NEW BOY

New Boy is an Irish film distributed by NITV. It shows Joseph's difficult first day in a new school in Ireland which is very different from his previous school in Africa. Throughout the day, Joseph doesn't get on well with a boy in his class called Christian who keeps annoying him and eventually tries to fight him in the playground. The teacher tries to understand what happened but when the boys all start laughing together, she assumes the conflict is resolved and she tells them to go back into class.

Unlike most short films I have come across, there is  quite a large cast - a school teacher and her class. Usually, short films have small casts to maintain a low budget.

Another way to keep the budget of a short film low is to rent somewhere so the location is contained and the film is set all in one place. For this, the film is set in a primary school in Ireland. Due to the fact that the NITV distributed this and it was funded by the IFB, the main audience of this film are Irish and so the Irish primary school with the typical school teacher is very relatable for everyone who has had primary education in Ireland, particularly an older generation because of the old fashioned style of the building and old black boards.

The costumes are school uniforms, aside from the teacher who is wearing a knee length skirt and a jumper and shirt. There are typical school-situation costumes for today and it was made in 2007 so it was set during that time.

As usual with short films, Todorov's theory of equilibrium is prevalent in this film. At the beginning, although clearly uncomfortable, Joseph is in a good position getting introduced to the class. However this equilibrium is disrupted when he meets Christian who immediately gives him a hard time. Joseph is reminded of a traumatic experience he had where his father was killed. He gets into trouble with his teacher because he violently but calmly dragged Christian to the floor. He is about to get into a fight with Christian in the playground but this is disrupted by the teacher again and he is even more trouble. However, equilibrium is restored at the very end when all the boys laugh together at the expense of Hazel and the teacher.

The film switches between the spectator's gaze and for brief moments, the intra-diegetic gaze. In other words, we are onlookers on the school day for most of this and for short times we are experiencing flashbacks of Joseph's previous life. Most short films are shown from the spectator's gaze, we can watch on and can see everyone's point of view.

In this film there are stereotypes used as well. The teacher is strict but maternal, she clearly cares for her pupils but she is firm in her handling of them. Joseph is the new boy so is shy and nervous. Christian is the typical primary school bully, he is a trouble maker and picks fights.

Claude Levi Strauss's theory of binary opposites is apparent in this short film. There is a contrast between 'good and evil', where we instinctively side with vulnerable Joseph rather than Christian. There is a conflict between their body language too, Joseph is very still and calm and Christian is angry and fast moving. Their speech contrasts too because Joseph only says a few words throughout and Christian spouts a lot of abuse at him. In the end, adhering to the theory, the conflict is resolved.

Propp's theory of characters is also a relevant theory to this. The hero, Joseph, can be identified. The villian is Christian and the hero's aid is the teacher.

A few times throughout I noticed Kuleshov's idea of cause and effect. When Joseph is having a flashback to when his father was taken away, we assume he was shot due to the loud noise when it cuts back to reality as Joseph gets covered in milk. The order of these shots leads us to the conclusion that Joseph's father was killed although it isn't specifically said.