Skip to main content
Sign in

BrianWalden

  • Production manager
  • Producer
Brian-Walden-Key-Image.jpg

Some jobs never make the headlines; in the screen industry, one of those unsung positions is the production manager. After seven years on film sets in Asia, Brian Walden returned home in the mid 70s to production manage the shoots of many classic TV dramas, from Hunter’s Gold to Hanlon. In 1985 he went freelance, keeping a firm hand on shoots involving horses, hospital porters, vampires and underwater aeroplanes.

Screenography

Nemesis Game
2003 Head of Production - NZ Film
Riverworld
2003 Production Manager Television
Mataku - The Sisters (Ngā Tuāhine)
2002 Line Producer Television
Mataku
2002 - 2005 Line Producer Series
No One Can Hear You
2001 Line Producer Television

Biography

The worlds of film and television aren’t short of memorable personalities. Some become famous to the public at large. Others become legendary to those working behind the scenes. 

Production manager and producer Brian Walden — aka The Sarge — fits in the latter category. Over roughly 35 years he was a key cog on a host of television shows and movies. Passionate, straight-talking and keenly aware that time is money when a rolling cavalcade of filmmakers arrive on location, Walden showed little hesitation in reordering the lunch queue so that key crew members could refuel and return to work. 

“He was forthright and relentless. Nothing was insurmountable — neither the location, nor the weather … he could bring any production in on time and on budget even if if he had to go and do half the stuff that needed to be done himself. Which was often the case.”

— Director Wayne Tourell on Brian Walden

Related images

Brian_Walden_Gallery1.jpg
Brian Walden (holding gun, third from the left) in a bit part as Scottish private Jock Burgess, during the Philippines shoot for movie Too Late the Hero (1970). Director Robert Aldrich (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?) is standing at the right of frame.
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
Brian_Walden_Gallery2.jpg
Brian Walden tries to get things rolling while on the road for roving 1975 TV series One Man’s View. Reporter Hanafi Hayes looks on.
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
Brian_Walden_Gallery3.jpg
All in a day’s work: Brian Walden on location, while working for state television in the mid 1970s.
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
Brian_walden_Gallery4.jpg
Merizo village in Guam: First Assistant Director Brian Walden (top of frame) is the only crew member willing to save sets from burning down, during the making of 1970 movie Noon Sunday.  After a rattle on the ladder signalled it was time for him to come down, Walden passed out while descending; he landed on actor Frank Cushing.
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
Brian_Walden_Gallery5.jpg
A grim moment from the first episode of Hanlon. The actor on the right of frame in period garb is Brian Walden.
Photo taken by Graham Wallace. Supplied by Brian Walden
Brian_Walden_Gallery6.jpg
A shot from the filming of an elaborate stunt sequence in the Cook Islands, for Canadian film The Return of Tommy Tricker. 
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
Brian_Walden_Gallery7.jpg
Brian Walden cameos as a Groucho Marx figure in central Thames, during the filming of vaudeville tale Gather Your Dreams (1978).
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
Grasscutter_Gallery1.jpg
Some of the cast and crew on 1988 TV movie The Grasscutter. Director Ian Mune is smiling behind the clapper board. Actor Marshall Napier stands behind Mune, in white shirt and dark jacket. Wearing the dark swanndri on Mune's left is director of photography Matt Bowkett. On Mune's right, producer Tom Finlayson kneels in the striped shirt.
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
Brian_Walden_gallery9.jpg
Brian Walden and camel, while making a movie for 20th Century Fox in India, late 1970/early 1971.
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
Brian_Walden_gallery8.jpg
Brian Walden tries out some stunt work of his own in Rangiora, after working on scenes of wing-walking grandmother Hilda Alexander for 1975 TV series One Man’s View. Walden remembers levelling out over a school, and the children below "running in 32 different directions". This episode was subtitled 'Life Begins at 70'.
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
The_MacKenzie_Affair_gallery1.jpg
A behind the scenes shot from 1977 TV series The Mackenzie Affair: Michael O’Connor films a fight scene, while one of the show’s animal co-stars looks on.
Photo supplied by Michael O'Connor
Yvonne_Lawley_Gallery1.jpg
A behind the scenes still from 1978 TV series Gather Your Dreams, taken in the Kauaeranga Valley Hall in the Coromandel. From left to right, actor Kerry McGregor, lighting cameraman Michael O'Connor, and, as temperance society members, Yvonne Lawley and Hazel Cole.
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
The-Mackenzie-Affair-gallery-image-2.jpg
Filming with roughly 600 merino sheep and the Southern Alps, for 1977 TV series The Mackenzie Affair. Director of photography Max Quinn is at left of frame, with hand in the air. First Assistant Director Mike Smith stands nearby in red shirt. Between them is UK director Joan Craft, while cameraman Michael O'Connor is on top of the crane on the right.
Photo supplied by Brian Walden
Childs-play-still.jpg
Mary Mute (played in this shot by production manager Brian Walden) in Superduperhuperman, from episode four of Child's Play.
Screen grab, copyright South Pacific Television/TVNZ
img006.jpg
Production manager Brian Walden prepares to play Mary Mute in Child's Play story SuperHuperDuperMan (see clip five). Next to him is grip Vic Yarker.