Better Days for Poetry

Aim: An aspiring young writer uses his English teacher's daughter to help him complete a poem for a competition, at the cost of a harmful secret.

Hey there! Welcome to our Crowdfunding page for 'Better Days For Poetry' - a short film.

The story follows Ellery, a naïve and desperate boy competing in a poetry competition. Insecure; obsessed with the image of becoming a writer, he confides in his favourite English teacher, Mrs. Beckett, who gave up writing herself many years ago. With an unfinished poem which must be submitted by the end of the day, he pleads for her feedback, to which she refuses as she is moderating the competition. 

With his mind solely set on satisfying Mrs. Beckett's personal taste - in order to be picked as the winning submission, he decides to secretly ask her unassuming daughter, Lilly, instead, hoping that she will feed her mother's knowledge and opinions. Unexpectedly, he finds himself testing his integrity, uncovering and risking something larger than himself.

With satirical elements and focus on character relationships, the stakes are high in this story’s race against time and serious themes emerge into a thought-provoking and emotional resolution. 

This film strives to send a sincere message, aiming to look at empathy through the lens of poetry. We want to touch on how our life experiences can form or inform us and depict a relevant social issue in a contemporary setting without bias or prejudice. Empathy is the emotion capable of inspiring enormous positive change which has been demonstrated since the beginning of our time; it is something being consumed by the digital age as we are encouraged to focus more on the individual ego and less on the collective. 

As we've seen throughout the year, there are a lot of issues being silenced by today's climate which are still important and need to be heard. We realise that not everyone has the means to offer monetary support, but every like, comment and share is vital to the success of this campaign. We are endlessly grateful for any kind of help you may be able to give. 

The core theme of Better Days for Poetry is empathy; something the protagonist,16-year-old Ellery, lacks as a disagreeable extrovert with a hollow desire for attention. The story focuses on the characters’ misguided motivations and the disturbance of coexistence as a result of these three people crossing paths and interacting. This is explored in the bus-stop-like meeting of a boy and a girl, and the important moments in life that only reveal themselves to be significant in hindsight. We gradually delve into questions about the sacrifices of parenthood and the damaged pride of a mother; the compassion of a precocious girl, and the degree to which we can determine who we become, despite our experiences.

When confronted with an emotionally and psychologically conflicting dilemma, Ellery must decide what kind of person he is on his way to becoming. A secret flies too close to the surface and forces a re-evaluation of a mother-daughter relationship. 

The film is set in a classroom on a sunny day in late September. The script and visual style of the film are composed as stylised realism; we will use immersive camera movement, editing and thematically suited lighting with an autumnal colour palette. Direct inspirations for us have been Karim Ghorayeb’s work on the film 'Ghadi' as the Cinematographer, as well as Daniel Rezende's editing work on 'City of God.' The punchy editing style is not something typically seen within the genre of Better Days for Poetry, but will be motivated by the lead character's eccentricity and passion, rather than violence and aggression. 

Under Covid guidelines, we will be building the classroom as a set in a studio space. Therefore, the set design is crucial to the execution of the film and will require extreme attention to detail for believability. We aim to use green screen and matte paintings as exteriors which gives us complete control over the environment. We have carefully calculated our budget and selected the essential resources we need to realise this story properly, delivering an entertaining viewing experience and powerful film. All of these goals are achievable, but only with your support. 

Every penny donated will be used with care; we appreciate any and all donations and are hugely grateful for your generosity. The funding will be used for various production elements, with carefully analysed and regimented budgeting being used to delegate the costs accurately for different departments. Our budget plan focuses on maximising the practicality and achievability of the film. 

                           Thank you for reading and supporting us !