Waterloo road analysis

The first thing the audience sees is a medium long shot of Gabriella in an establishing shot of the school toilets. During this there is also non-diegetic suspenseful and eerie background music which foreshadows to the audience that something bad is going to happen. There is a match on action transition as she walks towards the mirror followed by a close up shot of her fixing her uniform as there is diegetic sound of the toilet doors opening, resulting in a jump shot of a medium close up of Gabriella turning round. This shot allows the audience to gage her relationship towards the girls who enter, as she looks scared and cuts to an eyeliner match- introducing the bullies to the audience through a medium long shot.

There is a back and forth jump cut of close up shots of all the character as they are speaking to each other; this allows the audience to capture the characters reactions to the dialogue individually and add emphasis. There is then a medium long shot of the group of girls which highlights to the audience that Gabriella is outnumbered which foreshadows that if there was a conflict she would be beaten. There is then a high angle shot of the girls in the school toilets, it is shot in the corner of the room as though it is like a CCTV camera observing everything that’s going on. You can also see that Gabriella has been cornered by the girls which would make her feel trapped and scared especially as she is trying to leave to avoid conflict with the girls. But then there is an over the shoulder shot as they stop her followed by an over the shoulder extreme close up as Gabriella gets her hair pulled and dragged, this is to portray her facial expression as it happens.

There is then a match on action cut followed by an eyeline match of Kacey watching Gabriella get dragged into a cubicle with a look of concern and shock which illustrates that she didn’t think it would escalate that far. As this scene is taking place there is diegetic sound of the toilet door slamming as well as screaming and toilets flushing; this highlights to the audience that the girls are shoving Gabriella’s head down the toilet. There is then a high angle shot overlooking the girl’s toilets when two other girls who were bystanders left the toilets deciding not to intervene and help Gabriella while Kacey looks at them as they’re leaving hoping to seek guidance as to whether she should stop the bullies or conform and leave like the girls. After Kacey leaves there is then a zoom in on the door for dramatic effect as to emphasise the screaming. The eerie music is playing in the background which could portray suspense as to whether anyone will help Gabriella or not.

Kacey is standing outside the toilets indecisive as to whether to go back and help which symbolises she may be feeling guilty. There is then a long shot as the teacher walks down the corridor curious as to why Kacey is loitering around the toilets before hearing diegetic sounds of screaming coming from the girls toilet. After hearing the screaming the teacher storms in followed by Kacey with back and forth eyeline match as the characters are introduced to one another as well as capturing the reaction shots of the bullies as they are shocked and surprised from being caught. There is then a close up shot of Gabriella who is now soaking wet which confirms to the audience that the bullies did put her head down the toilet. It is then followed by dialogue from the teacher stating that Gabriella must’ve started the conflict or done something to spark it which illustrates how the teacher is biased towards the bullies as she doesn’t question whether Gabriella is okay or not but starts insinuating that it was Gabriella’s fault.

There is then back and forth close up shots of the characters as the teacher asks Gabriella if she wishes to ‘make a complaint’; as the teacher asks this, there is a close up of the bullies facial expression looking towards Gabriella as though if she says something then something bad will happen to her. It is then followed by an over the shoulder shot looking towards the bullies and Gabriella as the bullies look at her and she looks at the bullies to illustrate that she is frightened of them as she looks down after looking at their reaction before saying that she didn’t want to make a complaint as she was pressured to say this because she knew that it would only make matters worse for her.

The fact that the teacher let the bullies off for what they did portrays how biased she is to them and how even the teacher may have thought that Gabriella deserved it too. Interestingly, the pink walls of the girl’s toilets connotates relaxation which contradicts Gabriella’s emotions as she is the complete opposite of this and is terrified. It also connotates femininity; this is ironic as she has the intention of leaving the toilets looking presentable, but left dishevelled after the encounter with the bullies which contrasts with the stereotype of girls always looking well presented. Additionally, the bullies domineer is masculine and aggressive which contradicts the assumption that girls are nurturing.