By Tracy Coppock
On Wednesday, June 15 at 7 p.m., Market Street Cinema, 1521 Merrill Drive in Little Rock, hosted[more] a special advanced screening for a local movie called “Anyone”.
“Anyone” is a non-budget digital feature film that was produced and shot entirely in central Arkansas with a local cast and crew. Some locations where filmed in Pulaski and Saline Counties with the help of local businesses.
“Anyone” deals with the relationships faced by 30-somethings in today’s society. The 85-minute “Dramedy” written and produced by central Arkansas natives Scott McEntire and Christian Neil presents a humorous look at the challenges of starting over.
“The story is based loosely on my own experiences with online dating,” Neil said. “The websites make it sound like you can sign up and order up a new girlfriend as easily as ordering a pizza, but I quickly learned otherwise.”
“Most of the film is based on factual events that happened to either him (Neil) or me, on both sides of the story,” said McEntire. “When some of the writing became too personal to one of us and we felt like we were too close to being biased, the other would step in with advice or to rewrite the scene.”
According to McEntire, the two main leads in the film, John and Katie, are each trying to find love. John is envious of Matt, his best friend, who has an ease of meeting women and has a “catch and release” approach to his conquests. Katie, on the other hand, is envious of her best friend, Holly, who has the “perfect” life with a husband and two kids. But sometimes the grass isn’t as green as we may think, and sometimes we lose things that we’ve taken for granted.
“Katie, who could be classified as a chameleon dater becomes whoever the person she is dating wants her to be,” McEntire said. “We’ve all known that person, and we can all see how easy it is to lose oneself in another.”
Director Kelly Griffin has produced and directed numerous TV commercials and music videos, but “Anyone” marks his feature length directorial debut.
“I decided it was time to commit to a feature length film,” Griffin said. “Features allow for plot and character development that shorts don’t give you. It was an ambitious script with close to 50 speaking parts and lots of locations. It was challenging directing and shooting at the same time.”
The producers and writers are also the leading men in the storyline. John is played by ]Neil and Matt is portrayed by McEntire. The leading lady, Katie is played by Robin Wantland.
Shooting began in May of 2010 and finished in August of 2010. Many of the shooting dates were done on the weekends and during the evenings due to many of the actors having other day jobs.
