Published on Jan 21, 2026
This is the first year I’ve been aware of it, but apparently every year, Criterion puts out a little "Gift of Room Tone" video for the holidays, cutting together the moment they pause to record room tone during all their interviews.
As they describe it:
Every holiday season, we like to put together a montage of footage from the end of our on-camera interviews with filmmakers, critics, and scholars, highlighting the moments when we capture “room tone”—the ambient sound that our editors need to create a seamle…
Published on Jan 21, 2026
This is the first year I’ve been aware of it, but apparently every year, Criterion puts out a little "Gift of Room Tone" video for the holidays, cutting together the moment they pause to record room tone during all their interviews.
As they describe it:
Every holiday season, we like to put together a montage of footage from the end of our on-camera interviews with filmmakers, critics, and scholars, highlighting the moments when we capture “room tone”—the ambient sound that our editors need to create a seamless video.
As we look back on these meditative silences shared with our guests, we’re feeling grateful for the collaborations and friendships that sustain our work.
If you’re not aware, "room tone" is a term used in production to describe the sound of the ambient noise of the room without anyone speaking or moving or making any other sounds. It’s almost literally the sound of silence. This is necessary for the editors to be able to fill gaps, cover up noise, or smooth transitions between dialogue and other audio cuts.
I’ve never used it a ton in my own career as an editor (it just tends not to be a factor in the kinds of things I edit), but I adore the concept of room tone. The fact that the room itself has an ambient sound that needs capturing because, while you might not perceive it while it’s there, you will most definitely notice its sudden absence. And the fact that every room is subtly different, but different enough that you can’t just capture one "ideal" recording of room tone to use across all media. You need to capture the tone of the room that you’re in at the moment the media you’re shooting is being recorded, or it won’t match. It’s so organic, so human, so analog, and often indicative of final quality, or at least a care for the craft; to care even about the things that might not be perceived by the untrained ear.
This Criterion video has been sitting in my inbox since December 25th, and I’m so glad I finally watched it, because of all these thoughts and feelings that came bubbling up from it! I hope you enjoy it as well.