A mysterious woman moves to an island to conquer her fear of drowning, but to cross the strait she must place her life in the hands of the ferryman...
We're bringing The Salt Maiden, an award-winning play, to the screen. The original creative team are working to film in July this year on the beautiful island of Coochiemudlo, South East Queensland, the location where the play was first written and where the story is set.
The play has been performed on stage, published and produced for radio, and now we're bringing it back to where it all began. A development workshop funded by Regional Arts Queensland, Redlands and QLD Government was held on Coochiemudlo Island, South East Queensland last year where the creative team developed the stage play into screenplay and shot the teaser. We aim to shoot the film on RED Scarlet camera (mate's rates cost $4000 per week). It includes CGI special effects, an underwater scene and an acting dog. Then there's the cost of the actual production, the post production and our unique score by local composer and instrument inventor, Colin Offord.
Funding our cast and crew is important to us. Actors and crew members often work for free or at a reduced rate because our industry is underfunded. We don't want to sacrifice on equitable wages for our creative talent. Actors, like everybody, work better when free from financial pressure. We want to contribute to the Australian Arts community; this film will represent a model of what the industry can be. That's why we need your help.
We're working with investors to cover the costs of the production including crew and equipment, which far exceeds our Sponsume goal, but your support will go directly towards paying our actors. $4,000 will be enough to set aside a fund just for paying actors, transporting and feeding them during the shoot.
Please join us in changing the culture of the indie film. Donate whatever you can. We'll keep you posted along the way on our progress.
Writer Donna Cameron
Producer Director Beverley Callow
Director of Photography Randall Wood
Composer Colin Offord
Sound Designer Tfer Newsome
CAST
Rana Renee Lim
Russ Aaron Davison
Mrs McInlay Sandra Campbell
A message from Beverley Callow, The Salt Maiden's Director:
This short film is a story from Coochiemudlo Island in the regional part of South East Queensland, Australia, near Stradbroke Island, Redlands.
This little island is virtually unknown to the rest of the world but is in a very earthy, salty, mangrovey area where I grew up. Donna, the writer and I went to school together on the mainland nearby with the island kids. We wrote, directed and produced our first play together in our final year. We both left the area to study acting the very next year and as circumstance has it, I barely returned until last year - 20 years later.
It had a great run with QTC and ABC Radio and then last year I directed the play for Short+Sweet Sydney, a 10 minute play festival that is spreading across the world like wildfire. It was quite successful in the festival, as the leading People's Choice contender for the entire season of 8 weeks, until the final week. To participate, we cut the script down to 10 minutes and it was performed by some wonderful Sydney actors - 2 which are still on board the project. During the production one of them asked me what was next. The words just tumbled out - "the film, I guess".
As soon as the play was over, I made the decision. Within 3 days my possessions were packed up in storage in Sydney and I was in QLD. Returning and making this film about an old woman lost her in her childhood, set on an island from my childhood with my childhood friend is more than about recovering our childhoods. It's about sharing the stories from the places where we grew up before we lose them.
I went to the island. That's when I knew that the film had to be made right there. So together with a great creative team, we developed the script into a screenplay and filmmed the teaser, which is what you see here. This project was funded by Redlands City Council and Arts QLD. The islanders were amazing - they billeted everyone, took Renee rowing around the island at dawn and even told us later they had stayed off the beach so there were no footprints!
The team includes Awgie nominee writer Donna Cameron, talented award-winning filmmaker Randall Wood as Director of Photography, unique composer Colin Offord who lives on an island nearby and makes his own instruments and 2 of the original actors - Renee Lim and Sandra Campbell, both who are wonderful actresses from Sydney. The original actor playing Russ was flat out working so I re-cast from Brisbane and discovered the riveting Aaron Davidson, who is an acting graduate of QUT. He also happens to be a shark tagger and holds a World Record for catching the largest Bullshark!
After attending the Australian Screen Producer's conference in Sydney in the Emerging Producer's Scheme, listening to ABC and Screen QLD confirm that they don't fund anything less than a 3 part series or a feature, attending seminars on independent filmmaking in NSW, VIC and QLD and getting advice from just about everyone I could, the decision was made - we would cut the film down to 15 minute short which is the original length it was first written.
The Salt Maiden is a beautiful poetic and contemporary, yet timeless story about the love of a ferryman and a mysterious woman who wants to overcome her unexplainable fear of drowning. The film is a showpiece for the tangled, feminine landscape of Coochiemudlo Island and the salty waters of Southern Moreton Bay where I grew up, which I share with you through this film. I believe it's stories like these that connect us with our humanity and remind us of who we are and where we've come from.
The underlying myth in this story means that it's appeal is wide-reaching and meaningful for everyone, but I can't tell you about that yet because it'll give away the ending - you'll have to wait to see the film!
Lead actress Renee Lim
Posted: Monday, 2 April, 2012 - 02:31
We're excited to have Renee Lim return to The Salt Maiden in the role of Rana. Renee is reprising her role from the stage production. In the interim has worked on a number of successful Australian TV productions such as East West 10, Crownies and is currently appearing in another successfully crowd-funded project, The Newtown Girls. Watch this video to see her explain why The Salt Maiden is important to her.
The owner of this project has not made any updates yet. FR
