There's an episode from the first season of "Family Guy" in which news anchorwoman Diane recalls her stint in an independent college film. The spot, in its entirety, is a mellow black and white: short, oddly edited, with unexplained characters appearing briefly in corners of the shot.

The obvious joke of the clip, of course, is how college films are predominately seen as overly experimental, pretentious and existential films that no one actually understands.

Such filmmaking is exactly what Ben Rosenblatt and Micho Rutare set out to avoid during the making of their full-length feature, "U."

The film, which will premiere tonight at the Student Film Festival, offers intriguing discussion on the personal conflicts, entangled identities and relationships encountered within a college setting.

"We were trying to make something that wasn't necessarily artsy," said Rosenblatt, a 2004 MSU graduate. "I have a friend at University of Michigan who makes shorts, for example, and I'll see them and say, 'Why did you make a movie and play it backwards in black and white?' I'm really frustrated with that kind of stuff."

At the same time, Rutare said, the film reflects a part of college life that is hopefully more realistic than what is shown in Hollywood today.

The story focuses on four central characters: Brian, a studious overachiever, played by general business administration and pre-law freshman Max Lund; Keith, a "sketchy" supplier of term papers and illegal substances, played by social relations senior Ben Luong; Danny, played by theater sophomore Zack Begle, a gregarious polar opposite of Brian and who everyone seems to know; and Isis, a teaching assistant and the object of Danny's affection, played by theater sophomore Jasmin Johnson.

In "U," there's no 30-year-old "meathead" actors playing college fraternity guys, who do nothing but binge drink or otherwise paint a tainted picture of life at a university, Rosenblatt said.

"It reflected a part of my earlier college experience," said Rutare, a political theory and constitutional democracy and film studies senior. "On the one hand, you're with people similar to you, going through the same stuff at the same time - but then, there's this kind of deep alienation, as if you're on your own."

With that in mind, Rutare said, the film attempted to concentrate on its characters, and reveal the college environment.

"Everyone made their character three-dimensional," Rutare said. "It always amazes me how unique and how different, but yet perfect, the characters are from the way they were written."

Each character's narrative is also shot with a different camera style, Rosenblatt said, to emphasize their distinct character traits. Scenes which focus on Brian, for example, are shot on a tripod, with no tricky camera work - underscoring his ordinary, unimaginative nature. For Keith, the shots were kinetic and rough.

As Keith, Luong said he was also presented with the challenge of making a seemingly one-dimensional character true to life.

"He is so unlike me," Luong said. "I think, especially living in the dorms, you get to know these shady characters who do the same kind of things he does. There was a guy on my floor who had made a pretty healthy business making fake IDs and had his whole room set up for it.

"As much as the actions say that (Keith's) character is a bad person, I've known people like that. They're generally good people. I guess that's the kind of spirit I took with the role."

"U" will be shown at 9:15 p.m. tonight at Wells Hall. For more information on the films or the festival, please visit rha.msu.edu/oop/sff.php.