Evaluation 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When planning our film we decided that our main protagonist would be a female, we decided this as girls seem to have more problems than in comparison to young men and we found it hard to base our story around a male teenager. We found when doing research into our film that Abby is a very similar character to 'Sam Montgomery' from the film A Cinderella Story. Both of the characters are very shy and easily intimidated, as well as this both of the characters have a keen love interest but both are too scared to tell their love interests this.


As you can see from the pictures above, both of the characters are portrayed as shy and introverted. We wanted Abby to be like the character Sam, although we were unaware of the character Sam in the film until we did some research into teen drama films. Abby and Sam are very similar, although they are both shy characters they are both very pretty but both have very low self-esteem and don't believe that they could be liked by their love interests, as both of them are very modest.


Although the characters have quite a few things in common they are also quite different. Abby is an English character in an English film going to a sixth form, whereas Sam is an American character in an American film going to college. As well as this, the two characters are quite different in the way that they view life, Abby and Sam are both very ambitious but Abby has a clear view on where she wants to go in life whereas Sam wants to go to a specific university but can't imagine this to be possible.

As well as the similarities between the characters of Abby and Sam, the character Ella is very similar to the character 'Lily Moscovitz' from the film The Princess Diaries. When planning our film we wanted Abby to have a character who would be seen as her best friend. We wanted this character to be extremely outgoing and a fun character and this is how we came up with Ella, who is very similar to Lily Moscovitz. Both characters are very confident and are both the best friend of the main character in the story.


As you can see in the above pictures, both of the characters have very similar facial expressions whilst they are conversing with their best friends. Both characters are very excitable and keen to speak to their best friend. This is shown by the enthusiastic smiles on their faces which are shown throughout both films. As well as their personalities, both characters are similar in age as they both attend school. They are both very chatty and sometimes tend to forget about the feelings of their best friends, un-purposely of course but this can tend to cause some friction in their relationships.              
                      
Again, although the characters are very similar they are both quite different, The Princess Diaries is an American film with American actresses and actors whereas Beyond Closed Eyes is a British film with British actresses and actors. As well as this, although they both attend school Lily attends a private school and has to wear a uniform whereas Ella goes to a public sixth form and doesn't have to wear uniform.