We don’t always think about SOUND when we talk about film. We never think about sound when we talk about painting. But I think diegetic sound is really important (that’s the sound that is heard within the ‘world’ of the film). However, we have diegetic sound in painting too. Here, in Lorenzo Costa’s Renaissance painting,  we see three singers and a musical instrument. We can’t actually hear the song, but we can easily imagine it by the way the artist has painted the singers’ body-language and facial expressions. Seeing sound is as important as hearing it. The way you set up a scene for its sound is fundamental. How are you going to set up a scene that incudes these three musicians? Where’s your camera? What’s your lighting setup? Who do you want to focus on. This painting got me thinking of films that are about musicians – Begin Again and Inside Llewyn Davis in particular and how they were staged. Any others?

 

p.s. I am not sure why the one in purple has such a tiny right arm either!