Colourist Tim Vincent on Only Murders in the Building

My interview / words for Sohonet

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Only Murders in the Building packs a lot into its 30 minute episodes. Balancing ratatat oneliners and slapstick with murder mystery and farcical storylines, while juggling multiple characters and locations, the show is not only a huge hit with audiences but clearly a lot of fun for its creators to work on.

“I’m genuinely a fan of the show, which makes working on it even more enjoyable,” reports Tim Vincent, the show’s Senior Colourist. “I feel invested in making sure the colour supports the emotion, the storytelling, and the many tonal layers, even if viewers don’t consciously notice what the grade is doing.”

The Hulu series created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman has just aired its fifth season on Disney+, with a sixth already in the works. The multi Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated and awarded comedy stars Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, and Martin Short, with several guest star appearances each season.

Vincent boarded the production in season two and has been the steward of the show’s colour ever since, first working with original cinematographer Chris Teague, ASC, and then with Kyle Wullschleger, who has led photography for the last three seasons.

“The main goal each season has been to maintain the core visual identity established in Season 1, while subtly adjusting the look to support the storytelling of each new season,” Vincent says. “For example, for Season 3’s musical theatre storyline, we pushed saturation, contrast, and brightness in those sequences so that everything connected to the stage world had a distinct feel. Then, when we returned to the everyday environments of our characters at the [grand New York apartment building] Arconia, we dropped back into the more grounded, familiar palette.”

Vincent describes the show’s base look as “naturalistic and film inspired,” with a slightly nostalgic quality. “It’s not ‘old-fashioned,’ but it definitely nods to classic film,” he says. “Wardrobe, production design, and lighting all play into that, and my job is to accentuate the colours that best support what the cinematographer, directors, and showrunners want to bring forward in the storytelling.”

The show LUT, originally established by Teague, is tweaked slightly each season to support the theme and emotional tone of the story.

“Starting in the third season, we shifted to a less aggressive onset LUT to speed up shooting. That meant more of the final look was shaped later during colour correction, with the team trusting that I’d take the material where it needed to go. From that base, I build a refined version of the show’s original film-inspired look for each season.”

Season 4 involved a number of different cameras—drone and surveillance footage, fixed cameras hidden around the main characters’ apartments, even dog cams—each with its own look, whether from the camera itself, the lenses, or intentional colour work. “A lot of grading went into differentiating those perspectives!” Vincent recalls.

Season 5’s storyline revolves around a trio of billionaires (played by Christoph Waltz, Renée Zellweger, and Logan Lerman), and a significant portion of the show takes place in an old casino.

“We recreated that environment across multiple time periods, from black and white horse and carriage days through the 1930s, ’40s, ’70s, and up to the present. Each period required its own carefully crafted look.

“For the modern casino, we used contemporary saturation and colour but still grounded it in the show’s established contrast and grain structure. The surrounding environments were adjusted subtly so that nothing felt jarringly different, but viewers would still feel an emotional shift as we moved between eras and locations.”

To enhance the oldHollywood feel, Vincent adds and adjusts grain levels almost imperceptibly, depending on the storytelling. “For example, a darker, underexposed scene would naturally have more grain if it were shot on film, so we might boost it there. For rougher textures or documentary style moments, we have many variations, some emulating film stocks, others matching the Sony Venice (the show’s principal camera), and a few integrating actual film footage. Blending those looks is a very hands on, scene-by-scene process.”

With production based in New York and Vincent at his Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve station at Picture Shop in LA, he and Wullschleger have established a fluent remote workflow.

“Typically, I’ll do my first pass on an episode and send Kyle a color file for notes. Then we do a review with the showrunners and the rest of the creative team,” he explains.

“Before each season, we meet to discuss intentions, special episodes, and any new visual ideas. We talk through inspirations and ideas, and then I create several options. I’ll present those to the DP and showrunner, and together we decide which direction best fits the story.

“If there are unique episodes, I’ll test looks in advance and send them to Kyle and John so we’re aligned before we get into final grading. We’re also changing shooting locations for the next season (S6), so we’ll have new conversations about how that affects the look, though the core aesthetic will remain.”

Vincent won the HPA Outstanding Colour Grading Award for his work on Mad Men and was nominated for Amazon’s The Last Tycoon, among other drama credits that include Murder Bot and Dark Winds. He says he loves his continuing collaboration on Only Murders.

“Mysteries offer great opportunities for visual storytelling, and those can be accentuated with the colour correction. Editorial considerations might include when to reveal or obscure someone, whether to highlight or hide clues, and how much we guide or mislead the audience. All those micro decisions must be made all the time in every episode, and we always have to balance them against the show’s core tone so nothing feels out of place.”

The creative partnership between the colourist, cinematographers, and production team on the brilliantly visual Only Murders in the Building has been vital in shaping the show’s storytelling. Season six will see the investigative trio in London.