A.J Carter is a Director, Producer & Cinematographer by trade. He 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 Metropolis Media Group LLC, 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 James Cameron & Arnold Schwarzenegger, UFC’s Gracie family and Criss Angel. A.J.’s has since directed over 125 T.V. commercials, mostly through advertising and campaign giant Mandabach Campaigns.
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. With 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 16th Annual Sedona International Film Festival 2010 Director’s Choice Awards, presented by Michael Moore and ‘Best International Film’ at the 6th 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 his hometown in Western Australia to complete an intense 5 week shoot for the motion picture film The Reckoning as Second Unit Director. The film stars Jonathan LaPaglia, Viva Bianca, and Luke Hemsworth and was released in theaters 2014.
Recently, the creation of the Smooth Motion Media Group, was imminent. Tying A.J’s long term friends Joe Brouillette, who’s also A.J’s co-writer, and John Linton as Business Development Officer and Executive Producer together as partners. The Smooth Motion Media Group is based in Los Angeles, California, with two distinct production company subsidiaries; Dark Arts Entertainment (Motion Picture Film & Scripted Television production), and Primordial Entertainment (Reality, Science & Documentary Television). A.J.’s first two T.V series are already under way with Primordial Entertainment. Farm Raised is entering its first season with the INSP Network and Gator Kings is currently with the History Channel. 
Under the Dark Arts banner, A.J. & the team have 3 scripted T.V series in development, and are currently developing a multitude of feature films set to be produced in 2016 including his first motion picture film directorial debut Prisoner Zero, a crime/thriller set in Mexico. Other features set to film in 2016 are the Australian action film Black Dragon (FilmScope, AEI, Arclight), and the serial killer thriller Ryde (Dark Arts) set in the shady bowels of Los Angeles.
The Dark Arts team are also attached to the development of the major motion picture sci-fi trilogy titled The Ark, co written by A.J. and Joe Brouillette. The Ark trilogy (www.OpenTheArk.com) is in its third 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.
Memberships and Affiliations
Biography resources: IMDb – Hollywood.com – Wikipedia – Smooth Motion Media Group
