 Also working for Warner Bros., Thomas Penick worked as an assistant editor on Ken Russell's "Altered States" (1981).While attending UCLA, he befriended and worked alongside directors and fellow peers such as Jamaa Fanaka and Charles Burnett, in addition to helping them as a production manager and editor on "My Brother's Wedding" (1983).Penick wrote a book about Charles Burnett entitled "Theefus", and also briefly worked on Burnett's work "Killer of Sheep".