Intertextuality

Intertextuality              Kellie Ward

What is intertextuality?

Intertextuality is the way in which media texts purposely give references to other media texts in order to give the audience recognition. It involves the process of extracting elements from existing texts and subtly including them in the making of your own, this can be Mise en scene, sound, editing, or simply the plot. Intertextuality often takes place in media forms under the same genre, for example...

Examples of intertextuality...

 

                               Nightmare on Elm Street        &                  Scream

Mise en scene is often red in thrillers, here we can see that red costumes in thrillers have derived from Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street. The movie Scream has clearly taken this idea and used intertextuality. 

                                                     Scream               &           Scary Movie 

A great example of intertextuality is Scary Movie, this is because it is a parody so all scenarios therefore depend on the text from other movies. One aspect of the film that will clearly be recognised by the audience is the character from scream. Like all intertextual texts, Scary Movie uses the original element but slight changes are necessary, as the 2 movies are of different genres, one is a mystery horror, and the other is a comedy/parody, so it is adjusted.

Scary Movie also uses the typical plot which appears in many other movies, it consists of one mystery serial killer with a list of victims. This scenario is seen in films such as... The Bone Collector, Jack the Ripper and Scream.

                                         The Simpons Movie    &      Clockwork Orange

Even movies of different types are able to use intertextuality whenever they want, easily. An example of this is The Simpsons Movie (which is cartoon) imitating the type of character by using the same costume (mise en scene).

I think that the intertextual media we have viewed will influence our own work massively because it proves that taking elements from others doesn't mean copying, it in fact means that  viewing it will be more interesting for the audience. Moreover, it shows that production cast have knowledge and experience of the film industry.