Intertextuality

This week we discussed “Intertxetuality”, which is basically referring to another event. There are many ways you can do this, maybe through film, music, models, books, plays and probably many more. An example of conscious Intertextuality is the “Scary Movie” [Scary Movie, 2000-present day,Directed by; Keenen Ivory Wayans and David Zucker, Dimension Films, USA] series. In this series the whole films are based on other films (mostly horror films), events or people and use Intertexuality to poke fun at them and make there films into a comedy. You could say the whole series is a massive parody. Scary Movie 1 [2000] was mainly based off of the films Scream [1996, directed by; Wes Craven, Woods Entertainment, USA] and "I know what you did last summer" [1997, directed by; Jim Gillespie,Mandalay Entertainment, USA]. Scary Movie 2 [2001]was mainly focused on The Exorcist [1973,directed by;William Friedkin, Warner Bros.USA], Scary Movie 3 [2003] was a parody of Signs [2002,directed by;M. Night Shyamalan, Touchstone Pictures, USA] and The Ring [2002,directed by;Gore Verbinski, DreamWorks Pictures, USA and Japan]. Scary movie 4 [2006] probably had the most intertexuality including influences from The Grudge [2004,directed by;Takashi Shimizu, Ghost House Pictures, USA], War of the Worlds [2005,directed by;Steven Spielberg, Amblin Entertainment,USA], Saw [2004,directed by;James Wan, Evolution Entertainment and Twisted Pictures, USA], The Village [2004,directed by;M. Night Shyamalan, Blinding Edge Pictures, USA], Million Dollar Baby [2004, directed by;Clint Eastwood, Lakeshore Entertainment, USA] and Brokeback Mountain [2005,directed by;Ang Lee, River Road Entertainment,Canada and USA]. They also used people like Michael Jackson, who was used in the 3rd and 4th movie where they made fun of his love for children, dancing, and unreal face.
A film like Scott Pilgrim V The World [2010,directed by;Edgar Wright, Big Talk Films,USA] uses references from super heroes and games to reflect the characters personality and imagination. For example, In the last fight scene, Every time Scott kills someone they disappear and coins appear, like in most games. Also you see text flash on your screen like KO or FIGHT, and comic book style sound effects such as “KABOOM”, Even the last evil ex has a HP bar. Some of the sound effects you can tell are taken from games such as Mario [1981,Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo] and Sonic[1991,Yuji Naka,Nintendo]. I think this movie in a way is a tribute to all video games and comics.
A few references in games are like “Grand Theft Auto”[1997,created by David Jones - Dan Houser - Sam Houser, Rockstar Games],  where the radio has cheesy adverts like on the real radio the only difference is that the radio in GTA actually mocks itself. Also in Assassins Creed [2007, created by Patrice Desilets,Ubisoft], you find the odd reference here and there like uncle Mario (“it’s a me, Mario!”) or having Leonardo Da Vinci as your weapons designer.
Music wise, If we were to look at “Jaws“ [1975, directed by;Steven Spielberg, Universal Pictures, USA]. The music as that is world renowned, and if heard you would think instantly “shark”. So many other films have used the Jaws theme music or slightly similar. Also a phrase in jaws “were gona need a bigger boat” is used in countless films and programs such as Shanghai Knights [2003,directed by;David Dobkin, Spyglass Entertainment,USA] : “were gona need a bigger gun”  Batman & Robin [1997,directed by;Joel Schumacher,Warner Bros] : “were going to need a bigger cave” and so many more.
Another phase that has been used a lot in other movies is the phrase “Here’s Jhonny” from The Shining [1980,directed by;Stanley Kubrick,Perrigrine Productions,Warner Bros. USA], movies like “Finding Nemo”[2003,directed by;Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich, Pixar, USA] have used it and slightly changed it e.g: “Here’s Brucey” also programs such as the latest X Factor [2004,created by;Simon Cowell, ITV,UK] use it almost every week to refer to a contestant.
Unconscious intextuality is when you create something and the audience refers it to something else, even though this wasn’t the makers intent. The best example of this is an animation I made myself for a college project [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnuOl0zd7Io]. The story was of a hamster who sees paradise out of his window and set on an adventure to reach it through the snow, jungles, and desert. At the end of the animation you find out the hamster was actually day dreaming~ he’s in a cage in his running wheel staring at a poster of the Bahamas on the wall opposite him. I finally showed this to a friend “the audience” thinking this was a completely unique idea. The first thing they said was “it reminds me of that scene from Madagascar [2005,directed by;Eric Darnell,DreamWorks Animation,USA] opening scene. I had not seen Madagascar at the time so this was a shock to me, it also proves the theory that the viewer is the person that determines if something is truly unique which also depends on there knowledge.