Planning: Possible Intertextuality

As I would like to make intertextual references to recent horror movies, I felt it was important to research these movies and pick out features that I may be able to utilize within my video.

The Purge is an American action-horror franchise, consisting of four films and a television series. The films are based on a future dystopian America, where all crime is made legal once a year. A key aspect of the franchise that distinguishes itself from others is the use of terrifying masks that are worn by the participants of the purge. I could potentially create my own masks that pay homage to those within the purge.

It (also known as It: Chapter One) is a 2017 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti, based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Stephen King. The film is set in the summer of 1989 and tells the story of seven children in Derry, Maine, who are terrorized by the eponymous being, only to face their own personal demons in the process. Red balloons are used throughout the film in various frightened methods. I could implement this somehow as they are iconic to the demonic character and are instantly recognised.

Get Out is a 2017 American horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele in his directorial debut. It stars Daniel Kaluuya as a young black man who uncovers a disturbing secret when he meets the family of his white girlfriend. This film is very current and audiences have greatly praised it. Therefore, it would be great to pay homage to. The whole concept of the film is something I would like to incorporate within my video, but specifically, I could pay homage to memorable scenes such as the teacup hypnotisation scene. 

Research: Intertextuality

In order to understand the importance of intertextuality and the relevance of it, I carried out some research into it.

On Wikipedia it is described as a literary device that creates an 'interrelationship between texts' and generates related understanding in separate works. This shows that it is used to show that the texts have common ground within their subject manner or genre somehow which a reader/viewer can point out and understand.

Intertextuality is also described as the relationship between different texts, specifically literary ones. Intertextuality is an important stage in understanding a piece of literature, as it is necessary to see how other works have influenced the author and how different texts are employed in the piece to convey certain meanings. This indicates that utilizing intertextuality will express certain meanings within the text that may not be clear without it.

An article online said in the 1980s that the semiotic notion of intertextuality introduced by Julia Kristeva is associated primarily with poststructuralist theorists. Kristeva referred to texts in terms of two axes: a horizontal axis connecting the author and reader of a text, and a vertical axis, which connects the text to other texts. Uniting these two axes are shared codes: every text and every reading depends on prior codes. Kristeva declared that 'every text is from the outset under the jurisdiction of other discourses which impose a universe on it'. She argued that rather than confining our attention to the structure of a text we should study its 'structuration' (how the structure came into being). This involved siting it 'within the totality of previous or synchronic texts' of which it was a 'transformation'.

This research has showed me that when trying to use intertextuality within my work, I must consider the relevance of it, and ensure that it provides further meaning to the video that may not have been made clear before.

Planning: Narrative explained

After various considerations for my narrative, I have finally come to a grounded decision of the way in which I want it to go.
Initially, the video will begin with an attractive, young girl running through the woods with various montages of the mysterious entities. They soon get closer and closer to her until she is what appears to be "captured" but we soon realise that when she wakes up in a mysterious, claustrophobic room, the woodland montage was just a dream/hallucination; hinted by the fact that we see the multicoloured, dazed overlay throughout. Also, the girl wakes up to be a different girl entirely; a less attractive girl. this indicates that the dream she had was the version of herself that she wishes to be; however, these creatures ruined this idyllic version. She is then scene to be hypnotised by these Purge mask wearing people who behave very strangely. She is hypnotised in the same way that the main character from Get Out is hypnotised; via the string tea cup. Soon after, the masked individual that we see throughout the video, takes off their mask, only to reveal that it is actually the girl the whole time. This can suggest 2 things: the first being that she has been put under mind control by these beings and is now living the way that they feel she should be; unleashing the inner demons. But secondly, it could also mean that she created this world for herself as a means of escaping her true self as she feels as though she is an outsider who doesn't fit in; but now, she has come to terms with herself and is embracing it. Hence this links with my campaign #FREETHEANIMALS as my artist encourages people to not hide away.
Although this is my true intention, I want the narrative to remain ambitious so that the target audience can offer their interpretations of the video, and can spark debate about it.

When pitching this to my focus group, they all approved of the idea and were very intrigued to see how it all pieces together and whether or not that will have this interpretation

Planning: Codes and Conventions of my case studies

After studying various case studies, it is very clear that fast paced shots and editing are a common convention of dance music videos as they are used to amplify the rapid tempo and sudden beat changes/drops. As well as this, the colour palettes tend to be very striking due to the wide array of bright hues that reflect on the emotions of the performers and the lyrics. However, there are rarely ever any strong narratives as the videos are more closely focused on the artists and the dance routines. The tone of the videos tend to be very lighthearted and happy which reflect the lyrics as dance music has the intent of making people want to dance and have fun.
I will adopt the fast paced editing style as this convention is very important when trying to capture the audiences attention and allowing the song to flow, as well as increasing the intensity of the narrative.
However I will be subverting from the bright colour palette and light tone conventions due to the fact that I want my video to obtain a horror genre, therefore i want the colour scheme to be very dark and morbid. I want the narrative to have various horror elements and pay homage to modern horror movies as this would be something that a culturally sophisticated 16-25 AB demographic would be able to engage with and recognise.

Planning: Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene will be very important in building the suspense within my video as a horror themed video needs to have an eerie look and atmosphere to frighten the audience. The location needs to be somewhere desolate and mysterious to evoke these attributes.

Hence, I have chosen to set my video in a forest. This will also pay homage to classic, cliché horror movies that follow the tropes of "girl being chased in woods" which will help me portray the narrative clearly. The woods gives off the impression of loneliness and that no one is able to help the protagonist if anything happens to them. Also, the woods is a common place to hide, which makes it all the more mysterious when the characters dressed in black and masks hide behind the trees and watch the star, plotting to capture her.

Research: Case Study 3 - Animals

Music video: Case study 3 - Animals from https://www.slideshare.net/sammorris475"