Intertextuality

In a recent lesson we took an in depth look at intertextuality. There are two types. Vertical intertextuality is where there is cross referencing between two different mediums. For instance, if you click through to this link, there is referencing of a film, The Godfather, in a television commercial. Horizontal intertextuality is the opposite, where cross referencing occurs between two texts of the same medium. A good example of this type is actually two music videos I analysed further back in my blog - Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal and Alien Ant Farm's cover of it.

Frank very soon after this lesson, was able to use his musical knowledge to come up with both a vertical and a horizontal reference that we can quite easily include into our video.

For our vertical reference we will shoot our performer close-up in a half light, which, as you can see (right), can be referenced to Example’s 'Playing In The Shadows' album cover. This shot does not really encompass a great deal of meaning (i.e. it does not connote ideas that we want to get across and so forth), however it was one we had thought about using to show off our creativity and willingness to explore different shot types. Example is an artist that is known for performing songs in the dubstep genre and so the reference should be easily recognisable to a fan of the genre.

For our horizontal reference, we have decided that we will add text to our video which flashes up on screen in multiple colours. If you view the video from this link, Kanye West, All Of The Lights, you will see exactly the type of shots I am referring to, as our idea is based heavily upon the video for West’s song. We feel it makes sense to incorporate a reference such as this because there are very few words in our song and so those that are should really have their importance conveyed across to the audience, which, as you can see, is why this flashing text effect has been used in the All Of The Lights video.