Alexander Frasse is an award-winning filmmaker and editor based in Queens, New York. He is a graduate of New York University’s Kanbar Institute of Film and Television from which he received a BFA in film and television production in 2012.
BIO
My earliest memory of film is being 5 years old, sitting on the floor of our living room in Houston, Texas watching English-dubbed reruns of the classic Toho Godzilla films. During commercial breaks I would see adds for movies like Jaws and Air Force One “coming soon to TNT.” For whatever reason my loving and frequently concerned parents thought giant lizards pummeling each other across Tokyo was harmless entertainment, but quasi-intelligent thrillers about sharks eating children or Presidents fist-fighting terrorists were a little too “adult” for their sheltered young son and often declined to let me watch the increasing number of late-night specials on my kindergarten era watch-list. My reaction to this was not to scream and cry (though I’m sure I probably did that too sometimes), but instead to write my own versions of these films based on the information I gathered from the trailers on TV, complete with graphic illustrations and comic misinterpretations.
One of my earliest memories of these was seeing the trailer for Jaws and the famous “vertigo” shot of Roy Scheider watching a shark eat little Alex Kitner from his chair on the beach, from which I concluded that he must be wheelchair-bound (why else would he just sit there?). Subsequently my version of Jaws followed a quadriplegic sheriff who patrolled the shark ridden beaches in his wheelchair until the evil Mayor pushed him off a cliff into the waters to be devoured.
My version of Air Force One followed a terrorist takeover of the titular plane where-in the President is killed and his security guard has to step up to finish the job. One of the few lines that has stuck with me comes in the climactic finale when the security guard confronts the lead terrorist and says “I know murder is illegal, but you killed the President.” Before shooting the terrorist in the head and assuming the office of President himself.
To this day these scripts remain possibly my greatest creative achievements, but as far as I know they have been lost to the many moving boxes of time. These days my process has stayed pretty much the same. I watch movies, read books, misinterpret things, and then try to write them down, usually ripping off the many better films that have come before me. The only real difference is that my parents now have significantly less input on what I watch.
Rather than use this website to spout off a list of accolades (there aren’t many) in a desperate attempt to get someone to hire me (they won’t), I prefer to use this as a platform to publish some of those ideas that, for better or worse, I deem worthy of publication. To that effect you will find this site to be a bit of a resume, a bit of a portfolio, and a bit of a playground; my own personal art gallery where the personal and professional combine. I hope you enjoy it and if you do, please (even if you don’t plan on hiring me) don’t hesitate to reach out and say hi.