Media texts are written or presented peices of information some for entertainment and other for educational purposes. “Emma” is a novel written by Jane Austin, it was written in the year of 1816, then, was later developed into a film in the year 1996. “Clueless” is a modernised adaptation of “Emma”, “Clueless” was released in the year of 1995. The two films” target audiences” are totally different.
The target audience of “Clueless” is teenagers as it instantly grabs the audiences” attention in the opening sequence, but “Emma” does not really appeal to teenagers, “Emma” seem to have the impact on teenagers, that “Clueless” does, “Emma” also doesn”t seem to be as interesting as “Clueless” to teenagers in the opening sequence. The sound tracks, music and voices are just as important as the backgrounds, colours and settings which are used to show effectiveness and also due to the types of music composed for certain audiences. The sound track of “Emma” is very slow and motionless, totally unlike the sound track of “Clueless”.
The sound track for “Emma” is composed by Rachel Portman, specifically for the film, but the music in “Clueless” is taken from The muffs Kids in America and from David Bowie Fashion Girl. The voices used in “Emma” are verry different to those in “Clueless”, you realise this in the opening sequences as, in “Clueless” the main character, Cher talks direclty to the audience, she says, “So, okay your probably thinking is this like a sea commercial, but actually I have a way normal life, I get up, brush my teeth and pick out my clothes”.
If the character of “Emma Woodhouse” was to say this she would sound more formal and say something along the lines of, “you are probably wondering is this a sea commercial or something, I actually have a normal life, I wake up, brush my teeth and get dressed”, this sound more formal than what Cher says, so already this tells you about the target audience. Cher talks as if she is talking to teenagers, this is what suggests that the target audience is teenagers. So basically Emma Woodhouse uses recieved pronounciation, but Cher uses slang.
Thier ways of talking also vary, Emma uses more traditional and a vary formal way of talking but again, Cher uses slang most of the time, if not all the way throughout the film. The characters of the two films differ too, as most of the characters in “Clueless” are teenagers, unlike those in “Emma”, the characters of “Emma” have a mixed age group. The characters in “Emma” are very aware of how they speak and also consider who they are talking to, whereas in “Clueless”, Cher and all the other characters talk to eachother in the same manner that they would talk to their friends in.
Although the voices and sounds of the two films are important, The genre of the two films is varied, as “Clueless is a romantic comedy, but the genre of “Emma” is just romance. The reason why I think that “Clueless is a romantic comedy is because the film has lots of humourous features and the film is not too stressful and serious. “Emma”, however, has a more serious approach to it, it only features a minimul amount of humour and is only based on romance.
In the openening sequence of “Emma” you instantly find out that the film is set back in the olden times and that the people it may feature will be living in grand houses, you realise this as when the globe moves is shows houses an residents, living just in the Highbury area of London, this suggests that “Emma”s” world does not go outside London, she also has the pictures of the residents of the homes painted on the globe, she has her at the end of the globe, this suggests that she thinks of herself as the most important person in her life, she has all of the “Emma” characters painted in order of importance.
Teenagers watching the film often think that “Emma” does not have a proper meaning to it, this suggests that the target audience is not teenagers. In “Clueless” however, the audience is instantly interested in the film, this makes me personally think that that the target audience for “Clueless” is teenagers. The two films use very different presentational devices, like colour, types of text, etc, another input to interest certain audiences. The camera shots used in the opening sequences and throughout the two films are widely ranged.
The first camera shot used in “Clueless” is a high angle shot to show teenagers, Cher and her friends in their jeep. The first angled camera shot used in “Emma” is a close up shot of “Emma” is a close up shot of Emma Woodhouse talking to her governess on her governess”s wedding day. These two camera shots were very effective, as you can see the actual characters and you get an impression of how they are. The importance of a camera shot is very effective but props are just as, or even more important.
The clothes that Cher wears are the normal modern teenaged girls type of dress sense, unlike Emma Woodhouse, she wears more old fashioned types of clothes, to show the settings of the time in the film, this backs up my opinion of when the two films were set. “Clueless” is eye catching due to the bright colours and a lively set of sound tracks with a colourful background. “Emma” has a dull background and does not use bold writing to show effectiveness; it has a more traditional font of writing in the opening of the film introduction.
The opening sequences differ in many ways. The main difference between “Emma” and “Clueless” is the setting, although the two films are filmed recently, they”re settings suggest different timing for them, this suggests that “Emma” is a more older film, however, infact, this is not the case. Overall the two movies, “Clueless” and “Emma” have both been successful as media texts but in their own ways, due to the fact that they are both aimed at different target audiences, their methods of presentation are also very different.
The colours to introduce the two media texts in the introductory parts of the film are very compositional and unique, to back this up i would like to suggest the difference between the background in the title of the opening sequence of “Emma”, as it is with a dull an old fashioned/ traditional style of writing, unlike the background and colours used in “Clueless”, they are bright and bold to make an impact on the audience and to interest the audience in the film. Both of the two films were successful in their own ways as media texts, the target audiences were different for both of the films, this is why they are successful in their own ways.
