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40 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2017 already made the transition from film to digital editing, Foligno and his cutting room colleagues were unable to contribute splicers or tape to the set, but they did help create the picture of the "super-busy, cluttered editing room" envisioned by production designer Dante Ferretti and his wife, set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo. Although Foligno's walk-on in The Aviator remains his sole screen appearance to date — "My only," he jokes, "my absolute only" — the experience represented the culmination of the decade he spent working on the director's films. "He had plenty of other extras," Foligno reflects, "but he wanted to give us that opportunity to get us in the film." A native of New Jersey, Foligno grew up as a fan of Scorsese's films but never imagined that he would one day work with — let alone be directed by — the master filmmaker who shares his Italian-American heritage. "I would rent VHS tapes of all his films, but the one that really hit home was Goodfellas [1990]," Foligno says. "I must have watched that a thousand times and tried to memorize every line, but I wasn't saying, 'I'm going to work for that guy one day.' Not at all — it was the furthest thing from my mind." Foligno broke into the business in 1986, when he was hired to work in post-production at Troma Entertainment in New York City. "I had never been in an editing room, much less a full film company," he says. "I worked for a while, then they started paying me a little bit of money." While at Troma, Foligno met future assistant editor Joel Hirsch, who subsequently worked with Scorsese as an apprentice on Cape Fear (1991) and second assistant editor on The Age of Innocence (1993). By the time Casino came around, Hirsch had moved up to first assistant editor, and Foligno was brought on as second assistant. "I said, 'If you ever have a chance to hire me in Scorsese's cutting room, please do,'" Foligno recounts. "And he did." Starting with Casino, Schoonmaker and Scorsese cut their films using the Lightworks system, which the filmmakers preferred to the more widely adopted Avid. "On Avid, it's a lot of keyboard strokes and mouse clicks," Foligno explains. "On Lightworks, there is a controller that mimics how it would be on a flatbed system like a KEM or a Steenbeck. There were only four buttons and a little toggle that would allow you to go forward or reverse. Thelma saw the set-up CONTINUED ON PAGE 43 MY MOST MEMORABLE FILM The Aviator. Miramax/Warner Bros./Photofest