When doing this task, I found it challenging to find a way to symbolize the different characters with the limited “emoji palette” on the iPhone. I ended up watching the film while doing this assignment, trying my best to summarize nuances of the plot as it went along. I think I likely added too many specific plot details that others may not remember if they had watched this movie in the past, and were simply recalling the plot. Additionally, there were elements to the plot that didn’t have a great symbolic emoji (such as a waiter, which is surprising!).
I had to make some compromises to link together emojis to try to communicate the message, and looking back on it now, I can see how the storyline could be misinterpreted by readers. Although I primarily tried to use symbols to communicate the plot, I had to rely on specific emoji’s to represent the actions and emotions of each character: the blonde haired person emoji represents one character, the brown haired person emoji representing another character, etc. Although my intent was to describe the storyline between the characters, a reader of my emoji story may or may not interpret it in the same way. The act of transposing my interpretation of a film’s plot into images, or “reverse-ekphrasis”, as Bolter (2001) called it, leaves quite a bit of room for misinterpretation– in the way I’ve interpreted the plot into words in my mind, selected from a limited palette of emoji’s, and even further as a reader translates these emojis back into thoughts and words in their own minds. Bolter (2001) states “Although the writer and reader may use words to describe and interpret [a] pictorial message, two readers could explain the same message in different words, and speakers of different languages could share the same system of picture writing”, which explains this complexity well.
When choosing a film to use for this task, I didn’t select it based on how easy it would be to visualize. I selected a film that I have watched a few times and really enjoyed as a ‘cult classic’ in my formative years. It’s not a super popular film (although it is currently on Netflix). I think because this film follows a somewhat plausible human storyline, and doesn’t include really specific notable character roles (like super hero/action films generally do), it was much more difficult to transpose into emoji’s. After transposing the film into emoji’s, I then went back and created the title. Only after choosing the specific character emoji’s in the plot could I select the emoji’s for the film’s title. It will make sense if you can guess the film, and you have watched it!
For those that are curious which film this is, I’ve included the title of the film at the end of this blog post in white font. Use your cursor to highlight the space below to see the film’s title.
Frances Ha
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hi Lachelle,
Thanks for sharing your reflection! One of the key points you raised was the difficulty in representing nuanced details and specific plot elements with emojis. I faced similar challenges, particularly in ensuring that the essential parts of the story were clear while simplifying the narrative. The need to convey the story’s core elements while removing intricacies forced me to focus on the major plot points and key character interactions, as Bolter (2001) suggests in his discussion on digital media’s shift towards immediacy and succinct representation.
Your method of watching the film while summarizing it in emojis is interesting. I approached it slightly differently by relying on my memory of the movie’s key scenes and characters, which led to some compromises and creative choices to link emojis effectively. I also found that certain plot details were difficult to symbolize, leading to potential misinterpretations by readers. Your mention of using specific emojis to represent different characters is a strategy I employed as well, but I agree that it can lead to varied interpretations based on the reader’s familiarity with the film. When I looked over my emoji story, I felt like it was so obvious what the film was. But now I’m curious to see if others get it as easily as I suspected they would!
Looking at your story, I could not figure out the film (and was hoping I just hadn’t seen it!). I tried to look for context clues, like a white girl and a brown girl, moving to France then Japan, etc. Using these general clues, I thought I could figure it out…but wasn’t able to.
Bolter’s notion of “reverse-ekphrasis” aptly describes the complexity of transposing a film’s plot into images and the potential for misinterpretation. The process of interpreting a film, selecting emojis from a limited palette, and then having readers translate these back into a narrative highlights the interpretative layers involved.
I was hoping to not have to look at the bottom of your page…but had no choice…and…
I haven’t seen it!
Hi Joti! Thanks for your response! I think your focus on the major plot comes across well in your Emoji story. I am fairly sure I’ve got it, another one of those well loved ‘cult classic’ movies! I can definitely see how you’ve simplified the plot to its essential elements, and I think this lends well to being able to guess what it is. Less overwhelming than mine, for sure! 😀 The use of the holiday themed emoji’s helps to place the timeline of events, too. You mentioned in your post that Bolter’s concept of hypermediality was central to this task, and I can see that as well. Making reference to emoji’s used earlier in the linear storyline to extrapolate on plot concepts is a prime example of this. We both used a specific emoji to represent the main characters of the story (for you, the girl with pigtails interacts with different male characters of different hair colour). This backward/forward referencing was key to making this task work.
Thanks for your comment!