Her father had worked as an art director on many of the Hope/Crosby "Road" pictures and Debra Hill certainly paid her dues, first as a script supervisor on more than a dozen features before edging into editing and 2nd unit work. Her big break came when John Carpenter gave her the opportunity to produce "Halloween" (1978), a screenplay they had written together. She responded amazingly, managing to achieve a handsome look for under $400,000. Her next four producing projects were all with Carpenter ("The Fog" 1980, which she also co-wrote with him; "Escape from New York" 1981; "Halloween II"
