By the end of the filming, Pappas was still storing his drawing in the basement of his parents' Baltimore home.
Dr. Gary Vikan is the actual museum director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, considered to be the seventh most important general discipline art museum in the United States.
"Bro. René Sterner," who is referred to in the opening written letter, was, at the time of filming, and until 2005, the President of La Salle College High School. La Salle, founded in 1858, is an independent, Catholic, college preparatory school for boys located in Wyndmoor, a community in Springfield Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. The school is staffed by a lay faculty and the Christian Brothers.
As the opening credits appear, Billy Pappas is seen riding in a cab. The cab passes by a large Travertine marble building with six imposing columns supporting an imposing pediment. The building is the Baltimore Museum of Art, and two of the banners hanging in front of the building display the name of the museum, along with the commonly known acronym, "BMA".
Paintings, drawings, or sketches of several classical or modern masters are seen throughout the film, especially their self-portraits, including: Leonardo da Vinci ("Self-portrait in red chalk" [c.1512-1515]), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ("Self-portrait at age 24" [1804]), Albrecht Dürer ("Self-Portrait" [1500]), Grant Wood ("American Gothic" [1930]), Michaelangelo ("Statue of David" [1504] and others), Rembrandt van Rijn ("Self-portrait" [c.1629] and others], and of course David Hockney ("Self-portrait with Charley" and many others).