CCR essay - conventions, social groups and issues
1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
“EMMA” is a film that both uses and challenges conventions. With creating a drama film that delves into the life of a young woman living a pay check to pay check life, our film needed to demonstrate a level of predictability and familiarity, as well as something new and innovative - the team and I wanted to specifically create something raw and fresh, but not in an overwhelming way.
Common codes and conventions that we did decide to use were mostly based around genre, symbolism and technicality.
When it came to genre, the writers’ and I's initial idea was to create a hybrid of drama and comedy. However, after some reflecting and reviewing with the whole team, we decided to lean more into a serious aspect of the narrative. Therefore, our final decisions were centred around only the genre ‘drama’.
This specific genre allowed me to produce and direct the portrayal of realistic characters in conflict while on the journey to personal development. The convention used is a clearly defined narrative plot structure, portraying real-life situations with emotionally-driven characters. Moreover, since the film is plot-driven, it demands for every character and scene in ‘EMMA’ to move the story forward.
Symbolism, on the other hand, were the very subtle and seamless hints given throughout the film. These hints guide the audience towards a deeper and better understanding of the narrative and setting. For example, our mise-en-scéne provided written codes, as well as the most evident clues - such as a messy room or an outfit of a character.
The written codes were seen at the beginning of the film, which were the post-it notes on Emma’s wall. Each note was unique and read out reminders for the character, which in turn imply her disorganised life and her struggles to remember the bills that she has to pay and the dates they are due.
The hair, makeup and outfits were all subtle in order to enhance the realism of the film. Alexis Wade, the actress playing Emma, wears dark, monotonous clothes with a contrasting pale face. This helps depict believable scenarios without taking that extra step of putting hours into preparing the actors. This also allows us to portray a regular looking person that you can find a resemblance with and feel connected to.
Additionally, the messy room and bill envelopes scattered all over the place help re-establish and echo the protagonists’ own struggles and personality.
Technicality is where the camera, lighting, editing and soundtrack choices all came together.
When it came to cameras and the way they were used, multiple long, close and over-the-shoulder shots were taken advantage of. This is because the drama genre uses such shots to show the relationship of characters and their surroundings. For example, the opening shots are complementary to the rule of thirds, with the messy room echoing the situation in which Emma finds herself in. And a tilted over the shoulder angle, used in the scene with the ‘Swarovski’ store, makes the store seem more dominant over the character.
The scenes in the film are composed solely of warm yet dark lights on the screen, and these scenes are perfect transitions that express Emma’s emotional state through colours. The usage of colours perfectly matches the feelings and character traits of the protagonist throughout the film - from dark blues to match exhaustion to deep yellows depicting solace, the colour palette in the film is unique for a film of this nature, yet still follows the conventions of using lighting for emotional realism.
In post-production, the editing style we chose to incorporate was subtle with several fade to black transitions and match-cuts. This allows for the audience to stay focused on the film without fully taking into account the transitions. Moreover, we used the song ‘Solitude’ by Billie Holiday which acted symbolic by matching the record player prop in the pervious scene. The crackling sound of the record player - at the beginning of the song - also echoes the diegetic sound of the street, which enhances the ambience of the scene.
However, the film ‘EMMA’ also challenges codes and conventions through symbolism and technicality.
Acting, for example, has not been consistent to the traditional close up shots of emotions and character reveals. Instead, in the opening scenes Alexis is filmed in a way that makes her character, Emma, seem reserved and unforthcoming. It anticipates the audience to get to know more about her.
And when talking about technicality, we had no dialogue throughout the whole opening scene. Instead, we conveyed the atmosphere and setting through just foley and music - which can be seen as a very unconventional way of starting a feature length film.
When it came to representation of social groups we tried to convey young adults and the struggles they face at times due to their age. Because of society putting pressure on people in their twenties of having to know their purpose in life, my team and I tried to show and represent that feeling lost and struggling is okay. That your second adolescence is all about trial and error. We can also see a lot of media portraying success stories that are sometimes very frustrating and even unrealistic, as well as far-fetched. That’s why it was important for us to portray characters that you can sympathise with and feel connected to.
Moreover, with Women in the media and entertainment industry making a slow but steady progress in closing a universal and prevalent gender gap in this industry, ‘EMMA’ became one of the many Women-led feature films where women are both seen and heard.
Therefore, the film focuses on both class and gender inequality. The protagonist, being a woman in the working class, struggles with finding stability in her life, as well as a supportive friend group. So watch it now on Amazon Prime to follow Emma on her journey to personal development by starting to slowly take control of her life.
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