Narrative inspiration

One Last Thing bears vague similarities to one of my favourite films: Superbad. The film focuses on two friends, Seth and Evan, in their final year of high school, both reaching for the goal of female attention, but ultimately cherishing their friendship over any woman; with the occasional "Yo mamma" joke thrown in.




However, while Superbad is unmistakably a comedy, OLT is defnitely drama-romance hybrid.

The opening few shots, as Nick walks towards school, is somewhat of an homage to another favourite film of mine: The Wrestler:


While I cannot find the opening scene to The Wrestler on youtube.com, I feel that it is a perfect way of introducing a film which is essentialy a character study. The film centers around Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a retired wrestler with sociopathic tendencies, struggling to connect with fellow humans outside of the professional wrestling business.
In the first few minutes of the film, the audience cannot see Randy's face, the camera only sticks close to his back as he walks, stopping to sign autographs, returning home, visiting his landlord etc. Eventually his face is revealed as he speaks to his landlord.
This technique suits well, as it shows immediately who the main protagonist is, and who the audience should pay attention to. Which is why I chose to use it in One Last Thing.