'The Gift of Room Tone' featuring Martin Scorsese, Roger Deakins, Cristopher Walken, and More

‘The Gift of Room Tone’ featuring Martin Scorsese, Roger Deakins, Cristopher Walken, and More

"Capturing room tone requires [Criterion Collection] interview subjects to sit quietly for thirty to sixty seconds, and of course when you ask a bunch of people to do the exact same thing, they’ll all end up doing it differently. As you’ll see, some are very playful while others are more meditative; some close their eyes, and some look around the room or check their phones."

Editor Daniel Reis, working for The Criterion Collection, compiled this fun video showcasing that empty space at the end of an interview where the set falls silent for “room tone.” In his own words:

At the start of 2020, I had an idea that it might be fun to do something with all the footage of room tone I’ve accumulated. For those who aren’t familiar with film and video production, “room tone” is the ambient sound of a space typically captured at the end of a shoot. Editors think of it almost like the mortar between bricks: if I’m cutting together different takes, creating an artificial pause, or eliminating a speaker’s “ums” and “ahs,” I need to layer in that sound to make sure the final result is seamless. Room tone is something that can’t really be faked, because each space has its own ambience, and it’s very hard to re-create once you’ve left.

Some of the interview subjects seen in the video include: Martin Scorsese, Roger Deakins, Spike Lee, Bong Joon-Ho, Christopher Walken, Carey Mulligan, Alfonso Cuarón, Frank Oz, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tony Hawk, and more – including the hardworking production crew.

A pleasant, if not nostalgic watch, for those of us sitting at home a little more than we’d like waiting for projects to pick up steam again. Thank you Mr. Reis for bringing a piece of set life home to us!