Searching - Digital Cinema: 1999-
In an article for Wired, Brian Rafferty describes the production history of Aneesh Chaganty's Searching:
"It was 2016, and Aneesh Chaganty was fumbling through the most important phone call of his barely-begun career. The young filmmaker had been given 15 minutes to convince actor John Cho to star in Search, a mystery about a father trying to track down his missing teenage daughter. The characters’ ordeal—and their entire relationship—would be told via a series of screens, as its hero uses everything from Facebook to FaceTime to Reddit to solve his kid’s disappearance.
Other films have taken the same web-centered approach, like 2015’s horror hit Unfriended, but Chaganty wanted to do something different: 'The Memento of screen movies,' he says. For Cho, however, the concept didn’t click. 'It was the first time I’d spoken to a celebrity in my life, and I completely botched the call,' says Chaganty. 'I didn’t tell him we were trying to do something new. His hesitation was that this wouldn't be a movie movie—that it would just be a YouTube video.'
Chaganty, 27, didn’t give up. He still had Cho’s number, so he decided to text him, to see if they could get some actual face-time together. The two eventually met for coffee in Los Angeles, no longer separated by a device. 'He sat down, and I stood up and just pitched my ass off,' Chaganty says. He wound up selling Cho on the film, and a year and a half later, Search was screening at the Sundance Film Festival, where it would win multiple awards—and be scooped up for $5 million by Sony’s Screen Gems division. Newly retitled Searching, the movie opens today in several cities, following a highly promising limited-release opening weekend.
Co-written with Sev Ohanian—who produced Fruitvale Station, Ryan Coogler’s breakout debut—Searching is the latest film to deftly employ small-screen habits to tell a big-screen story: This year alone, there’s been the speedy text-message chain that kicks off Crazy Rich Asians; the soul-baring YouTube videos of Eighth Grade; and the parent-baffling emoji-missives of Blockers. It’s a marked change from the countless goofy interfaces and Finder-Spyder searches that dominated movies and TV shows starting in the ‘90s. Now a new generation of filmmakers, many of whom came of age in the digital era, are finding ways to ensure the online experience is presented as IRL-ish as possible.
'Ever since [1998’s] You've Got Mail, people have been this trying to figure out how technology falls into a story,' says Chaganty. 'House of Cards was one of the first shows to have text messages pop up, and that was revolutionary in its own time. But I think the success stories we’re seeing now is because people are saying, ‘How can we keep it accurate and realistic, and still serve the tone of the movie?’'
In Searching, Cho plays David Kim, a recent widower who’s constantly in touch with his only daughter, Margot (Michelle La). When Margot doesn’t come home after school one day, David begins scouring her online life—Venmo transactions, Facebook friends, livestream archives, even old Tumblr posts—in an attempt to figure out where she went. He also enlists the support of a deeply concerned detective (Will & Grace’s Debra Messing), whom he communicates with largely by FaceTime.
Much of the early part of the film plays out on David’s computer, including an opening montage that condenses the first 16 years of his daughter’s life, as well as the final years of his wife’s cancer battle, into a series of clickable videos, calendar events, and email exchanges. It’s a niftily constructed and unexpectedly moving sequence, one that serves as a reminder of just how much of our existence plays out in front of us on-screen.
Chaganty began thinking about filmmaking when he was 8 years old, having seen a photo of writer-director M. Night Shyamalan in the newspaper India West. 'I vividly remember thinking, ‘He looks like me. I want to do that,’' Chaganty wrote in a letter he posted to Twitter last week. As a middle-school student growing up in San Jose, California, he began using hand-me-down, slightly outdated cameras he’d been gifted by his parents, two movie-loving software entrepreneurs. Chaganty made home movies with titles like The Shed and The Attic, inspired in part by the no-budget short films Shyamalan had made as a kid. 'I thought, ‘Oh, he made movies using the means I have now—which is no means,' says Chaganty. 'Those really got me into filmmaking.'
He and Ohanian, 31, first met at University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Afterward, the two collaborated on Seeds, a touching short-form travelogue shot using Google Glass. Chaganty would end up working in the company’s Creative Labs division for two years until quitting his job to pursue Searching. 'I called my dad up after I started at Google, and told him about my day,' says Chaganty. 'He was like, ‘Awesome. But remember: You’re coming back here to make movies.’' They’ve been very much, ‘Don’t chase a paycheck, chase your dream’ since I was growing up.'
While writing Searching, Chaganty and Ohanian took in as many crime-culture artifacts as possible, from the big-screen version of Gone Girl to Netflix’s Making a Murderer to episodes of Serial. Because the movie takes place on screen, the two wrote what they called 'a scriptment'—essentially a 50-page outline featuring dialogue and action descriptions, but downplaying the technical specifics.
'Early on, we realized this couldn't be a script that said, ‘INT. — GOOGLE CHROME — FACEBOOK — TAGGED PHOTOS — NIGHT,' says Chaganty.'If you're trying to convince actors to be in a movie, that’s the worst way to do it.' And while the film itself was shot in less than two weeks, Searching’s editors spent months putting together the David Kim’s on-screen world: 'Every single asset you see‚—whether it's a line of text on a text message, or an email window—had to be created from scratch.'
The glut of online ephemera in Searching means the filmmakers were able to spread hidden in-jokes, clues, and messages throughout the film—including a nod to the man who unknowingly helped launch Chaganty’s career nearly two decades ago. 'There's a moment where we log onto Facebook,' he says, 'and a news item that says, ‘M. Night Shyamalan: Filmmaker agrees to meet with super-fan director after director’s surprise cameo in film.’ Hopefully, someone will send him a screenshot, or tell him, ‘Go watch Searching.’ If so, it would give Chaganty a near-perfect twist ending of his own.
Click on the play icon to access the streaming video. Trailer to Searching
ESSAY
Digital Cinema 1999-
I was lucky enough to see Searching (2018) in 2018 when it did the national film festival circuit. It was presented at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival on April 9, 2018 and had a question and answer session with director Aneesh Chaganty and co-writer/producer Sev Ohanian.
I’ve kept a film festival blog for years and I blogged about my impressions of this thriller film which used digital technologies and the director question and answer session.
I wrote that the first half of the film with the computer screens technology was interesting but seemed like it lasted for two hours. When they moved away from doing the narrative on the screens in the last part with the conclusion and action scenes with Debra Messing and Jon Cho I really enjoyed that part but it felt too quick. I wish they could have had the discovery of the crime be longer instead a post script after doing an obituary.
They did portray action scenes in the last part through media clips on the desktop but there was more acting involved instead of computer typing narrative. I’d say that my opinion has stayed the same although I was looking at the film from a lot of different angles now after this film class.
This picture shows John Cho and how I felt at this point in the movie. The neat desktop is now a mess with the files all disorganized as is his mental state. Also, he is not playing off his emotions with another actor. Those scenes worked better like the confrontation with his brother or Debra Messing.
In my film blog post I wrote that Changanty and his crew discussed the production process Link. They said that they used 25 editors and about $400,000 in computer equipment to make this film. 85% of the film was shown on computer screens. The process of coordinating all the editors and working with PCs they said was exhausting and they would never do it again.
Here is a picture I took during the question and answer session with the creators at the film festival. John Cho is not there. Here is another picture I included in my blog, a screenshot of the SFFILM Instagram page with a close up of director Aneesh Chaganty. It’s ironic that I’m also using digital technologies of a blog, my cellphone and Instagram in the making of a paper on digital technologies.
Per the Wired article by Brian Rafferty, Chaganty grew up taking videos and experimenting with cameras. He was influenced by M.Night Shyamalan. “Chaganty made home movies with titles like The Shed and The Attic, inspired in part by the no-budget short films Shyamalan had made as a kid.” He went to USC where he met Ohanian.
I mention this because he is different than Oren Peli from Paranormal Activity (2007) who got into film to make money and was lucky. Chaganty worked hard. He discussed his in-person pitch to John Cho and I could see that he was very charismatic and told him that they wanted to use a Korean family to show a film with diversity. I think that had a lot to do with Cho’s decision to do the project and also they were able to get him between projects. John Cho brought the clout that made the film be able to be sold as a regular feature film in cinemas. John Cho was also nominated for Best Male Lead for the Independent Spirit awards, so I think it worked well for his career too.
During the q and a they compared this new format of film to the break out film Tangerine (2015) which was done on cell phones. I also saw this film (Tangerine) at the SF film festival in 2015 and blogged about it Link. I quoted this from the film festival program about Tangerine:
"The film was shot entirely on several iPhone 5S cameras (with a prototype adapter lens). The end product combines intimate wide-angle photography with a saturated palette as colorful as its central characters and a soundtrack as vibrant and varied as the neighborhood."
In the q and a of Tangerine one of the filmmakers said that he watched Vine videos (which I don’t think is around anymore). One Vine clip had music he liked that was made by a 17 year old. They reached out to the Vine star to buy it from them and he just gave it to them. This was part of the film’s soundtrack.
It shows you that with digital gives everyone access and opportunities.
Robert Keitel
Hi Ida
Thank you for personalizing your experience with director Aneesh Chaganty's Searching debut at the SF International Film Festival in 2018. What a special opportunity to connect what we are studying to your life experience.
Your comment on Oren Peli is right on. From the interview I read, Peli came off flippant and not a serious film maker. I have not followed Peli's career so maybe a bit pre-judging on my part.
In my reflection, I am interested in the "product placement". I used "You've Got Mail" from AOL. Maybe $5 million changed hands? Also AOL restricted how their product was used.
How did Chananty handle this situation? Were there payments from the different search companies? How did he handle the use of these companies' products in his film?
Thanks for your insightful discussion.
bob
Hi Bob,
That is a really good question about product placement. I don't think they were slick enough or had enough clout (sp?) to get sponsorship on their first feature film which didn't have distribution at the time they made it. They probably had to get permission to show the companies that they used to search and place in the movie - is just my guess. It wasn't brought up.
From Robert:
Hi Ida
So exploring John Cho, I discovered the Harold and Kumar films! A series of bad taste parodies. The Film is titled Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Product placement at its best. Quite a contrast between John Cho in Searching and the Harold and Kumar films.
Bob
Andrew OConnorWatts
Hello Ida! I agree that the moments in the beginning that are mostly screen moments did feel like they dragged on for a bit, however I thought the movie worked surprisingly well considering the limitations imposed by the formal design. I do feel that it didn't need to to rely so heavily on the formal structure and might have benefitted from only using it in certain instances. The fact that it was used pretty much throughout, did feel a bit gimmicky to me, but ultimately worked as a storytelling device in this instance.
Don Gonzalez
Hi, Ida!
The resolution may seem "rushed" but personally, I felt that it was just right. I just wanted Margot's ordeal to be over. I felt I just wanted her to be well and alive, even if she was injured! Hehe. Knowing she made it was enough for me because if she did not survive it, I would really be disappointed. In this regard, the film fits the "Happy Ending" predictability Hollywood is known for. In a way, I was kind of expecting that they would really find her "alive" - and I did figure that out when I "cheated" and saw that there is still a lot of time on the counter. The suspenseful score we hear as David is about to shut down Margot's computer but stopped and saw this mysterious image of a lake is also a hopeful give-away.
By the way, thank you for sharing your first-hand experience meeting the director. It's definitely an enviable position to be in! I would also bookmark your blogsite. I'm impressed! I know I'd learn a lot of stuff there. Thank you for sharing, Ida!
Ida
Digital Cinema
Searching (Aneesh Chaganty, 2018)
Aneesh Chaganty's Searching (2018) grabs to me on many levels. I am a big fan of the thriller genre. Searching holds together from start to finish. First, I am captivated by the Asian family life and the tragedy of Pam's death in the first 15 minutes of the film. That’s just the beginning. The theme of a grief-stricken father unable to communicate with his daughter is compelling. Now let's add the technology. The daughter disappears and the search begins. The technology of searching through emails and social media networks is truly impressing impressive. The use of technology in checking banking accounts, in connecting cameras to the daughter’s whereabouts, in connecting to friends, in identity thief, money laundering and other nefarious activities captivated me. The use of technology really enables an effective thriller genre film.
This screen shot from Searching captures the layers of computer search tools while including John Cho intensity as a distraught father. This technology strengthens the thriller genre experience of the film.
Now let's go back to the early days of techonology in the comedy You’ve Got Mail. Two people unhappy with their current relationships start to surf the net. Just like in Searching, they are anonymous in their social media names.
“Using the screen name "Shopgirl” (Meg Ryan), she reads an email from "NY152"(Tom Hanks), the screen name of Joe Fox, whom she first met in an "over-30s" chatroom.” (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2020) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27ve_Got_Mail)
Finally, they agreed to meet, and the comedy continues to develop. So on and so on and so on… This is not my type of film, but it demonstrates early computer technology as an intricate part of this comedy genre. (Movie Classic Trailers (2014) You've Got Mail (1998) Official Trailer - Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan Movie HDhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjP4s7UUnK8)
Searching used social media networking and internet search tools effectively without appearing to be gimmicky. In contrast You've Got Mail appeared slow and gimmicky. Even the sound of the You’ve Got Mail notice was not shortened or cut. It dragged on taking away from the action of the film. Maybe AOL paid for this commercial!
In earlier chapters we read about product placement as a means of developing revenues for the movie maker. In You've Got Mail, what was AOL's fees for product placement?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dudJjUU9Nhs
AOL picture and product placement screen shot.
AOL spokeswoman Pam McGraw denied widespread rumors that AOL paid in the range of $5 million for its part in the movie. "We're not getting into the details of the business arrangement," says McGraw. "Nora [Ephron] came to us, saying 'I want to use AOL' and we agreed because we wanted to make sure AOL is portrayed authentically in the movie." (Weaver, J. (1998. Dec.) AOL's got a marketing hit. https://www.zdnet.com/article/aols-got-a-marketing-hit/)
Likewise, in Searching many names in social media such as Google, Facebook, and other social media networks were mentioned, were fees paid?
In conclusion I was impressed with Searching on a different level. Aneesh Chaganty as an East Asian American was able to break into Hollywood, casting a Korean American family in a thriller is genre and attracting John Cho in the leading role. This diversity is really remarkable for a new film director. I highly recommend and enjoy this film.
Student's post i replied to:
Hello Robert,
Wonderful analysis. I was also very impressed with the pro-active diversity chosen for this film which could've been risky for him. They could have used any race as the computer actions could be done by anyone. Mostly though someone in Silicon Valley. I think this film is also a testament to the adept computer knowledge and type of modern family in Silicon Valley.
Some of the most touching scenes were when the (deceased) mother was showing the daughter how to make family home made Korean food, then the brother asking for it as well.
It seems to me like the next time Mast and Kawin update their text, there will be a new chapter on the breakthrough of diversity in film with the new cinema we've seen like Black Panther (2018) and Crazy Rich Asians (2018). They are a start in the right direction.
Robert's Response to me:
Hi Ida
I was really hooked on the family emotional development. a lot was packed in the first 15 minutes. then the thriller began.
Bob
I Also commented to Don Gonzalez;
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