The directors of the films "Emma" and "Clueless" use a range of film techniques to highlight the themes of the texts. Diarmuid Lawrence and Amy Heckerling explore the themes of marriage and matches, distortion of vision, social and moral responsibility, and the importance of self-knowledge. A detailed analysis of four parallel scenes in 'Emma' and 'Clueless' show how film techniques are utilized to help convey meaning in a text. Film techniques that Lawrence and Heckerling employed include lighting, mise-en-scene, dialogue, setting, music, flashbacks, camera angles and camera shots and juxtaposition. These film techniques assist the audience in fully understanding the meaning being conveyed regarding the themes during pivotal scenes in 'Emma' and 'Clueless'.
In terms of the theme of marriage and matches, both Lawrence and Heckerling use film techniques to highlight the main concern of the protagonists Emma and Cher, which is to make matches. Lawrence highlights Emma's choice of Harriet as being heavenly, and emphasizes this by creating a halo effect around Harriet's head when Emma first sees her in the church. This also adds to the idea that the matching of Harriet and Mr Elton is perhaps a match made in heaven. Similarly, Heckerling utilizes this lighting effect by giving Tai a halo around her recently dyed red hair, which was done in Cher's "make-over" of her. Both Lawrence and Heckerling use the scene settings of the church and the schoolyard to emphasise the importance of the contexts of the action and the importance of the communities in which they live. The dialogue in both instances to describe Harriet and Tai include the adjective "sweet", echoing each other in terms of what they are saying about the person and their match with the Elton character. Thus, both Lawrence's and Heckerling's exploration of the theme of marriage and matches is emphasized by the use of carefully chosen film techniques.
