21 & Over | The Quad, University of Washington — Cherry trees and a body to carry

Two friends drag a third across a lawn. That is the whole engine of 21 & Over, and the lawn it happens on is the Liberal Arts Quadrangle at the University of Washington, a rectangle of grass ringed by four Collegiate Gothic buildings and a double row of Yoshino cherry trees.

Jon Lucas and Scott Moore brought their production here in the autumn of 2011 for their directing debut, and the Quad gave them the thing a college comedy needs most: an instantly legible campus. The buildings are grey stone with pointed windows. The paths cut diagonally. Anyone glancing at the screen knows within a second that these people are students and that they are somewhere expensive and old.

The trees are the reason locals come. For roughly ten days each spring the Quad turns pink and the university's own grounds crew posts bloom updates, and the crowd is thick enough that walking a straight line becomes impossible. In late September, when the crew shot here, the same trees are simply green and unremarkable — which is exactly what the film wanted, since the Quad in the movie is scenery to be stumbled through, not admired.

Walk in from the north entrance near Denny Hall and stop at the middle of the grass. The four buildings close around you like a room with the ceiling taken off. It is a very hard place to look undignified in, which is presumably why the film chose it.