"Searching" is a movie published in 2018 by Sony Pictures Released and directed by Aneesh Chaganty. I researched this movie because it closely relates to my script, "The Graveyard." Both use the template/theme of an online platform.
PLOT SUMMARY
The movie tells the story of a father called David Kim, who will find his daughter, Margot, who has been missing. David tries his best by using Margot's PC, Facebook account, and email account and finding Margot on YouCast (a streaming platform in the movie) to find clues about his daughter. The detective who helps him with the case is Rosemary Vick. Later in the film, we find out that Margot has been connecting and chatting with a girl called "Hannah" on social media, which is not a natural person, and she has been missing since she decided to go and meet this "Hannah" girl. At the movie's end, the plot reveals that Vick's son, a crush on Margot, was actually "Hannah," and Vick voluntarily took the cases to help her son. Vick's son meets Margot in a car, and when Margot tries to run away, she falls down the 50ft cliff where the vehicle is. To clear all the evidence, Vick drives the car down the cliff.
ANALYSIS
I like this movie in how it reveals the plot, especially the plot twist at the end. Moreover, they were hinting, foreshadowing that plot twist to us since the movie starts through little details they put on the screen (easter egg). There are many of them, so I will point out that easter egg that revealed the movie's ending.
All the easter eggs above clearly show what happened throughout the movie. The picture of David and Margot in front of the high school has the phrase catfish in it (catfish refers to the action of faking someone's identity), plus the email from "Sev Ohanian" and the Youcast user @fish_n_chips hints from the beginning that the one who has done this to Margot is the @fish_n_chips account owner. The picture of the digital address book shows Robbie, Margot's friend, who has a crush on her and has parents working in SVPD (the police department that David contacted). Vick's Facebook cover also quotes her belief of what a mother should do (including hiding secrets to protect her son). The picture of the news feed hints that Margot is still alive because that's how she survived even though she was stuck down the cliff.
Not only the easter egg but what they do with the action on the PC screen was incredible. The camera movement, the webcam's position, how the characters moved in the webcam, the cursor's action, the character's action with the cursor on the screen... All combined and perfect the storytelling of the movie.
WHAT I CAN LEARN (how analyzing this movie will help my film)
Editing style: the way they edit the PC screen was stunning; they also utilize the glitch of the internet to hide the cut between different shots; they use a pan, zoom in, zoom out movement on the screen to tell a story and to guide audiences' eye
Content: I can learn the way they use character interaction with the device (type out the chat then delete it to show confusion; put an article about "How missing kids never been found" hidden in the background to establish David's anxiety; David change the name of the camera to "PROOF" to show how confident he is with the time he put a hidden camera in his house. I can learn how they use little details on screen and the characters' actions to make the story more fulfilling.
I am struggling with thinking about what message my characters are sending each other online; the message people in this movie send each other would be an excellent reference for me.
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