Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/681807
30 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2016 agrees. "I think we were mentors and mentees for each other," he says. A mutual friend, who happened to be second editor for Carol Littleton, ACE (Walk in the Woods, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Silverado), introduced her to Lisa Churgin, ACE (Dead Man Walking, The Cider House Rules, Pitch Perfect), in 1978. "Carol and I would see each other and became friendly," remembers Churgin. "I wrote her a letter in 1985 saying I was looking for a mentor. I didn't want to put her on the spot, but I did say that I was looking to work with an editor whose work I respected and from whom I knew I could learn a lot." Littleton recalls that Churgin "made a big impression," adding, "At the time I got the letter, Bruce Cannon, who was my first assistant and a very fine one, was getting ready to graduate. I actually needed a first assistant." Littleton and Churgin are both Past Presidents of the Editors Guild. Jeremy Peirson (three Hunger Games films, Looper, Water for Elephants) had graduated from Columbia College in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles to get a job in the film industry. He passed his resume around, but came up empty. "Then one day I was coming back from Todd AO and I saw a place that said Danetracks," he remembers. "I went home, looked it up and realized it was a post house. I called them and then dropped off my resume." The sound house's owner, Dane Davis, MPSE (Ender's Game, Sinister, The Matrix trilogy), reports that he'd always get an enormous number of applications. "It was something I wanted to do because there was nothing like that when I got out of school," he says. Peirson got one of those unpaid internships and spent three months observing recording sessions until, fortunately for him, a job opened up there. Lisa Trulli, ACE (I Am Cait, Real World, The Kardashians), and Darren Hallihan (Skin Wars, America's Greatest Makers) met on the reality TV series Project Runway, where he was an assistant editor. "One of the things that Darren has going for him — besides being really good at what he does — is that he's a really courteous person," offers Trulli. "So it doesn't take long before I wanted to champion him, to see him do better. He showed initiative and is super-smart, which is why everyone on the show wanted to see him rise to the rank of editor." Hallihan recalls that his first season on the show was hectic, switching from Final Cut Pro to Avid and getting to know everyone. "Then, in the second season, Lisa approached and asked if I wanted to practice cutting a hair-and-makeup scene," he recalls. Trulli, who says she's mentored Lisa Churgin, left, and Carol Littleton. Photo by Christopher Fragapane