’s Escape, a highly controversial 16 minute film written and directed by A.J. Carter. The unique, hard hitting screenplay attracted the likes of Director of Photography David Lemay, special effects artist Jeremy Shaw (The Lord of the Rings, King Kong) and Academy Award nominee director Martin Mhando who produced the film. In his first narrative film debut, the continued international success of Ronan’s Escape has seen the film officially selected into 17 international film festivals around the world and has earned the film and A.J. a total of 13 international film award nominations and 10 wins including including the ‘World Cinema Directing Award’ for Best Director at the 2011 Amsterdam Film Festival, ‘Best Emerging Screenwriter’ at the 2011 Adelaide Shorts Film Festival, ‘BEST SHORT FILM’ at the prestigious 16^th Annual Sedona International Film Festival 2010 Director’s Choice Awards, presented by Michael Moore and ‘BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM 2010’ at the 6^th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival in Hollywood, featuring David Arquette, Will Ferrell and Kirsten Dunst.

Following the success of Ronan’s Escape A.J. was commissioned to produce & direct ‘23’, a commercial campaign starring Avatar, Titanic and Terminator creator James Cameron and Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 60-second spot became the most successful commercial campaign ever run by marketing giant Winner and Mandabach.

A.J’s break to Motion Picture Feature Films came with the preliminary filming of Fire City in 2011. The intense three day shoot of the demon / noir style film attracted the likes of C. Thomas Howell, Jeff Fahey (Machette, LOST) and Jack McGee (The Fighter, Crash).

2013 saw A.J. return to Perth, Western Australia for a 5 week shoot as 2nd Unit Director for the John V Soto crime thriller ‘The Reckoning’, starring Jonathan LaPaglia and Luke Hemsworth. The creation of the Smooth Motion Media Group, formerly known as Smooth Motion Films was also implemented in early 2013. The Smooth Motion Media Group is based in Los Angeles, California, with two production company subsidiaries Dark Arts Entertainment (Motion Picture Film & Scripted Television production), and Primordial Entertainment (Reality, Science & Documentary Television).

A.J. is currently developing a multitude of projects including his first motion picture film directorial debut Prisoner Zero, the high paced assassin adventure Veronica, multiple network reality shows, and his first major motion picture sci-fi trilogy titled The Ark, co written with L.A based writer Joe Brouillette. The Ark trilogy (www.OpenTheArk.com) is in its second year of rigorous screenplay development and is an intricate, layered story which entwines the complications of Quantum Physics and explores the origins of life and why we exist in the universe.

With his recent international film festival success in tow and exciting new projects in development, A.J. is quickly becoming recognized as one of the industry’s fastest young and unique storytelling artists to reach success in the industry on an international level.