Best Friends Forever
Drama | Short Film
Best Friends Forever is a female-led short film that takes a raw, honest look at childhood with its changing landscape of platonic friendships over time. It explores growth - specifically the act of outgrowing - and the desire to escape reality.
Director's Note
When I was four, I had two imaginary friends - Keely and Cookie. I played with them every day, drew pictures of them and probably freaked out my parents with the amount of detail I could recall. One day, and I remember this very specifically, I opened the door to play with them and they were gone. No goodbye, no playing tomorrow, nothing. Just gone.
Fast forward 30 years and three kids later, I'm interviewing an exorcist for a podcast where he reveals to me not only are ghosts and demons very real, but that children have an innate ability to connect with them, something we learn to repress over time as we grow up. He told me stories of children who could see and speak to them, and I stopped in my tracks.
What if a child who has imaginary friends is actually talking to ghosts? What if the spirit of a child who passed away comes back to be the imaginary friend of a living child to help them process childhood since they've already lived it once? What if I had gotten the chance to talk to Keely or Cookie one more time and ask them?
And from those questions, Best Friends Forever was born.
-Rachel Troche
Emily and Abby have been best friends since they were four, but as Emily grows up and receives medical attention for a life filled with trauma, she learns things about Abby she wishes weren't true.
[Stand By Me meets A Beautiful Mind]
Best Friends Forever is an important and timely story that grapples with children's mental health, identity, the need for external validation, and loneliness, making it universal for many audiences. Whether you've ever been in any type of platonic relationship that's run its course or you had an imaginary friend growing up, our hope is you will be able to see yourself in one, or both, of these characters.
Director's Note
When I was four, I had two imaginary friends - Keely and Cookie. I played with them every day, drew pictures of them and probably freaked out my parents with the amount of detail I could recall. One day, and I remember this very specifically, I opened the door to play with them and they were gone. No goodbye, no playing tomorrow, nothing. Just gone.
Fast forward 30 years and three kids later, I'm interviewing an exorcist for a podcast where he reveals to me not only are ghosts and demons very real, but that children have an innate ability to connect with them, something we learn to repress over time as we grow up. He told me stories of children who could see and speak to them, and I stopped in my tracks.
What if a child who has imaginary friends is actually talking to ghosts? What if the spirit of a child who passed away comes back to be the imaginary friend of a living child to help them process childhood since they've already lived it once? What if I had gotten the chance to talk to Keely or Cookie one more time and ask them?
And from those questions, Best Friends Forever was born.
Meet The Creative Team
Melody is the founder of Cinema Quilt, a full-service video production company, and continued freelancing as a director, camera op/DP, art director, producer and editor.
Her work as a cinematographer has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, TLC, Nick, CSPAN, Magnolia Network, Comcast, and various film festivals. She's worked on projects for Campbell's Soup, Twisted Tea, Penn Medicine, Temple University, Junket Productions, Get-Kinetic, History Making Productions, Beyond Celiac, PECO, Swim Pony, and more.
Her most recent project was as DP on Post Partum Problems, a feature film premiering in the Marche du Film at Cannes 2023.
Rachel is an award-winning screenwriter and independent filmmaker based in Central Pennsylvania with a background in marketing/advertising and visual art.
A graduate of Temple University, her career in marketing and advertising spans over a decade, during which she's written commercials for Pediasure, Jameson and Cuisinart. Her work in independent film most notably includes working on the film Abuelo for the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women and Mystery Science Theatre 3000. She has applied the skills she learned from these experiences to her own short films, which have garnered awards for Best Directing and Best Marketing.
In addition to her work on Best Friends Forever, Rachel is currently working with the Sundance Collab on the development of her feature film BULLETPROOF, a reimagining of the trials of Hercules told from the perspective of a military spouse.
Outside of writing, she is an army wife, boy mama (x3) and pro wrestling enthusiast.
Budget
We are raising $15,000 through crowdfunding and sponsorships to complete the production phase of this film. A large portion of our budget is allocated towards paying our cast + crew a fair wage for their work, something that is very important to us, even with the budgetary constraints of an independent short film.
Cast + Crew
$7,155 of our budget is allocated to paying our cast and crew a
fair wage for their work
Equipment + Rentals
$5,130 of our budget is allocated to the equipment and rentals needed to bring this film to life, , such as generators and our ambitious rain sequence.
Locations, Transportation
+ Catering
Insurance, Safety + Contingency
$465 will be invested into insurance, health safety precautions, and miscellaneous costs to ensure the safety and protection of all involved in this production
Post Production + Festivals
We will pursue funding for this stage of production at a later date.
Timeline
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May-Aug 2023 - Pre-production: Casting, assemble crew, location scouting, fundraising, rehearsals, and overall preparation
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Late Aug/Early Sept 2023 - Production: Shoot the film over 4 days in the Philadelphia Region.
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Oct-December 2023 - Post-production: Editing, sound-mixing, scoring, coloring.
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Early January 2024 - Final cut: The film is ready for submissions to film festivals.
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2024 - 2025 - Release: Premiere the film at acclaimed film festivals in 2024, to hopefully include FirstGlance Philadelphia and Philadelphia Film Festival, then have a public release through an online platform or streaming service (eg. Mubi, Hulu, HBO Max, Sundance Now) after our festival run, ideally in 2025.
How
You Can
Help
You can support our film by
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Making a monetary or in-kind pledge to our crowdfunding campaign
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Following our Seed&Spark campaign
- it's free and it helps us unlock production bonuses -
Like and Share our Instagram page
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Telling your friends!