For this year’s tech issue, The Minaret got in touch with Alexander Solomita, the 21 year-old film major who runs “the cage” (camera, editing and photo-equipment room) down in Cass Hall.
Solomita’s mastery of the devices inside the cage allows him to create and do the special effects for all of his own films.
The Minaret (TM): How long have you been the head of the cage?
Alexander Solomita (S.M.): I started working at the cage last semester and through the summer.
Now I’m kind of like the second-in-command to Stokes, the professor who runs the program.
T.M.: Word on the street is you make movies and do your own special effects. Care to elaborate?
S.M.: Well that’s true. Last year we made a film called The Ground Is Lava that I did the special effects for.
T.M.: The Ground Is Lava? Sounds cool. Or hot, I guess.
S.M.: You know. Based off the childhood game where you can’t step on the ground. We covered the entire floor with green
screen and I used spaghetti sauce to simulate lava boiling.
I’m also working on the project for my senior seminar, but I’m not talking much about that.
T.M.: And by “not talking much about that” you mean, “about to explain the mystery project right now,” right?
S.M.: It’s called Pendulum. It’s about a macho-manly geek that finds a superhero suit with a force-field and puts it on to impress
a girl.
There’s a lot of ice special effects going on for the villain too. The whole thing is an homage to superheroes.
T.M.: You said he wants to impress a girl. Does that mean that this is kind of a romance story?
S.M.: Actually yes. I needed a story arc and everyone resonates with romance. Superheroes, aliens, sci-fi, historical shows;
there’s always some sort of girl in there. And with Pendulum it’s the same. Take away the special effects, the costumes and the
set design and it’s really just a guy trying to get a girl.
T.M.: He’s just doing it in a cool way. I wore a cape once to woo a girl, but she called her brother and he beat me up. Is this going to be like Spiderman where he’ll have corny one-liners for every fight that takes place?
S.M.: In a way. I really, really love puns, so there will be plenty of those.
T.M.: Being this close to making movies and making the magic happen, would you say that it’s caused movies to lose some of the magic when you watch them?
S.M.: Kind of. Being around all this equipment makes me demystified as a filmmaker. The other night I was watching Dexter and found myself analyzing the angle of the shot and how the camera frame was reflecting his emotions. I almost yelled at myself, all I wanted to do was just enjoy the show, but I couldn’t.
T.M.: You mentioned you do most of the work yourself, but surely you have help. Do you pay people? I kind of need a job, a recent article may be getting me fired soon.
S.M.: It is difficult to get others to show up to help out, but I offer food and that helps. Never underestimate the power of food: paying in cookies really does work.
T.M.: I’ll work for you.
Richard Solomon can be reached at richard.solomon@spartans.ut.edu