Our task this week was to depict the last movie, tv-show, or book that we watched or read using only emojis. I used the website www.emojikeyboard.io – I should note that we could not write anything orthographically. Can you guess what I watched?
I found this task quite challenging actually. I wanted to make sure that I was being truthful and actually using the last movie, tv-show, or book that I watched or read. I had three options and went back and forth between just two of them. At first, I thought I could use the words in the title, but I couldn’t find any emojis that I believed would translate well without breaking the rule of doing something orthographically. Within the first word of the title I chose, the viewer would have most likely known right away, so I had to be more creative. I then switched back to my other choice and tried it with syllables. This worked, but when I tested it out on some friends, they associated the emojis I was using differently than I did. If the viewer doesn’t understand the expression I might be using, let’s say a multi-syllable word broken down into two emojis; i.e. Spider emoji, Man emoji, for Spiderman, then the emojis are rendered useless for this particular viewer. Their association with the various emojis is important in order to get my point across. In the end, I opted for a combination of ideas and words for both the Title and the Plot.
I decided to start with the title but ended up using some of the ideas from what the plot was. This made doing the plot a little easier I think because I had it in my mind already. I like starting at the beginning, which, when I think about it is a little backward based on how most movies, tv-shows, and books are written. I’m pretty sure it all starts out with an idea for the plot.
When I did finally decide on what I was going to choose, I did it because there was more oomph to it than what I could have done with the other two options. More information in the plotline, relevancy, and popularity at the moment. I’m interested to see what people come up with and would love to know if they would have done it differently.
Show me what you got.
Is it 13 Reasons Why? I was stuck on this one for awhile, but the tapes are what led me to (what I think is) the answer!
You’re correct!! The tapes were a good call then!
13 Reasons Why?
I haven’t read or watched this show but I’m guessing this because of the cassette tape.
Yes you’re correct!!
I also agree with the above posts (13 Reasons Why). I really appreciate how concise you were with your emoji story. I believe that you got the foundation of the plot across with a lot of fillers. Also, I think you made a great choice not including the number (13) in the title as this did allow for a little more mystery in your story.
Kelvin
Thanks Kelvin! I definitely didn’t want to include the number as it would have been a dead giveaway. If you didn’t know of the show prior to this I think it would have been difficult to determine.
Hey Sasha,
So I don’t think I’ve watched this series, but 2 things out of your reflection really resonated with me. The first was being truthful about media you had actually consumed; I very much felt the same way when making my selections, and similarly jumped around a few options before settling on one. The second is that I also tested it out with friends. I didn’t make any adjustments to my emoji story, but felt the need to validate that it make sense to others first before posting it here!
I had a couple of limitations on my ability to tell the story, and then made use of two or more emojis to describe a single concept/character which I think we should call multi-syllable emojis 😀 Thanks for the thought-provoking reflection.
Really enjoyed this
Thanks for the response Jamie! Yes, it’s so important to be aware of the audience you are providing the information to, in order to ensure that it fits with there understanding and prior knowledge.
Hi Sasha,
I didn’t get it, but from the other replies I’m guessing it is 13 Reasons Why. I have never watched it, so that is likely why I didn’t get it. I was thinking it might be some show similar to final destination or The Ring where you watch a tape and are marked for death? The video tape and the skulls were what led me that direction.
I found the same thing – that this type of pictorial text language really relies heavily on context and knowing the same metaphors and references. It makes me wonder exactly how much of ancient languages done in this style (hieroglyphics for example) we actually properly understand. If we have trouble understanding each other in modern day when writing like this, how can we understand references and context from thousands of years ago?
That’s a very good point Brian! I think that there are probably many instances of us assuming we understand the narrative, context, or references, when in actuality we are missing some key information. It would interesting to see how future generations decode our text (emojis, acronyms, hashtags) and if they can get it right…
Hi All! Yes, it’s 13 Reason’s Why!