Waterloo Road Clip Analysis

I will be analysing a few camera shots used in a recent episode of Waterloo Road where Tariq was upset and no longer feels that life is worth living for so he tries to drown himself in the middle of the lake. 

The first camera movement found at the beginning of this clip is of Tariq rowing the canoe boat, as he rows away the camera starts tracking to the left allowing the audience to see a long shot of him moving towards the middle of the lake. The camera then begins to zoom in slightly which shows the audience Tariq's wheelchair, by having the wheel chair in this shot makes the audience think and question if he’s going to be alright alone in the middle of the lake. Also this shot is very dull and uses a lot of grey this may also suggest Tariq's mood, this is known as pathetic fallacy as the weather is forecasting his emotions as he is upset. The camera then moves to a mid shot showing Tariq's face and him rowing. In this shot you can see that the camera lens has bits of water on it which tells the audience that he may be rowing quite aggressively. 

The next shot you can see that it’s in a school building as it’s a long shot of students in the middle of the corridor. There is then a close up of Angus' face as he may be the reason why Tariq wants to end his life. Another close up used in this shot is of Scout; this close up is very effective as it is telling the audience that she is being serious whilst talking to Angus about him ending his life. After the bell rings there is a mid shot of Chalky walking towards them, this shot is in focus on Chalky whilst he is speaking to the kids. 

The next shot is back at the lake where you can see Tariq is alone in the middle of the lake not moving anymore. There is a close up of Tariq's face where you can see his emotions; this allows the audience to have sympathy towards him because he is going through a rough time. The music in the background also highlights his emotions, which also makes the audience have sympathy towards him. In this close up the camera is in focus and everything else around him isn't its all faded into a slight blur. The camera then moves to long shot where you can see the canoe and it starts dollying into him where he throws his paddle into the lake. An extreme close up is used in this shot to show him un-zipping his life jacket. This creates tension because he has already thrown his paddle in the lake by this you can see that he is going to throw the life jacket as well which makes the audience have sympathy towards him because he is actually going to try and drown. A long shot is used to show Tariq alone again in the middle of the lake, the camera then begins tracking to the left again, 

The last shot is when Tom (teacher) and Michael (head teacher) are running towards the lake, this shot is a 'two shot' and 'moving subjects walks into space'. Having these two shots tells the audience that something is happening because they are walking very nervously and fast, this also adds tension to this scene as we don't know what is about to happen. When they see Tariq a long shot is used to show him in the middle of the lake. A close up is used twice in the space of 2 seconds as it shows Michael and Tom's facial expressions when they see Tariq alone.