\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/newsroom\/images\/2025\/03\/how-the-mind-splitting-world-of-severance-comes-together-on-mac\/tile\/Apple-TV-plus-Mac-editing-Severance-Geoffrey-Richman-and-Ben-Stiller-lp.jpg.og.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
March 26, 2025<\/p>\n
UPDATE<\/p>\n
How the :br(s):mind-splitting world of Severance<\/em> :br(s):comes together on\u00a0Mac<\/p>\n Geoffrey Richman, supervising editor on the global hit Apple\u00a0Original workplace thriller, shares his creative\u00a0process, why Mac is an indispensable tool, and his thoughts\u00a0on who\u2019s behind the video editing at\u00a0Lumon<\/p>\n In the fictional world of Lumon Industries, the biotech titan that\u2019s central to the Apple Original series Severance<\/em>, it\u2019s possible to separate a person\u2019s work and personal selves through a surgical procedure. And yet, for some employees of the cutting-edge company, video editing proves particularly challenging. In episode four of season two, \u201cWoe\u2019s Hollow,\u201d we got a glimpse at a lo-fi attempt in the video that welcomes the Macrodata Refinement Department to the Outdoor Retreat and Team Building Occurrence (ORTBO).<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hilarious,\u201d says Geoffrey Richman, one of the show\u2019s real-life editors and a three-time Emmy Award nominee. \u201cWith the jumpcuts and glitchy edits in the ORTBO video, it feels like Milchick [played by Tramell Tillman] cut the video together quickly with Miss Huang [Sarah Bock] in the back room behind his office.\u201d<\/p>\n Richman can\u2019t relate. From his iMac in his at-home edit bay in Park Slope, Brooklyn, he works closely with his colleagues \u2014 including executive producer and director Ben Stiller \u2014 to create a visually and aurally stunning, genre-blurring, certifiable hit show.<\/p>\n While Milchick may have access to unlimited paper clips and celebratory melon platters, he most certainly doesn\u2019t have access to the Mac-powered setup that Richman relies on to do his job so successfully. His ecosystem of Macs \u2014 which includes his iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro \u2014 became even more essential during the season two finale, \u201cCold Harbor.\u201d This was one of the show\u2019s most challenging episodes to edit, according to Richman.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the finale, there was a lot of experimenting with structure and testing out different ideas about how to play out different scenes,\u201d says Richman. \u201cIt was a constant flow of ideas and my Mac setup allowed for such a smooth experience.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn cutting the marching band, there were about 70 angles and takes to choose from, so we synced them all up in one multicam clip with banks of nine [3×3 arrays],\u201d he continues. \u201cBeing able to play nine angles simultaneously in real time \u2014 and switch quickly between all the different options \u2014 made it a whole lot easier to find what we wanted at any given moment.\u201d<\/p>\n The only thing Richman does relate to about the Lumon crew is that he descends a level to work each day, much like the show\u2019s protagonist Mark Scout, played by Adam Scott. On a lower floor within his apartment, Richman edits on iMac, which remotes into a separate Mac mini. This Mac mini runs Avid \u2014 the industry-standard video editing software \u2014 from a post-production facility in Manhattan\u2019s West Village.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a familiar setup for Richman, who says the vast majority of all the editing work he\u2019s ever done is on Mac. \u201cI like the interface on Mac a lot better than on a PC,\u201d he says. \u201cI find the way the operating system is laid out to be much more comfortable. I\u2019m able to move between different applications very quickly on Mac.\u201d<\/p>\n The setup is also ideal for a job that doesn\u2019t always take place at a single desk. Though Richman, along with the rest of the editors on the show, is remote, he occasionally heads to set, where there\u2019s an edit room with iMac. And he\u2019s also brought his MacBook Pro onto set to have easy access to cuts for reference on location as needed.<\/p>\n \u201cI can work on my laptop and I can work on my iMac, and I can work at the post facility or I can work at Ben\u2019s office, and as long as I\u2019m logged into my account, everything I do shows up everywhere,\u201d says Richman, who appreciates the seamless data sharing and device collaboration that happens with iCloud and Continuity. \u201cI could be lying in bed and I have a thought, and I\u2019ll type it into my iPhone, and then the next day, it just shows up in the Notes app on my desktop. That aspect of Mac I find very handy \u2014 to not think about which system I\u2019m physically at.\u201d<\/p>\n While working on \u201cWoe\u2019s Hollow,\u201d Richman depended on the performance, portability, and exceptional battery life of MacBook Pro for a visit with Stiller near the snow-covered Minnewaska State Park Preserve in upstate New York, where the episode was filmed. Richman also appreciates the multiple ports on MacBook Pro, including an HDMI port, which is important for collaboration during an edit.<\/p>\n \u201cI was able to go to the place where Ben was staying and plugged my MacBook Pro into his TV, and we were able to edit right off of my laptop,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Richman is also a fan of how easy it is to multitask on Mac. \u201cI like running all the things that I use throughout the day all the time,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I have Avid running, as well as the Notes app, Slack, Mail, Messages, Calendar, and Safari. All these things are open and running all the time, but then I love that I can use a shortcut to access Mission Control to switch over to a different app.\u201d<\/p>\n Multitasking is a major component of Richman\u2019s work, as he sometimes works with Stiller on individual scenes \u2014 such as the birthing cabin sequence in the season two finale \u2014 before the assemblies are completed.<\/p>\n \u201cI would send Ben cuts of scenes as I finished them to get early feedback on them,\u201d says Richman. \u201cHe would either send notes in an email or we would talk about it on the phone, then I could do another pass of the scene even before getting through the whole episode. That way, we knew we were always climbing the same mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n An episode\u2019s score also happens simultaneously with the edit. Richman speaks with Theodore Shapiro, the show\u2019s composer, regularly during editing. And if Shapiro sends music cues after the workday has ended, Richman is often too excited to wait until the next day to hear them, so he listens immediately from his MacBook Pro or iPhone using AirPods Pro 2.<\/p>\n \u201cMusic is such a big part of enhancing the show,\u201d says Richman. \u201cYou can actually shift a scene into a darker tone based purely on the music. Even though everything about the scene would otherwise look pretty light, the music can bring you into the way a character is feeling as opposed to what you\u2019re seeing onscreen.\u201d<\/p>\n Shapiro composed the two marching band songs used in the season finale, an episode that required an extreme amount of coordination in the editing. Working on his iMac, Richman had to make sure the instruments on camera stayed in sync with the music \u2014 all while building one of the most frenetic, tension-fraught sequences of the season. Organizing the marching band footage alone took over a week, and with so many angles and takes to choose from at any given moment, there were potentially hundreds of ways to cut the scenes.<\/p>\n \u201cThose were definitely scenes where I was jotting down notes on my iPhone and then \u2014 to get a different perspective \u2014 I\u2019d work on my MacBook Pro, sketching ideas while sitting on my couch or in bed, before bringing those thoughts back to my iMac,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n For audiences, the finale delivered higher stakes, new insights into the mysterious inner workings of Lumon, and likely a more menacing view of marching bands. For Richman, the finale brought both big obstacles and major rewards.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, the marching band scenes were extremely challenging,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I hesitate because with the finale, for example, where we were doing a lot of work with structure, that\u2019s a part of the process I particularly enjoy. So it\u2019s challenging, but it\u2019s also very satisfying and just fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Season two of <\/em>Severance is now streaming on Apple TV+. Watch Geoffrey Richman, Ben Stiller, and additional <\/em>Severance editors discuss the making of the season two finale in <\/em>Behind the Mac, available now on <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>. (Warning: this film contains spoilers from season two of <\/em>Severance.)<\/em><\/p>\n Press Contacts<\/p>\n Starlayne Meza<\/p>\n Apple<\/p>\n starlayne_meza@apple.com<\/a><\/p>\n Apple Media Helpline<\/p>\n