Inside making of 'Severance' season 2 Marching Band scene

The Music Dance Experience of Severance season 1 was so impressive and special that Ben Stiller thought to do something even more grand for season 2.

In the scene, Mark S. (Adam Scott) finishes the critical Cold Harbor file and Milchick (Tramell Tillman) leads a full marching band performance.

Now, editor Geoff Richman is sharing how he edited the finale, telling Variety, “I was terrified of the marching band scene going in."

The performance, which took four days of filming, provided a “sea of footage.”

“I’d never cut a music video before. It’s like, we want to enjoy the marching band, but we also need to keep the story moving forward,” Richman confessed.

Richman had to impressively cut two performances together while keeping the story moving forward.

“On top of that, within the scenes, keeping track of our main characters. What we did is after the first song, we dropped in this beat with Jame (Michael Siberry) entering this viewing suite, and then also a check-in with Cecily (Sandra Bernhard) and Gemma (Dichen Lachman) heading to Cold Harbor. It’s this stark reminder that this is happening. That the final test is going to happen, and Mark has to get out of there,” he explained.

Explaining his process, he shared, “The way I like to work a lot of times is I’ll stack different options at any given moment. All these different tracks are not many video tracks playing at the same time. What they are are other options of where we can be at any given moment. Just find it really handy to be able to turn on and off different selections and see how they interact with each other. It’s one of the earliest little pairings that worked well.”

The same challenge presented itself when Mark is running later in the episode.

“He’s running, and the next shot almost feels like his POV. It looks like we’re approaching the wall, but then we turn the corner. Oh no, we’re down on the testing floor with Gemma.”

Richman continued, “It creates this grammar in the edit where Mark is running. Where’s he running? He’s running to get to Gemma before she finishes the Cold Harbor test.”

Severance season 2 finale came to an end on March 1, 2025. The show has been renewed or season 3.