POST-PRODUCTION. ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING
BEFORE
AFTER
GREEN MONSTER The myriad green hues found on-set, particularly in clothing, meant careful chroma keying was an absolute imperative for smooth shots (above)
GREY CELLS The neighbours get into hot water, as their interest in the crime seems a tad incriminating
“We did about 300 shots for Season 2. There were a lot of green screens, background paint- outs, split screens and removing reflections” work actor, living off a mostly forgotten detective series called Brazzos , in which he starred in the nineties. Short is Oliver, a theatre director living amid the deluded hopes of a rekindled career, while Gomez stars as Mabel, a millennial residing in her rich aunt’s apartment. The stacked supporting cast includes Amy Ryan, Cara Delevingne, Tina Fey and the excellent Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Nathan Lane. As with all great comedy, much of the show’s success is built upon the subtlety – “I loved the dynamic between the three main characters,” says Maynard with a smile. “That’s what ties the whole show together and makes it great.” Martin plays Charles, an out-of-
or at least precision – of the delivery, and the timing, a fact that’s reflected in the work executed by the VFX team. “We did about 300 shots for Season 2,” continues Maynard, who signed up for Only Murders in the Building when one of his associate producers on the NBC hit This Is Us , Tim Barker, moved across to work on the show. “There were a lot of green screens, background paint-outs, split screens and smaller things like removing camera reflections and booms that sneak into scenes. “We also do some time warp,” he adds, “where they have one continuous shot and want to take out a segment in the middle, but have it still look seamless. It morphs the images from the cut from one side to the other side, so you can take out five or ten frames and do this morph; that really helps the edit play better. For the first couple of episodes, we had four or five in each.” Maynard, whose recent work includes the Tom Holland movie Cherry and Sons of Anarchy spin-off Mayans MC , describes his duties on Only Murders in the Building as a general VFX roster. Many plates that come his way were drawn from sets that comprise the Arconia, the characters’
apartment building, and the death scenes driving both seasons. A building so vast that it takes up an entire city block, the Arconia recalls The Belnord apartments in New York. The production design by Curt Beech – which won an Emmy this year – casts an opulence upon the locations that requires VFX attention in post. “A lot of it is shot in Charles’ apartment. From what I’ve seen of Season 1, that was all green screen,” says Maynard. He cites Season 2 episode 4, Here’s Looking at You , as a particular challenge. The nature of the action and dialogue led to logistical dilemmas. “They’re all talking across this five-minute scene and through that whole thing there were, I think, 63 shots in total,” he says. “It was also a scene where one of the murder weapons is found in the knife stack, and a neighbour comes to the door. Oliver has the knife and throws it up into
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