In a 2013 interview with Interview magazine, Daniel Schechter spoke about why he made the main characters editors: "I needed these guys to work together to have a place where they could essentially b***h about their significant others. I chose editing because I come from an editing background, and I thought it was a bit of an unsung hero in the filmmaking process. I thought maybe I could make this movie more about editing, more than a movie about making movies. Modern Romance (1981) is a massive influence on this movie, where Albert Brooks plays a film editor going through a personal crises."