Sarah Steel

'Now You See Her' is the story of Jane, a 50-something-year-old woman who is experiencing Invisible Woman Syndrome (further reading on that from Rachel Ward here, in The Age here and on The Hoopla here). She comes upon a travelling performer at a country fair who makes her locket disappear, and Jane becomes determined to get it back, whatever the cost.

'Now You See Her' is Sarah's third short film, and like the others will be made completely independently with her meagre savings and your help! The total budget is more than 3 times our Pozible target, so as we have now surpassed that target you can rest assured that your dollars will still be going straight into this film.

This is the first film that Sarah has written, and is a real passion project. She has adapted a short story by Marc Smith with her friend and producer Alison Kirwan, with the core aim of making a female-focussed piece in a market that doesn't give a great deal of attention to 50+ women, especially in positioning them as protagonists. You can read more about the project via the recent cover story in Sydney's City Hub newspaper here.

The short has a strong key crew already committed, including:

Sarah Steel (Director)
Sarah has directed two short films previously: 'Meaningful Touches', which played festivals in Japan, Romania, the UK, the USA and won two awards judged by David Stratton in Australia; and 'Job Interview With a Vampire', which played festivals in the UK (at Edinburgh Fringe) and the USA, and will soon play on Channel 31 in Australia. Sarah also has a strong background in film and arts marketing, and has worked for Sydney Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, Dendy Films, The Works International, Network Releasing and the Australian Writers' Guild.



Alison Kirwan (Producer)
Alison is currently working on her own feature film script, and recently returned from 14 years living in the UK, where she worked for 12 years with the BFI in various capacities. She brings great passion and project management skills as a producer to 'Now You See Her', as well as an encyclopaedic knowledge of film in all its forms.


Gael Ballantayne (Jane)
Gael has worked professionally for years in many genres, her credits include film and television such as New Town, Risk, Fatal Honeymoon, The Pale Moonlight, The Gods Of Wheat St., All Saints, Water Rats, Home and Away, Neighbours and Sons and Daughters. Her musical theatre credits include Mamma Mia (original cast) and La Cage Aux Folles. Plays include Charitable Intent for Ensemble Theatre, After The Ball, Summer Rain, The Cavalcaders, Hope Of the World for QTC, Blackrock, Emma, Furious, Cosi for LaBoite, God’s Ear at Seymour Centre, The Little Room at Carriageworks and The Blue Angel Hotel at The Old Fitz.


Margaret Grace Rowe (Travelling Performer)
Margaret has been acting and developing characters for as long as she can remember. Appearing in soaps such as A Country Practice to Underbelly Razor, where she played a prison officer, to Deadly Women where Margaret plays the evil Elva Bottineau, Margaret continues to develop her craft by working and studying with talented filmmakers.

Reuben Field (DOP)
Reuben is a Grammy nominated filmmaker (for the 'Liberacion' music DVD), an MTV One80Project winner for 'Dungoona', and has worked on various music videos and TV shows including 'Review with Myles Barlow' for the ABC and 'Style Me' for MTV. He is the creative force behind Starchild Media.

Ben Reid (Editor)
Ben is highly experienced in editing for Australian network television, including The Voice, My Kitchen Rules, Masterchef, Junior Masterchef and The Biggest Loser as well as The Shire, Wag Nation, Random Acts of Kindness, The Waiting Room, Home Made and 20to1.

Bridget Le May (Production Designer)
Bridget works in theatre and is obsessed with aesthetic. She wrote, directed and designed the gorgeous short film 'Sunday' which is now being submitted to international festivals.

Jeanette Francis (1st AD)
Jeanette is a Young Walkley Award nominated SBS journalist who is bringing her production skills to a more creative role in working on 'Now You See Her'. She's worked on SBS World News, Dateline, and currently is a presenter/reporter for the new SBS2 current affairs program 'The Feed'.

Joe Gould (Composer)
Joe plays in The Crooked Fiddle Band, whose music is described by Brian Eno as "original and quixotic." They're the favourites of such festivals as Peats Ridge, Woodford Folk Festival and Newtown Festival. Joe's solo work encompasses almost all genres and he plays in numerous other Sydney-based bands from time to time. The Crooked Fiddle Band have recently recorded their second album with legendary recording engineer Steve Albini in Chicago.

Little May
Little May are a Sydney-based three-piece whose single Boardwalks, from their debut EP, we're very excited to be using in the film. The indie/folk band consists of self-taught musicians and friends Hannah Field, Liz Drummond and Annie Hamilton, and they're known for their defining harmonies, guitar-driven melodies and honest, vulnerable songwriting.



Plus two great Sydney locations have come on board: Lolo the Gypsy Caravan Stage, a 16 foot 1978 Viscount Royale, aluminium, deep red spotted, antique white Gypsy caravan that converts into a stage and is a favourite mobile music venue at various festivals throughout inner western Sydney and beyond; and Marlo Bar, a fab cafe on Regent Street in Redfern whose offerings include Campos coffee and Nutella pizza(!!).

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What we will use the money for:

The first $3000 raised through Pozible will go towards feeding and watering our lovely cast and crew, who are all dedicating their time and skills to the project for free, and our very necessary public liability insurance.

Anything raised above this amount will go towards the production design (set costs and construction), props and costuming, council fees for filming at various locations, equipment hire and travel costs (petrol, fares, tolls, etc), and then into post production (stock, DCP creation, marketing materials and printing, festival submissions and postage, and DVD production).

The budget we submitted to the Screen NSW Emerging Filmmakers Fund amounted to $30,000 (which unfortunately we didn't manage to get), so rest assured that everything will go into this film, though we've cut our costs and are now looking at doing it for just over a third of that amount in total!