Directed by junior Matt Galo, “Guaranteed A” is about college student Ashley Russert (senior Heather Rudow), who writes for her college newspaper, The Chronicle. While trying to discover the big story, Ashley uncovers a plagiarism operation run out of the school’s library. After infiltrating the library, Ashley must uncover the corrupt organization that is not-so-innocent.
Senior Dave Rabinowitz wrote the screenplay to “Guaranteed A” last summer after the Quinnipiac Film Society (QFS) held a script-writing contest.
“The film society had the idea of having a script writing contest over the summer. Any member could write a script,” Galo said. “In the fall semester, we had the contest so people could pitch the script to the entire club.”
The contest gave the opportunity for members of the club to get involved with the possibility that their script would be produced into the QFS fall production. QFS has an online forum where the scripts could be read with members having the chance to critique and offer suggestions. Rabinowitz’s completed script, “Guaranteed A,” won.
“Over the summer, I worked in Manhattan and I actually wrote a lot of it before work,” Rabinowitz said. “The bus dropped me off an hour before I had to start. There was actually a park and I got coffee [and wrote there].”
Rabinowitz began writing the script with the intention of filming on campus, with students going for the roles due to their availability. Galo, Rabinowitz and sophomore Caitlin Goldberg, one of the film’s producers, held open auditions for anyone interested.
“That is where we basically picked the ones we felt were the best,” Galo said. “We kind of type-casted people.”
After Rabinowitz turned in his final product of the script, Galo intended on adding some thriller action scenes in the library to enhance the film. The camaraderie between Galo and Rabinowitz is mutual and both agreed upon changes to the script.
With some previous writing experience, Rabinowitz was motivated to produce the strongest script possible. Over the years, Rabinowitz has written a lot of material, but those scripts have not been filmed. “Guaranteed A” was the impetus to carefully construct a screenplay because there was the chance it would be chosen to be filmed with an entire production crew behind it.
“Writing is really hard. It’s painful,” Rabinowitz said. “Your first scripts are going to be terrible. My first few were really, really bad. And they gradually got better.”
According to Galo, “Guaranteed A” received funding from the Student Government Association (estimated at $400) and an additional $400 to $500 from the School of Communications. Galo and the rest of the cast and crew added their own money to the production of the film as well. The total budget ended up totaling an amount close to $1,000.
“Anything under $1 million is considered no budget in the industry. So, this was like, negative budget,” Galo said.
After two semesters of production, the QFS feature “Guaranteed A” will be shown this Saturday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. in Alumni Hall.
