Rooty Toot Toot is a short film which depicts the court case of Frankie and Johnny, in which Frankie is accused of murdering Johnny after he had an affair with another woman. The film is a visual retelling of classic Jazz song ‘Frankie and Johnny’, the film uses parallels with the genre of jazz to represent each character within the film. For example, the judge and his gavel are represented by percussion instruments, the bartender is represented through the clarinet etc. The film uses the connotations of these instruments in order to characterise each person using the connotations carried with the jazz instruments, for example the judge can be seen as powerful with the use of booming percussive instruments, the bartender may come across as untrustworthy with the use of the clarinet. Even the film’s title mirrors the musical origins of the story, as “Rooty Toot Toot” is imitative of a trumpet noise. The film also features the use of colour in order to create running themes within the film. With each retelling of the murder we witness a new perspective on the events, this is reflected through the association of colours to specific characters. Frankie is represented by the colour red, Nelly is represented through the colour blue, showing that the characters oppose one another as blue and red are opposites on the colour spectrum. As Nelly tells her story, depicting Frankie as a murderer, we see the events represented using cold, dark blue colours. When Frankie’s lawyer Johnathan (represented through the colour white) retells a fictionalised version of events where Frankie is innocent, we see the scenery and even Frankie represented as white. This is important as the colour white has connotations of purity which coincide with the lawyer’s argument. This use of colours is returned to when the jury reach a verdict, as they rule not guilty. After this moment, the colour pallet turns red (Frankie’s colour) showing that she is victorious. However, as Frankie resorts to murdering her lawyer in front of the jury, the courtroom changes blue. This represents how it was in fact Nelly’s telling of events are in fact the truth and Frankie is a murderer.

The Black Dog’s Progress features the story of a life of a dog moving from an abusive home into a cruel world. The message of the film is left rather ambiguous, and intentionally up to the viewers to gather their own meanings from, however the film utilises various techniques which help to create a narrative to derive meaning from. The film literally reveals itself to the audience in stages, using small frames of looping animations which when put together create a bigger picture. The film shows the dog being rejected from his home and left to embark into a larger world.

The bigger picture is revealed to the audience at first, introducing different characters in which the dog will encounter on its journey. At a first glance, most of the imagery appears to be quite positive as inviting homes, children, rainbows and opportunities fill the frame. However, at the halfway mark, the filmmakers utilise a spotlight effect to direct the audience’s eyes to individual steps of the dog’s journey, it is here that we see everywhere in which the dog travels is met with cruelty and abuse. It quickly becomes apparent that these techniques are used as a commentary on how we perceive real world issues. For example, the audience are presented with the bigger picture and all we see is a mostly happy world, however it is only until the filmmakers literally and metaphorically shine a light on the individual moments that we gain a deeper understanding of the cruelties that occur within the world, to which most are negligent of. This revelation creates a hard-hitting message audience realises that they were blind to see the horrors of the world before it was shown to them.