CineMontage

Spring 2016

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28 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2016 by Debra Kaufman portraits by Christopher Fragapane & Martin Cohen M entoring has always been key to the art and craft of editing. In the days before film schools, it was the only way to learn the techniques and practices of the so-called "invisible art," and many would argue that it still is the best way to learn. In the film editing room of the past, assistant editors — and apprentices — were able to observe and absorb what the editor did at close hand. To coincide with the Editors Guild's Membership Outreach Committee's planned Mentorship Campaign, CineMontage spoke with four teams of mentors and "mentees" about how the process of mentoring has changed in the digital age, as well as how their own mentoring relationships have developed. They also discuss the value of mentoring and being mentored, and the importance to the Guild and its members of the mentoring relationship. MEETING THE MENTOR Re-recording mixer John Reitz (American Sniper, Argo, Gran Torino) was working at the old Glen Glenn Sound in Hollywood on television projects when he met apprentice (now supervising sound editor) Alan Robert Murray (American Sniper, Sicario, Letters From Iwo Jima). They finally had a chance to work together in 1979 on Escape from Alcatraz. "John would pass on knowledge he acquired at his end of the business, and told me how he preferred his tracks to be prepared," recalls Murray. "I'd ask him questions. So all the knowledge came through us being friends and telling each other how we liked things done." Reitz, who credits John "Doc" Wilkinson, Jay Harding and Dave Dockendorf as his first mentors, Gurus of the Guild THE JOYS OF MENTORING Clockwise from top left: Darren Hallihan, Jeremy Peirson, Dane Davis and Lisa Trulli. Photo by Martin Cohen

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