Cory Stillman
Shelly Westerman, ACE and Payton Koch are more than just co-editors on Only Murders in the Building. Westerman — a veteran of the industry, whose previous collaborators include both Todd Haynes and James L. Brooks — immediately noticed a kindred spirit in Koch when he was just a PA on Ryan Murphy and Evan Romansky‘s Ratched.
Westerman invited Koch to become her assistant editor on the show, and the pair traversed through the Ryan Murphy-verse over the next few years, collaborating on shows like The Politician and Ameican Horror Story. Eventually, Westerman and Koch landed at Only Murders in the Building, which remains one of the most popular and beloved comedies on television today. This time, Koch was a lead editor himself.
“You know when you see someone who’s obviously talented, and Payton was that shining star early on,” says Westerman. “He was so attentive and kind and open to anything and everything.”
That openness is an essential element of both Westerman and Koch’s stories, not to mention that of Only Murders at large. When the dynamic editing duo was tasked with cutting together episode 3.08 “Sitzprobe,” they did not back down from the episode’s intricate split-screen structure.
“Sitzprobe” was directed by Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman, with whom Westerman had worked in the past. A former editor himself, Pulcini had a clear vision for the split-screen structure of the episode, and suggested the team map out the structure prior to shooting.
“We were taking the title cards and mapping out where each action was going to take place and at what time,” says Koch. “Giving that to production in advance helped them figure out the ways in which they would frame stuff and how the camera would move.”
The collaborative effort required a great deal of patience and ingenuity from the entirety of the Only Murders team. Westerman credits assistant editors Diana Hiatt and Jamie Clarke with one of the mock-up’s most essential components: color-coding.
“We turned a text-based thing into a visual experience, so that was a huge help,” says Westerman. “By the time we got it to production, they were quite impressed.”
Of course, the split-screen sequence in “Sitzprobe” is paced by Charles-Haden Savage’s (Steve Martin) hilarious rendition of “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” Although Martin did only a few takes of the song, Westerman and Koch were blown away by the bounty of brilliant options available to them. Cutting the sequence together to such a memorable musical moment helped the editing duo maintain the strong sense of pacing that has defined their work over the years.
In addition to “Sitzprobe,” Koch served as editor on episodes 3.03, 3.06, 3.07, and 3.10. Westerman — who is also a producer on the show — joined Koch for 3.10, and additionally cut together 3.02 and 3.05. With so much experience under their belt (the pair is hard at work on season four as well), Koch and Westerman have been fortunate enough to stitch together the clever clues and red herrings that continue to make Only Murders in the Building one of the most compelling mysteries on TV.
But do Koch and Westerman know how those mysteries unfold while they are cutting the show? Or are they kept in the dark much like us? And who have been some of their favorite surprise guests at the Arconia over the years?
Check out our full interview with Koch and Westerman below to find out.
Stream Only Murders in the Building on Hulu now.
Hey Shelley! Great to see you here. I interviewed Jane Lynch during the SBIFF
and she said ya’ll have a ball on that show. This is so awesome. I love love love editors. You guys are the auteurs of cinema! The rest of us just need to say cut sooner and write better. Honestly we can all be better at everything we do … in work and in life. And hopefully we get it right enough to know we have made a mark. You make me proud. You are a woman who is indeed kick ass and fiercely kind! Slainte’. Love. Lizzy. 🦋