Hint: It is a recent movie.

It should also be noted that my storyline constructed on the emoji keyboard did not translate well onto the wordpress platform, requiring the use of screenshots to transfer my work. The screenshots do not share the same resolution as it did on my individual screen nor on the emoji keyboard platform, so it is heartbreaking as fine details on the emojis may be missed. Although this is a minor issue that was relatively easy to overcome, this complication highlighted the issues that occur with communication not only between persons, but also between technologies. As users may struggle in networking between competing operating systems such as Apple and Windows, software programs on the same device still can miscommunicate, and as a result, be misunderstood.

In describing the film’s plot, I resorted to utilizing well-understood and common symbols to communicate my message. As I was constructing the general plot of the film, the main struggle was in searching for symbols that could communicate specific actions, such as changes in orientation, or changes in time, or concurrent events happening at the same time. I organized my work through remediation (Bolter, 2001), which resulted in a chronological reading (left to right) to communicate events that happened in that order, and over time (up to down) to communicate new layers of specific events. I relied mostly on words and ideas that translated to single word connections. In this overly simplified form, any reader becomes a viewer, and another ‘viewer’ who speaks a different language than I do may also understand the movie plot created (Bolter, 2001). I stress the phrase ‘may understand’, as the interpretation of emoticons is dependent on cultural and lived experience. As an example, my use of the Queen’s guard with the stereotypical black bearskin was to be representative of a soldier (there was no emoji for soldier), but another audience may assume it as an Englishman. Secondly, the use of the sand timer is intended to communicate diminishing time; but another audience may interpret it as a death as the sand runs out.

I decided not to share the title of the film, as it would have translated into a single symbol that is globally understood without misinterpretation. As Kress (2005) would appreciate, the film’s title and its matching symbol would be independent of cultural assumptions related to authorship and readership.

I chose this work mainly for its recent viewing and, luckily for me, its simplicity in plot structure. I also found it extremely easy as presently available emoticons on the emoji keyboard were enough to explain the majority of the film. Should the film’s plot summary be more complex, such as multiple characters, traversing through changes in time, space, and multiple concurrent events, (such as Harry Potter or even Lord of the Rings), I do not think that there would be enough emojis present to effectively communicate its story to any reader/viewer. It is heartwarming to see that the encyclopedia for emojis continues to expand and allow for greater range of expression and identity (Burge, 2021); though its size and pace is rather lackluster compared to the growing encyclopedia we have for our individual language today.

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. doi:10.4324/9781410600110

Burge, J. (2021). 117 New Emojis in Final List for 2020. Retrieved from https://blog.emojipedia.org/117-new-emojis-in-final-list-for-2020/

Kress (2005), Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, Vol. 2(1), 5-22.