Clip analysis-bullying

Micro analysis essay of ‘the girls bully Gabriella’- Waterloo road clip

In the beginning of the clip there is a medium long shot of the character ‘Gabriella’ in an establishing shot of the girl’s toilets in which we can tell it’s the school toilets as the character is wearing school uniform. To accompany this shot is a non-diegetic sound of eerie suspenseful music, which foreshadows and acknowledges the audience that something bad is about to occur. There is a match on action transition as the character walks towards the mirror, which is followed by a close up of the character fixing her uniform in which we hear the diegetic sound of the door to the toilets open. Resulting in a jump shot and medium close up of the character turning around, which cuts to an eye line match of the bullies that enter the toilets through a medium long shot. This shows that Gabriella is clearly scared. The walls are pink in the toilets, which connotates relaxation. This contradicts Gabriella’s overall feelings as she is feeling scared because of the bullies. This also, connotates femininity, which is ironic as Gabriella had the intentions of coming out of the girl’s toilets looking more presentable. However, looking unkempt as the bullies has done this to her. Also, the fact that the colour pink connotates femininity emphasises that the bullies are the opposite as they are quite masculine in how they attack Gabriella. 

The scene is followed by the diegetic sound of dialogue which is a jump cut of close up shots of the characters to emphasise their facial expression. Also, the medium long shot of the bullies emphasises that she is outnumbered. There is an over the shoulder close up between the characters to show which characters are talking to who. Then there is a high angle of the bullies and Gabriella, which is thought to be like CCTV. There are close ups and over the shoulder shots to emphasise that Gabriella is trying to leave to avoid conflict, which also builds up tension to foreshadow.  Then there is a over the shoulder extreme close up in which there is a match on action as the bullies drag Gabriella to one of the cubicles. There is a eye line match as one of the characters ‘Kacey’ watches Gabriella being dragged into one of the cubicles with a look of shock not knowing that things were going to escalate this far, which there is a diegetic sound of the toilet door slamming, Gabriella screaming and the toilet flushing several times. Then there is a high angle shot of Kacey as she looks at the other girls for help, which the high angle belittles Kacey as she has let this happen. Kacey leaves in which the door of the cubicle that Gabriella and the bullies are in are zoomed in on to emphasise that Gabriella is helpless. This creates dramatic effect.

We see Kacey pacing about in the corridor to emphasise her guilt and the fact that she doesn’t know what to do. To accompany we hear the diegetic sound of eerie music to emphasise that something is about to happen. There is a long shot of a teacher entering the corridor in which sees the character Kacey in which there is diegetic sound of dialogue between the two characters. The diegetic sound of screaming grows louder, which acknowledges the audience that the teacher can hear this. The teacher enters the girls toilets followed by Kacey in which there is an eye line match between all of the characters present in that scene. This captures the facial expressions of the bullies as they are shocked that the teacher is there. Then there is a close up shot of Gabriella to emphasise the after effect of what the bullies have done to her. We hear the diegetic sound of dialogue between the teacher and the bullies as she orders them to get out of the toilets. The diegetic sound of dialogue carries on but between the teacher and Gabriella in which the teacher feels that Gabriella must of started the conflict as the teacher has not asked whether Gabriella is okay or not.