‘Searching’
Year 11 Standard English
Work Booklet
Genre:
The film ‘Searching’, by Aneesh Chaganty, has been classed as a crime fiction film due to the codes and
conventions used within the plot. However, due to Chaganty’s contemporary approach to filming, the film has
been suggested to fall into a new category of genres/style of film known as screenlife. You can find out the
screenlife genre here: https://screenlifer.com/en/about/
Screenlife is where the viewer sees everything in the story through the perspective of technology. All the
events are shown and unfold through the screen.
Crime fiction - http://www.findmeanauthor.com/crime_fiction.htm
What is crime fiction?
A narrative that explores a crime and the motive for the crime. It follows the investigation into the crime,
either by a professional detective or a sleuth. The perspective is that of the victim, the criminal, or the
detective, usually. For a text or film to be crime fiction, a crime must have taken place or be believed to have
taken place. There has to be some sort of outcome - the criminal may be caught and convicted, or some form
of punishment or justice will occur.
There are a huge range of types of crime fiction - there are many sub-genres within the genre.
What are the codes and conventions for crime fiction? Research beyond the link provided above.
Setting:
Atmosphere:
Themes:
Characterisation:
Plotline:
Motifs:
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What are some examples of each of these in the film?
Setting:
Atmosphere:
Themes:
Characterisation:
Plotline:
Motifs:
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Read the article about crime fiction plots changing due to technology - Highlight
elements which have changed crime fiction.
Stav Sherez: crime fiction and the challenge of technology By Stav Sherez, January 29,
2017.
The 1990s provided a new challenge for crime writers. The widespread use of mobile phones stripped us of the
ability to put characters in danger, without hope of contacting anyone, stranded and alone with only their
inner resources to get them out of trouble. Writers, increasingly, would place characters in areas without
mobile coverage or have them drop, lose, or destroy their mobiles in an attempt to isolate them and put them
out of help’s way.
A lot has changed since then. Mobile phones are as much a part of crime fiction as knives and guns. We
learned to adapt and to weave them into our stories. But then came the next big technological advance, and
the next, and the next. The pace of technology far outstripped anything previously seen in history. Changes in
the Industrial Revolution took decades to solidify so that Victorian writers had time to re-adapt their
worldview and narrative techniques to factories and trains and teeming cities. Most modern literary novels are
not really that modern and, excepting the odd mobile phone, could be set in any decade of the second half of
the twentieth century – but crime fiction has embraced technology and absorbed its narrative possibilities like
no other genre.
When I began to write The Intrusions it was a simple, serial killer story set in a backpackers’ hostel in
Queensway. But the more I wrote, the more I realised I could not ignore technology and all its manifestations
unless I was going to write what amounted to an historical novel. And I soon realised that far from being a
problem, technology is a gift to crime writers.
Crime is always a trendsetter. And criminals were early adopters of many technological advances. In the late
1990s we began to see the email scam mushrooming through the nation’s inboxes. Phishing, Trojans, viruses
and password hacks were becoming more prevalent. As I was writing The Intrusions, a notorious adultery
website was hacked and the details of assignations posted on the net. Women were being attacked, shamed
and blackmailed across cyberspace. We’ve lived through the era of Wikileaks and Snowden. Corporate hacking
has taken on such a massive scale that it affects the GDP of nations. The recent US election has trailed a new
and sinister form of electronic manipulation through fake news stories, smears and hacks. Nixon had to send a
group of burglars into the Democratic Party’s HQ at the Watergate building to steal information. These days, all
you need to do is sit in front of your computer.
As a human being, this is pretty depressing stuff – but as a crime writer I’m excited by all these new
possibilities and the novel kind of plots they enable. But it’s not just crime that’s transformed itself.
Policing has changed, perhaps more fundamentally than at any other time since its inception. Murder teams
are no longer staffed with weary detectives tracking door to door but are more likely to consist of computer
geeks data mining for information about the victim and perpetrator. CCTV cameras roam our streets like the
eye of God in ancient fable. 95% of all Scotland Yard cases use these images as evidence in court. Technology is
far less ambiguous than other means of evidence. If you’re caught on camera doing something you shouldn’t
be doing, it’s very hard to deny it. If your emails and messages are used against you in court, there’s not much
you can say. Police sit in chat rooms pretending to be teenagers to snare paedophiles. Destroyed hard drives
are magically alchemised to reveal their secrets. Your own laptop betrays you.
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And this is only the beginning. Technology is developing at such an exponential rate that it’s hard to keep up.
But you can be certain that both police and criminals are learning how to use these new tools to their own
advantage and we, as crime writers, can only follow.
How has the genre of crime fiction changed due to incorporating technology?
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Read through the article below - Highlight key ideas of Screenlife films.
Searching Producer Developing 14 More ‘ScreenLife’ Movies.
By Grant Hermanns On August 18, 2018
Screenlife - Bekmambetov brought three screenlife films (Stephen Susco’s Unfriended: Dark Web, Aneesh
Chaganty’s Searching, and his own Profile) and boundless enthusiasm to this year’s Fantasia International Film
Festival. He refers to screenlife not as a genre but as a visual language, like found footage or conventional
montage-style editing, capable of sustaining genres inside it. Screenlife excites him because it’s a new form of
storytelling ripe for development, for discovery of new techniques.
Screenlife works because, frankly, we deal with computer screens all the damn time. We instinctively
understand the meaning of everything on screen, and not just in terms of icons and terminology. A computer
screen represents a character’s subjective point of view, as well as their inner thoughts. The manner in which
people move a mouse, or type, or arrange their desktop, or use apps, speaks volumes to a person’s psyche.
When somebody’s typing, we’re literally seeing them form thoughts in real-time – including editing or even
censoring themselves. As a result, screenlife films can be extraordinarily intimate experiences.
These movies are also, amazingly, a blast to watch with an audience. They wring enormous effect out of the
tiniest actions, drawing us into their stories just like how we become absorbed in our own computing.
Screenlife films are jam-packed with storytelling, simply because there’s so much information that can be
displayed at once. That’s exciting for filmmakers, but it doesn’t come easily.
All the traditional filmmaking disciplines come into play in screenlife. They’re just deployed in a different
manner to a conventional film, or even to animation. Scriptwriting functions as normal, except the action
describes mouse movements, and there’s possibility for peripheral writing in incidental social media posts,
instant messages, and so on. Art direction determines what we see on the computer: the desktop layout, the
images on someone’s social feed, and even – in Searching’s case – the operating system, which also helps to
signpost different physical locations and time periods. Sound can be a combination of computer audio,
ambience around the computer, or more expressionistic effects (although mouse clicks and typing sounds are
more or less mandated). “Camerawork” can encompass many things, from webcam placement to the way the
desktop is framed. With Profile, even casting was done entirely over Skype. But it’s in performance, directing,
and editing that things get super interesting.
What are screenlife films?
What are some of the benefits of screenlife films?
How is camera work incorporated into screenlife films?
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Summary- ‘Searching’ Aneesh Chaganty
The ever-versatile John Cho shows great range and takes us on an intimate, gripping journey as David Kim, a
widower raising his 16-year-old daughter, Margot (Michelle La, in her first major role), in suburban San Jose,
Calif. In sort of a high-tech version of the devastating, wordless opening of “Up,” we see David and his wife
Pamela (Sara Sohn) raising Margot over the years through a series of photos, videos and calendar entries. (In a
nice touch, fonts and graphics change as technology evolves and improves.) “Searching” smoothly and
efficiently depicts the passage of time, including Pamela's cancer battle. The film handles the tragedy of her
passing with quiet poignancy.
In the present day, David and Margot live busy lives between work and school, and they mostly communicate
through text messages and FaceTime calls. But one night, the usually conscientious Margot fails to come home
after a study group session, something David doesn’t realize until well into the next day. And here’s where the
intricacies of the technology have such an impact: We can see all those unanswered text messages from him
just sitting there, ominously, lined up in a long, green column. We can see the time stamp of the last phone call
Margot made to him in the middle of the night. We can feel David’s fear growing because ours is, too.
“Searching” takes a series of twists and turns from here as David contacts police and a full-blown effort begins
to find Margot. There’s a lot you’re going to want to experience on your own, so I hesitate to describe too
much more. But over and over again, Chaganty and Ohanian find innovative avenues into the laptop setting
they’ve established, from David working backward to determine Margot’s locked social media passwords to
the spreadsheet he creates to interrogate her friends about her whereabouts. Through it all, he remains
methodical, but his rising anxiety is inescapable. Cho spends a lot of time in medium shot or close-up in a split
screen with whatever he’s working on, so there’s nowhere for him to hide. We see everything his character is
feeling, as he’s feeling it. It’s a startling experience, as if we’re spying on him at his most vulnerable.
The arrival of a determined Debra Messing as the police detective investigating Margot’s disappearance
changes the film’s energy, providing a ray of hope. (David naturally looks up her character, Det. Rosemary Vick,
on Google and Facebook the first time she calls him, seeking traces of trustworthiness.) But the more they
uncover together, from Margot’s secret Tumblr posts to the last place her car was seen, the more David
realizes he didn’t really know his only child. It’s the sad paradox of technology, a tool that’s meant to bring
people closer together, that it also can foster such a divide. Not the most novel concept, perhaps, but one that
“Searching” explores in smart, slickly paced ways.
But as the film pulses toward its conclusion, it introduces images and information that deviate from the
premise that we’re seeing everything from David’s perspective. A narrative omniscience occurs that fills in
some holes, but it also results in a loss of tautness and focus. (I do appreciate that the filmmakers got the
geography of the Bay Area correct, though, as well as the mic flags of the local TV stations breathlessly
covering every development of the search effort.) ‘Til the end, though, we’re deeply invested in these
well-drawn characters, and whether they’ll find their happy ending both online and IRL.
In groups, develop a summary of the text. This should be approximately 300 words.
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Characters
Write a few sentences to convey who the character is and how they are involved in
the film.
David Kim
Pamela Nam Kim
Margot Kim
Peter
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Detective Vick
Robert Vick
Title: The title has a double meaning: explain in your own words what the two meanings could be.
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Film reviews
Read through the following reviews highlighting information about technology which is used in the film
and the perspectives about technology.
Review 1
‘Searching’ Film Review: John Cho Searches the Web for Missing Daughter
Director/co-writer Annesh Chaganty’s debut feature cannily explores online identity in an IRL thriller
Carlos Aguilar | August 23, 2018 @ 5:47 PMLast Updated: August 23, 2018 @ 6:20 PM
Our chronic dependence on electronic
devices and their ubiquitous availability
have fully seeped into contemporary
narrative: Since the audience navigates
their daily conundrums and mundane tasks
aided by screens, so do many characters in
television and film. Today it’s not rare to
see a text bubble pop up in a movie to let
us in on a conversation happening via
instant messages or for a Skype call to be
relevant plot point.
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In first-time director Aneesh Chaganty’s
groundbreaking digital mystery “Searching,”
however, this practice is maximized to
previously untapped extremes. Computer
interfaces stop being a storytelling
accessory; instead, they offer the entire field of vision. The silver screen mirrors the leading man’s desktop —
and later all other gadgets used during his mission — as if connected via HDMI cable.
Saturated green pastures and an idyllic blue sky in the opening shot announce we are in the Bliss default
wallpaper of early 2000s Microsoft’s Windows XP. This is the Kim family’s computer where their precious
memories are stored. Irreplaceable photographs, videos of momentous occasions, treasured recipes, and email
exchanges are arranged in a poignant montage that leaps around between three accounts: David Kim (a heroic
John Cho), Pamela (Sara Sohn, “Sense8”), and their daughter Margot (played as a teenager by Michelle La)
Intercutting a myriad of clips with supporting visuals and fitting excerpts for this introductory segment is a
phenomenal editing feat from Nick Johnson and Will Merrick — their work throughout is exemplary — resulting
in a concise conduit to dispatch exposition. Before “Searching” has hit the five-minute mark, we’ve already
learned that Margot has been taking piano lessons since she was a young child; that her mother battled cancer,
went into remission, relapsed, and, alas, passed away; and that David is silently struggling to attain closure.
Without warning, Chaganty negates any prospects of viewers interpreting technology as mere utilitarian
instruments; their humanistic value always takes the spotlight. “Searching” is not interested in the machines and
networks for their own sake, but observes the jubilation, anxieties, aspirations, and deviant behavior channeled
through them. Screens here are an extension of the human psyche, and thus the film’s design avoids gimmicky
simplicity.
Self-appointed “Father of the Year” David is under the likely inaccurate impression that he and Margot, now 16,
enjoy an above-average relationship sustained by honest communication. They chat multiple times a day and
watch “The Voice” together, but they never openly touch on the shared loss that has caused an unuttered
fracture between them. Each mourns alone under the same roof.
It’s only when Margot goes missing following a late-night study session that the emotionally anesthetized parent
reckons with the cruel realization that he ignores most aspects of his child’s life. At this point we switch to
Margot’s laptop (a MacBook), which she left behind and is David’s sole portal into her social habits and,
potentially, information on her whereabouts. Detective Dad deciphers passwords to access vital social media
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accounts, alarmingly unveiling the picture of a lonely girl concealing plenty of cryptic secrets. Margot, as he
knew her, doesn’t match her online persona.
“Define ‘friends,'” one forthright adolescent requests of David during his amateur investigation, not an
unfounded inquiry considering how superficial bonds born on the internet tend to be. Count how many
Facebook contacts you’ve actually met in person and how many of those qualify as more than acquaintances.
Diligently working on the case, Detective Vick (Debra Messing, in a rare movie role) functions as David’s
sounding board and unfaltering ally, even when desperation sets in and the once understated man is overrun
with paranoia. Revealing anything more would spoil the engrossing process for the carefully planted details to
blossom into mind-blowing revelations.
Still, an unsurprising outcome is how Cho’s heartfelt and wide-ranging performance transcends the intricate
mechanics of this software-operated piece. Too often relegated to enliven supporting characters with his
charismatic presence, the actor makes the most of this opportunity to display the subtlety of his skills as a father
turned vigilante. Messing, who carries the second-most substantial part, plays a stoic variation on her turn in the
crime comedy “The Mysteries of Laura”; she is ultimately convincing, even if one-note.
With the exception of the perplexing visual artificiality of multiple broadcast news videos in the third act — as
opposed to the organic stylization of interactions meant to look like webcam footage — the execution in
“Searching” is an anomaly in its inventiveness to find solutions that can keep us engaged in spite of the
claustrophobic set-up.
Chaganty and co-writer Sev Ohanian refrained from facilitating a cautionary tale centered on the unspeakable
dangers that lie ahead with every click. Their approach concentrates on experiences that are collectively
understood in relation to modern artifacts and how they transform our codes of conduct.
Early on in “Searching,” self-doubt is implicit in a close-up of David typing and deleting a message for Margot
about her mother. His face is not on camera, but the space bar moving back and forward is enough for us to
understand. Similarly, the notion that an exclamation point can be misconstrued as anger makes for a comedic
yet telling observation about our online language rules.
Unavoidably, “Searching” might prompt concerned adults to closely monitor their teens’ activity on popular
websites and even beyond that. Nonetheless, one can hope for an outcome in which, rather than inspiring
anyone to implement surveillance as a preemptive measure, this exceptionally astute suspense flick can
persuade us to uphold compassionate dialogue as the best analog safety feature.
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Review 2
In 'Searching,' director Aneesh Chaganty takes audiences deep into the screen Director/writer Aneesh
Chaganty on the set of "Searching" with star John Cho
By Traci G. Lee
Aneesh Chaganty is no stranger to unconventional storytelling. Before he got his dream job making
commercials for Google and before his first feature film took home the top audience award at Sundance, there
was “Nug.”
“I cannot believe…” Chaganty said by phone during a day of press for “Searching,” his directorial debut. “I want
to tell every one of my high school friends when I made that: ‘Who would’ve thought I would be talking about
‘Nug’ now?’”
The 5-minute short film – his first short film ever shown publicly – tells the story of a gun entirely in reverse. It
took home his high school film festival’s award for Best Short Film (he still has the award on his desk) and the
11-year-old video currently sits at less than 2,000 views on YouTube. But while Chaganty admits the details of
the plot are confusing, for “Nug” to exist as part of his origin as a filmmaker makes sense. “I see a little early
version of myself in that film in trying to do something that was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time,” he
said. “In a lot of ways, that’s been the core of everything that I’ve done that has gotten me attention up until this
point.”
The 27-year-old California native, who credits his love for film to his parents and said he grew up captivated by
director M. Night Shymalan’s work, first gained attention in 2014 with the ambitious short film “Seeds.” The
video, which was shot entirely on Google Glass and contains no dialogue, chronicles one man’s journey to
deliver an envelope containing life-changing news across the globe.
“Seeds” went viral within hours of going online and led to an invitation for Chaganty to join the Google Five, a
team of young creatives based in New York City out of the Google Creative Lab. There, he wrote and directed
commercials rooted in emotional narratives while highlighting how Google products can improve daily life.
That background was key in developing what would become Chaganty’s “Searching.”
Making its debut at Sundance, “Searching,” which was co-written with Sev Ohanian, is a thriller about David
Kim’s (John Cho) efforts to find his missing daughter Margot (Michelle La) with the help of a decorated police
detective (Debra Messing) and clues left behind on his daughter’s internet history.
The film is told entirely through screens, from computer desktops to security cameras to YouTube videos. At
one point in the film, David Kim stumbles across a Reddit thread devoted to finding Margot that also suggests
he should be considered the primary suspect in her disappearance. It’s reminiscent of similar witch hunts that
have taken place online (see: the mistaken identity chase after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing), but
Chaganty is careful to point out that technology is not the evil force in “Searching.”
“So much of technology is portrayed negatively, but at least from my experience, none of the engineers who
make technology and none of our actual daily uses of it feel as negative as its portrayed,” he said.
While “Searching” isn’t the first film to use screens as the sole device for storytelling – that concept can be first
seen in the 2014 thriller “Unfriended” (produced by Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov, who also worked
as a producer on “Searching”) – it was one that Chaganty worried could be seen as a gimmick if not executed
properly.
John Cho stars as David Kim in "Searching," a thriller about a father's search for his missing daughter. “The
production company that was funding this film wanted to make a movie that took place on a computer screen
and for a long time, we just kept saying ‘no’ to that opportunity,” Chaganty said.
It wasn’t until two months after their last “no” did the answer come to Chaganty and Ohanian: a 6-minute
opening montage that introduces the audience to the Kim family and their journey from Margot’s birth to the
events that shape the father-daughter relationship that frame the rest of the story. Viewers experience the arc of
roughly 16 years in a series of “Up”-like vignettes through home movies, iPhoto albums, and milestones marked
by calendar events.
“All of a sudden it felt like we had an idea that was not only emotional, engaging, and cinematic, but something
that would make you forget that what you were watching was on a computer screen,” Chaganty said. “For us,
that was the big directive toward what we wanted and it felt like something we were making was being made for
the first time.”
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Chaganty’s next challenge was convincing Cho, who he and Ohanian wrote the part of David Kim for, to come
on board the project. “It was tough,” Chaganty admitted. “You know, I was just a kid who left his job at Google
and who’s never made a movie of his own.”
Although Cho initially turned down the role, Chaganty said an in-person meeting helped convince the “Star
Trek” actor it was a project that would work as a cinematic experience. “It wasn't going to be a Youtube video. It
was going to feel like movies that I grew up with, and he grew up with. And I think that's what we made,” Cho
told NPR’s Sam Sanders.
For Chaganty, the long process to get “Searching” onto the big screen is paying off: Since its Sundance debut,
“Searching” has received mostly positive reviews and a handful of accolades at Sundance, including the NEXT
Audience Award. It was acquired by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions after Sundance and, after a limited
theatrical debut on Aug. 24, will open nationwide on Aug. 31 – notably capping off a month of milestones for
Asian Americans in Hollywood (“Searching” will be the first mainstream thriller to star an Asian-American lead).
“I will never make another movie that takes place on a computer screen,” he said firmly. “I don’t want to be put
in a box for a concept like that… so that’s the last time I do that.
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Changes in the way the actors act...
Watch the interview with the actors who play David and Detective Vick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9kktXzdgq0
The two actors talk about the difference in filming ‘Searching’. What were some of the differences in the
filming?
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How could these have assisted in creating authenticity?
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What were the concerns of the director in creating a film through screens?
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How are the personalities of the characters captured through the film? Think about the actress who plays
Margot and the idea of cursors and text.
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How does the director explain the cursor as being an actor?
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The audience’s knowledge of technology plays a part in this role. Describe why this is important.
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What would your computer say about you?
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Themes
In set groups, you will analyse ONE of the FIVE Themes; identity, social connections, unveiling the truth,
deception, or suffering.
Your theme will be assigned to your group. Analyse the theme in detail using the prompt questions below.
Consider creating a short slideshow or other visual presentation to accompany your spoken analysis of the
theme. Once the analysis of the theme has been completed your group will present that analysis to the rest of
the class.
You all need to be writing down notes and ideas presented by the other groups about the themes you have not
yet studied.
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Multimedia and social media platforms
Now we need to explore the use of multimedia and social media platforms in the film ‘Searching’. For each
of the following you need to respond to the following question: what is the purpose of the social media or
multimedia platforms used in the film?
Screen desktop:
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News footage:
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Email:
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Tumblr:
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Instagram:
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Facebook:
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Facetime:
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Google street:
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Google maps:
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YouCast:
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Reddit:
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Venmo:
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Analysis
Film Technique and Example (you
can go back to the film on
Clickview to take screenshots of
examples of techniques to include
in this table)
Explanation of how it is used in
the film
How does this convey
contemporary possibilities
Screen desktop -
News footage
Email
Tumblr
Instagram
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Facebook
Facetime
Google street
Google maps
Mouse movements and typing
YouCast
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Sound effects
Diegetic sound caused by source
on screen.
Non diegetic sound is a noise
which does not have a source
on-screen, they have been added
in.
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Essay Scaffold
As technology evolves, new opportunities emerge for composers to produce and convey meaning through their
texts.
In your prescribed text, how does the composer use distinct textual form to produce and convey meaning?
Introduction:
Technology progressions allow composers to revamp and create contemporary texts. By revolutionising texts,
audiences are able to connect with and engage in the ideas in new ways. In the film ‘Searching’ directed by
Aneesh Chagnanty, Chaganty has recreated how audiences engage with the crime fiction genre through a 21st
century screenlife film. The codes and conventions typified in crime fiction are depicted through the themes of
suffering, deception and unveiling the truth. These ideas however, are conveyed through the advancement of
technology used in the film and the methods to which they are used to develop strong characters and thrilling
crime fiction plot. Chagnanty has captivated audiences through experimenting with technology and embracing
new opportunities to create contemporary possibilities to audiences and alternatively other filmmakers.
Paragraph 1 - Suffering
Point about how suffering is presented through technology
Example: Find an example from the film which conveys suffering…
Technique: what technology is conveyed how does the director show the example in the film
Analysis: How is this conveying meaning to the audience in a modern/ contemporary way?
Example: Find another example from the text which conveys suffering...
Technique
Analysis
Link
Paragraph 2 - Deception
Point about how deception is presented through technology
Example: Find an example from the film which conveys deception...
Technique: what technology is conveyed how does the director show the example in the film
Analysis: How is this conveying meaning to the audience in a modern/ contemporary way?
Example: Find another example from the text which conveys deception...
Technique
Analysis
Link
Paragraph 3 - Unveiling the truth
Point about how deception is presented through technology
Example: Find an example from the film which conveys deception...
Technique: what technology is conveyed how does the director show the example in the film
Analysis: How is this conveying meaning to the audience in a modern/ contemporary way?
Example: Find another example from the text which conveys deception...
Technique
Analysis
Link
Conclusion - Wrap up the three ideas you have talked about and draw back in the director and the film. Do not
introduce any new ideas.
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Focus questions
Using the focus questions jot down some ideas and examples from Searching that relate to the question.
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How can ICT texts engage us and shape the way we understand our world?
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What can ICT texts offer their audience that traditional text mediums cannot?
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How do digital and internet technologies affect the way that people access and engage with ICT texts?
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What role can ICT texts play in our increasingly globalised and information-driven world?
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How can ICT texts encourage people to better understand one another?
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