brettclements.net  /  v1.0
Iron Bark · Nov 2025
field
Writer · Director · Cinematographer · Editor · Journalist

Brett
Clements

— 'Carbon' Director.
A human compass inside an ocean of machine capability. Over 40 years of pattern recognition. Now operating at AI scale.

AI can generate infinite images. Infinite cuts. Infinite prose.

It cannot feel a tear roll down a cheek, lose a brother, taste salt, smell chlorine at dawn, know you are about to die, see another sun rise or carry over forty years of accumulated creative instinct in a nervous system.

That is not software. That is lived compression.

The industrial age gave us journalist, filmmaker, editor, creative director, broadcaster — words that belonged to an era when access to tools defined value. That wall is gone. What survives is not tool ownership but meaning. Not production but discernment. Not content but consciousness shaped through experience.

I am not becoming obsolete. I am becoming something rarer. A Carbon Director. The carbon side of carbon-meets-silicon. The bit that decays, fears death, loves anyway, and knows what story is for.

1970s
The Murdoch Newsroom
Cadet at sixteen. Graded at seventeen.
Cadet journalist on Sydney's Manly Daily at sixteen. Graded by News Limited at seventeen. Worked the sports desk at The Daily Mirror under Peter Frilingos and Ian Hanson, covering rugby league. Trained on the Murdoch dictum: never give up, always come back with a story.
1982 — late 1980s
Wonder World!
Beat 8,000 applicants. Five Logies followed.
Beat eight thousand national applicants for Newsreel after missing the Sydney audition and self-funding a flight to Melbourne. Hired by Simon Townsend onto Simon Townsend's Wonder World! — the Logie-winning daily youth news magazine on Network Ten. Wrote, shot, directed and edited 3.5-minute stories on daily deadlines. The show won five Logies during Brett's era. Townsend later named him one of the two best filmmakers across the show's eight-year, two-thousand-episode run.
1988
Just For The Record
Bet $175,000 on a pilot. Sold into 55 territories.
Self-funded a $175,000 pilot shoot for a 20 × 44-minute magazine series on world record-breaking stunts. Filmed on 16mm Negative AGFA. Produced for Network Ten with Beyond International. Director, Presenter & Executive Producer. Sold into 55 territories.
Late 1980s — mid 1990s
A Couple 'A Cowboys
Cut the agency out. Won three nations.
Co-founded A Couple 'A Cowboys with Phillip Tanner — a production house that cut the advertising agency out of the creative process and went direct to client. Won the Australian Tourism Commission, QANTAS, Tourism New Zealand and Tourism Authority of Thailand accounts head-to-head against global agencies. Created Australia – Dream About It, Australia – User Friendly and Australia – Unconventional during the 1989 Pilots' Strike with no production budget — sourcing 1″ tape footage from blue-chip Australian companies in exchange for end credits. Created New Zealand – A Real Slice of Heaven on Hi-8 years before reality TV was a category. Lifted inbound NZ tourism by approximately ten percent.
1990 — 1995
The Video Board Game Era
Four million units. Twelve languages. Thirty-two territories.
Invented, designed and directed the global cult hit Nightmare and ATMOSFEAR — and every international production, marketing and advertising campaign. Print. Radio. TV. Outdoor. Cinema. The world's first video board game, fronted by the now-infamous Gatekeeper. Introduced Halloween to the Australian retail market. Joint venture with Roadshow Entertainment signed March 1991, world rights to 2001. Licensed to Chieftain (Canada), Clementoni (Italy), Schmidt Spiele (Germany), Borras Plana (Spain), J.W. Spear / Mattel (UK & France), Mattel (Benelux, Latin America, Rest of World), A.S. Company (Greece). Sequels: Baron Samedi, Anne de Chantraine, Elizabeth Bathory, RAP RAT, ATMOSFEAR The Harbingers, Booster Tapes, Soul Rangers, Card Game, Third Dimension CD-ROM. Independent earlier hit OZ QUIZ — packaged in a foam esky — sold 250,000+ in Australia. Spawned KIWI QUIZ, BRIT QUIZ, DARE, The Truth Hurts, A Bit Sketchy.
1995 — December 1999
Los Angeles
Traded the copyright. Took the continent.
Granted Alien of Extraordinary Ability status (USCIS I-140, approved 30 October 1996, California Service Center). Established a production house in Los Angeles. Studied film briefly at UCLA. Worked with producer Rupert McConnick and Saville Films on commercial campaigns including Carlsberg Beer and Ethiopian Airlines. Created and licensed The Aquanauts — a 26-part underwater adventure series — to Animal Planet via Village Roadshow Pictures Television, with Tim Vincent.
1999
Back to Australia
Came home. Four hits in one year.
Returned to Australia after the Los Angeles years. Produced Nine's Fear Factor. Directed Jack Singleton's edgy launch campaign for Mark Bouris and Wizard Home Loans. Digitised what would become Australia's largest children's modelling agency. Directed James Blundell's return with A Very Good Life.
1999 — 2016
Propvid / PlatinumHD
Invented real-estate streaming. Franchised four countries.
Founded Propvid: real-estate video tours, originally on DVD, then streamed online — at a time when YouTube didn't yet exist. Pioneered hourly video billing in real estate. Won McGrath as the first major client. Re-platformed as PlatinumHD, built into a franchise network across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, New Zealand, Los Angeles and New York. Closed the franchise in 2016: impossible to control creativity and production quality across dozens of independent operators.
2017 — 2019
Cancer. Reset.
Stage 3 bowel. iPhone replaces RED.
Diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer in November 2017. Chemo, radiation, two operations, eighteen months. In remission since 2019. Cancer reframed the work. Dumped the RED cinema cameras. Switched the entire production stack to iPhone, Apple Log, Blackmagic Camera, DaVinci Resolve, drone, custom LUTs. Built a bespoke mobile SMART studio. Production now travels in a backpack.
2019 — present
Carny Island
Tabletop play. Phones as portals.
Illustrating and coding Carny Island — a hybrid video board game that mixes tabletop play with mobile phones used as entertainment portals. Re-united with Milt Barlow (former President of Roadshow Entertainment, who put Nightmare/ATMOSFEAR into 32 territories and 12 languages) for global licensing. Ongoing.
2024 — present
AI-Era Operations
One-person force-multiplier.
Operating with multi-AI orchestration — Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity — against million-token context windows. Building documentary archives as living narrative systems rather than fixed films: segmented, tagged for narrative function and emotional tone, infinitely recombinable. Preparing for OTT and fragmented-media clipping. Currently in production on cagerace.com, scottwagner.tv and ipqld.land.
October 2024
SQUAD
SQUAD. The sport nobody watches between Games.
Started an ongoing passion-project documentary series following the Australian National Swimming Squad on the road to the Olympics. Twenty-four athletes inside one of the toughest sports teams in the world. Explores the physical, mental and emotional toll of kids sacrificing everything for a sport that disappears from public view between Olympic cycles. Filmed entirely on iPhone in Apple Log. Ongoing.
2025
CageRace
Ten by fifty. One rule: survive.
Teamed up with Ed Anderson — Masters swimming champion, primary school teacher and head coach — to create cagerace.com: a brutal 10 × 50-metre lactate test with no rules other than survive. Live competition format, designed for the screen. Ongoing production.
Television
  • Simon Townsend's Wonder World!Reporter / filmmaker · Network Ten
  • The new Wonder World!Creator / EP · Channel Nine · 360 episodes / 3 seasons
  • Just For The RecordDirector / Presenter / EP · Beyond International / Network Ten
  • The AquanautsCreator / EP · Animal Planet · 26 × 1hr
  • NewsreelPresenter
  • Say G'DayPresenter · Channel Nine
  • Candid Camera On AustraliaPresenter
  • DAREPilot · self-financed
Tourism Campaigns
  • Australia — Dream About ItAustralian Tourism Commission
  • Australia — User FriendlyAustralian Tourism Commission
  • Australia — UnconventionalAustralian Tourism Commission
  • Australia — Discover ItAustralian Tourism Commission
  • New Zealand — A Real Slice of HeavenNZ Tourism Board · Hi-8 reality TVCs
  • Thailand — Fields of JadeTourism Authority of Thailand
Games
With Roadshow Entertainment
  • Nightmare / ATMOSFEAR sequels
  • ZombieBaron Samedi
  • WitchAnne de Chantraine
  • VampireElizabeth Bathory
  • ATMOSFEAR — The Harbingers
  • ATMOSFEAR — The Soul Rangers
  • ATMOSFEAR on CD-i and CD-ROM
  • RAP RAT
With Crown & Andrews
  • OZ QUIZ
  • BRIT QUIZ
  • KIWI QUIZ
  • DARE
  • The Truth Hurts
  • Shocked & Horrified
In production
  • Carny IslandHybrid tabletop + mobile · with Milt Barlow
Corporate & Commercial
  • ApocalypsePro-Image ECV rebrand · "The Final Word in Post"
  • ARIAProperty development
  • Aston MartinLuxury automotive · brand promo
  • Australian Tourist CommissionTourism · multi-year
  • Carlsberg BeerSaville Films · Los Angeles
  • Country ComfortHospitality
  • Ethiopian AirlinesSaville Films · Los Angeles
  • Gem LifeOver-50s lifestyle communities
  • HarcourtsReal estate
  • IBMCorporate
  • Living GemsOver-50s lifestyle communities
  • LJ HookerReal estate
  • McGrathReal estate
  • McLarenLuxury automotive
  • New Zealand TourismTourism · A Real Slice of Heaven
  • PLACEReal estate · Brisbane
  • QANTASIn-flight content · multi-year
  • QUESTServiced apartments
  • Ray WhiteReal estate
  • SheratonHotels & hospitality
  • Thai TourismTourism · Fields of Jade
Music Videos
  • "Then I Saw Her Picture In The Paper"JANZ · EMI
  • "Blue Heeler"James Blundell · 35mm · Director · EMI
  • "In My Youth"Noiseworks · 16mm · Director · EMI
  • "Mysterious Ways"James Blundell · 35mm anamorphic B&W · Director · EMI
"Extraordinarily good filmmaker — one of the two best across 17 reporters and 2,000 half-hour shows over eight years. His skills came naturally and made him different."
Simon Townsend
Creator & Host, Simon Townsend's Wonder World!
"Brett is the best creative mind I have worked with, and unquestionably the best and most talented director I have seen. A rare ability to create spectacular film sequences from virtually nothing."
Greg Carmock
MD, CEL Entertainment / former Head of Roadshow Sales
"He walked into my office in 1991 with a crazy cross between a board game and a video tape called Nightmare. It went on to sell millions worldwide."
Milt Barlow
President & CEO, Roadshow Entertainment
"Unique in the sense he has experienced, and succeeded in, almost every facet of the media industry. A lethal creative force."
Martin Lyall
VP & MD, Universal Studios International Television
"That rare communications unicorn. Types faster than most can think. Captures moving imagery worthy of any cinematography award."
Sam Yeomans
Head of Production, Australian Digital Health Agency
"A creative leer jet. Writing whirlwind. Fanatical film and creative director with a ridiculously laser-sharp eye for detail."
Claudia Boland
Production Manager, A Couple 'A Cowboys
"His originality, flair for conceptualising, boundless energy and never-say-die tenacity made him one of the most successful members of the Wonder World! team."
Harvey Shore
Executive Producer, Wonder World!
"Extremely talented and creative — boundless energy and an impressive ability to focus on what he wants to achieve and the means to realise it."
Jim Harrison
Development Manager, Spear's Games
"The campaign cut through the clutter and created excitement amongst Australian consumers. Incredible energy, enormous creative flair, the determination to have a go at something outside the square."
Euan J Purdie
Regional Manager Australia, NZ Tourism Board
"Brett is the epitome of a truly creative being. He has a demonstrable history of turning innovative concepts into commercial success. Some have one feasible commercial idea in a lifetime; Brett has one a day."
Kate Neale
Marketing Manager, Nightmare / ATMOSFEAR
07 / Direct line
brettclements@me.com
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