Room Tone

For each of their on-camera interviews with filmmakers, actors, critics, and other film nerds, Criterion records 30 seconds of “room tone” that is used to cut the footage into a seamless video.

When trying to explain what room tone is to someone unfamiliar with the concept, I reach for an architectural metaphor. If words are the bricks of a scene, then surely room tone is the mortar that binds them together. It gives sonic coherence to an edited piece built from different takes within the same location.

Asking a cast and crew to observe a moment of silence is an acknowledgment that room tone cannot be faked. You cannot substitute it with a recording from another production, and you cannot generate it using artificial intelligence. It is something you capture at a specific time and place that has not occurred before and will not occur again. This is our attempt at freezing such fleeting moments — and welcoming those to come.

And then at the end of each year, they cut the room tone recordings into a compilation video; here’s 2025’s video:

As well as 2024’s and 2023’s:

I find these videos equal parts charming and meditative. As movies & TV become ever-more fast-paced and our attention bent to black rectangular pocket casinos, it’s increasingly rare to witness people sitting still with only their thoughts to occupy them. We see Humans Frantically Doing everywhere these days, but these room tone videos are a good reminder that Humans Just Being is an essential part of life as well.

• Criterion Collection