The story takes place during college, but it is not necessarily about college. Rather, the
theme of the movie is really about overcoming obstacles and learning how to deal with
any transitional period in life.
As the characters approach graduation, they realize that this period of their lives is
coming to an end and the movie shifts from a comedy to more of a drama. According to
director David Marchesani, “I had never seen a movie before that explored some of these
real issues that college seniors face. Every college movie seems to be lowest-common denominator
type stories. There’s such a wealth of material that has never been tapped
into. I think every person who’s ever attended college can relate to something in this
movie.”
Visually, the movie is told through color and aspect ratio. The color scheme for the
movie helps to orient the audience to the location of the scene and the relationship of the
characters to their environment.
All the scenes in the interview room are tinted with a cool blue to reflect the
unwelcoming atmosphere of the interview process. By contrast, the local bar where the
guys hang out is tinted with a warm, orange color. Inside the house, the colors are very
muted, in some parts almost black & white, to reflect the claustrophobia and feeling of
anxiety as graduation approaches.
In regards to the aspect ratio, everything outside the house has a full 16 x 9 aspect ratio.
Inside the house, as the characters experience emotional changes, the frame size changes.
At specific points in the movie, there are shadows in the corners of the frame, almost as if
the frame of the movie itself is collapsing on the characters. In fact, there’s one particular
point in the movie where practically half the frame is “falling” in on the character, with ominous foreshadowing.
