Understanding Intertextuality
James Gunn, Writer and Director of Marvels first literally out of this world movie,Guardians of the Galaxy. Gunn took from many great science-fiction classics, these include Alien and Blade Runner, but when it comes to the development and designing of of the films exotic environments and unique creature/character design, Guardians of the Galaxy appears to gather a great amount of inspiration from none other than the Star Wars series. But Gunn has applied his own more updated and expanded version of this providing a great environment for the characters to take place in as viewers are captured by the stunning visuals of its high range of Gunn's own personal aesthetic, which was implemented into Guardians.
When Gunn was a kid, he had a lot of emotional problems as a child and struggled to fit in, often resulting in him staying home from school more often where he would develop and plan out ideas of different universes and cultures. This lead to Gunn going to his first comic-book convention in Chicago with his father, resulting in him receiving a collection of comics from another enthusiast, totalling at around $8000 back then. These books brought out the creative flare within Gunn and provided an even greater inspiration to move on to developing his own films. He began to develop his own little movies at home starring his brothers, eventually leading him to moving to New York to study creative writing in Columbia. James Gunn says "it was during that time when he began working for Troma, writing up the script for the raunchy Shakespearean send-up Tromeo and Juliet, where my screenwriting career began to gain traction". These events in Gunns' life inspired him to become the writer and director that he is today.
Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text. It is the interconnection between similar or related works of literature that reflect and influence an audience's interpretation of the text. This simple description of Intertextuality is telling us that it is the shaping of ones story influenced/inspired by another's, yet keeping their own uniqueness.
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| These images are very similar as they look as if they are from the same environment and story, yet they are not. This is showing a great example of intertextuality, as the image above is from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy where the second image below is from the Star Wars movie Attack of the Clones. In two seperate worlds yet so similar helps support my point on James Gunn gaining inspiration in development of the Guardians film from Star Wars. |
Intertextuality relates to what i am studying as i am currently a Film Student, and i too am constantly inspired by people, movies and i am in a very influential stage in my life right now where any bit of inspiration i get i often am also able to relate my works to the people that inspire me. Showing that i too have experienced first hand intertextuality when developing stories of my own. Once again i have also gained more knowledge on yet another topic which i am very happy and feel confident about who i choose to be inspired by. Not only did i develop a greater understanding through this process about Intertextuality, but i also learned a bit more about myself in relation to inspiration from the people in my industry that i look up to.
References
Understanding intertextuality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertextuality
image 1: https://cinapse.co/new-on-blu-guardians-of-the-galaxy-im-hooked-on-a-steelbook-1376257f8ce4
Knowledge on James Gunn's inspirations when making Guardians of the Galaxy: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/movies/guardians-of-the-galaxy-director-james-gunn-prepares-for-lift-off/#/0
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