Question: was there a real bat in the office

Answer: Yes, For the scenes which involved filming with a bat, the production team used an actual bat, an animated bat, and a mechanical bat. When around the actual bat, Kate Flannery, who portrays Meredith Palmer, stated that ``we had to be extremely quiet around (it), basically pretending to scream.'' California State University, Northridge served as the backdrop for Ryan's business school and the art show; the scenes at the institution were shot in January of 2007.