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
Budget
We are raising $35,000 through crowdfunding and sponsorships to complete this film from pre through post production and beyond. 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
47.7% of our budget is allocated to paying our all-female cast and crew a fair wage for their work
Total: $16,695
Equipment + Rentals
18% of our budget is allocated to the equipment and rentals needed to bring this film to life.
Total: $6,300
Locations, Transportation
+ Catering
17.7% of our budget is dedicated to providing food and transportation to our cast and crew as well as any location fees.
Total: $5,950
Insurance, Safety + Contingency
To ensure the safety and protection of all involved in this production, we are investing 6.7% of our budget into insurance, health safety precautions, and miscellaneous costs.
Total: $2,905
Post Production + Festivals
9.8% of our budget will be reserved for editing, sound mixing, color correction and film festival fees.
Total: $3,150
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!