Task 6: An Emoji Story
Task: Using only emojis available in your texting app (either mobile or desktop), write the title and describe the plot of the last movie, TV or book show that you watched or read.
My Emoji Movie & Plot:
Reflection
As someone who uses emojis a lot to communicate in short-form, I thought this would be a relatively easy task; it was and it wasn’t. It was easy in the sense that I knew which emojis I would probably use throughout my plot description, so I did not have to spend much time wading through page after page of emoji images. I started with the title because (in the case of this particular movie) it is a near exact translation from text to emoji. I did not choose the work based on how easy it would be to visualize, though; I chose the movie that I watched last night so it would be fresh in my mind and I knew I wouldn’t forget any major plot points.
In hindsight, I wish I had chosen a movie with an easier plot! Whereas the title line is the only place where the two emojis represent two distinct words, the rest of the plot was too complicated (and would have been too long) for a word-for-word translation. Instead, I tried to convey ideas and scenes in each line based on motion (who did what), rather than syllables or words.
I started by creating the opening scene (lines 1-2) and the end scene (the last 4 lines), then filled in the middle by adding a single emoji for each major plot point that occurred. Then I went to each of those single emoji lines and filled in those lines to capture what the entire plot point was. It was difficult to convey the intricacies of dialogue and conversation, and I also chose to leave out a lot of the details that connected each major plot point because it felt too crowded on the screen when I tried to do so and I still felt the overall story was still ‘told’ without those smaller details. However, I will say that those smaller details were the most interesting part of the story for me and what makes me want to revisit this story again and again (I’ve read the book and seen the movie a few times before). I also had to improvise when it came to representing individual characters using the limited job and clothing emojis available.
Even though I maintain that I successfully conveyed the plot according to a plot structure diagram with emojis, it is lacking what makes the full story special and unique. This is similar to my experience with the voice-to-text task – I found that both stories lost their magic through the translation process. I felt constrained in my ability to tell both stories to their full potential because I was missing an important component (visual or auditory), which aligns with Kress’ (2000) notion that modern text-makers are closer to conductors composing a complex orchestration (p. 160).
Is this Angels and Demons? It’s been a VERY long time since I’ve read the book or seen the movie, but I think what I can gather from the plot fits with what I recall (and the title seems like a strong match, I’m not sure I would have come to that guess without it).
Yes! I agree, the title of this story is an absolute match which is really the only thing that makes understanding the plot below possible 🙂