How many times would you watch a movie? When it comes to the hot new thriller Searching from first-time director Aneesh Chaganty, you will need more than a few because of the number of easter eggs and elaborate side storylineshidden in the movie.
The film is about a frantic Dad, played by John Cho, searching social media for clues about his missing daughter. Many of the shots in the film are from the viewpoint of the screen, which created an early challenge of what content to use for all those side windows. To do it, Chaganty estimates writing 25 times more content than the actual screenplay just to fill those screens and managed them all in 26 different Google docs. And it’s not just noise.
All of this background content—images, email text, subject headers, news articles and headlines, text messages, and so on—are used to create parallel storylines that you will only notice the second or third time you watch. In the process, they have created a film that is redefining the rules of filmmaking and offering the rarest type of experience: something you can see over and over and always find something new.
