MICHAEL GOI WEAVES A PROFOUNDLY DIFFICULT STORY IN “MEGAN IS MISSING”
Interaction with crime files and friendships with detectives fueled fire of painful subject matter that he knew had to be filmed.
By Christine Purse

Most people know Michael Goi, ASC, as an accomplished cinematographer with 50+ credits on top television shows such as “The Mentalist,” and “My Name Is Earl”.  They may also know him as the President of the ASC, a role he assumed in 2009, or from the large community of his alma mater, Columbia College, where he attended film school in his native Chicago.  But with the independently financed film “Megan Is Missing”, Goi has revealed a powerful directing talent coupled with the ability to tackle the most intense subject matter imaginable: child abduction.

During his many years of production, Michael had worked closely with police investigators as technical advisors and eventually those advisors became friends.  Over time, they revealed bleak stories from their case files.  Michael heard tales of young men and women who vanished, taken from their lives by missteps, bad luck or bad timing.  What he came to see clearly was that when a predator goes after a child, the child loses.  Compelled by stories of missing and murdered victims, he dug deeper into a number of cases.  Looking around at his friends’ children, he knew he wanted to tell the story of what happens when a child steps in the path of a determined psychopath.  He wanted to show that it can happen to anyone’s child.

Seven true-life cases form the basis of the script that Michael eventually wrote.  Among them are stories of young girls who had been snatched from their lives, or who had stumbled into internet traps that were far more dangerous than they could ever have suspected.  The youngest victim, whose story forms the tragic end of the movie, was nine at the time of her death.  Michael took in the cases and created a story that wove the details into a film.  His script follows two young girls, Megan (Rachel Quinn), 14, and her best friend Amy (Amber Perkins), 13, who have forged a deep friendship in spite of their very different personalities. What they do share, like most kids today, is a fluent use of the Internet as a lifeline for social interaction.  In an online chat, Megan befriends Josh, (Dean Waite) a 17 year-old boy who tells her that they share a friend at her school.  On the night that they arrange to meet in person for the first time, Megan disappears.  In the midst of the media frenzy over her disappearance, Amy contacts Josh to talk about the case.  Within a few days, Amy also disappears.  Like other pieces of the story Michael has woven, this scenario is based on a true case.

In order to tell their tale, Michael knew the children had to sound true and real, so he made a deal with several of his adult friends and their kids.  “The parents trusted me and allowed me to hang out with the kids, listen in, tape them at parties, at raves, and in groups.  The deal was that no matter what I heard, it stayed with us and never got back to their parents.  That ability to hear how kids really talk to each other, or text each other, gives the script an honest quality.”

One of the constraints that Michael had envisioned was shooting the entire movie from the POV of the various mobile, computer and web-based tools that the girls were using.  Their phones and computer chats form the bulk of the movie, which lends a startlingly intimate, deeply affecting feeling to the film.  The audience is in the room with the girls, young actresses whose innocence and inexperience translate perfectly into the characters of two girls who really can’t envision the world into which they’ve fallen. 

As he was finishing the script and contemplating the next step, Michael’s longtime friends and colleagues Mark Gragnani and Melanie Harrison decided that they wanted to produce “Megan Is Missing”.  They set a budget, self-financed the movie, and production began.  The rules of Michael’s POV photography – the audience would primarily see what the girls saw or wrote - became a strong suit in the production design.

The end of the movie is an extended scene shot from the handheld video camera that Amy was carrying when she was taken.  The killer walks with it, swings it around, and eventually puts it down, unwittingly, (or with intent) documenting the rest of the action.  Whether he knew it was turned on or not is secondary to the impact of the chilling imagery.  The cast is pitch perfect in every way, young actors who took on difficult roles with bravery and who deliver moving performances. 

“We took the limitations of budget, time (I only had two weeks off between projects), and the youth of our cast and made them into positives.  Keith Eisberg and Joshua Harrison shot the movie, and had to get their heads around shooting quickly and without lights, in a very documentary style.  The actors knew in very clear detail what we were going to shoot and I worked with them to make sure they were completely ready for the scenes.”

“Megan Is Missing”, is the work of a committed, powerful new director in Michael Goi.  It has attracted supporters such as Marc Klaas, founder of KlaasKids Foundation and father of Polly Klaas who was kidnapped from her home by a sexual predator and murdered.  Michael, who has been compelled by the stories he read and studied, hopes that this movie brings a heightened awareness to children and parents alike.

CREW

Writer/Director - Michael Goi
Producer  - Mark Gragnani
Executive Producer - Melanie Harrison
Cinematographers - Keith Eisberg and Joshua Harrison
Co-Producer/Editor  - Michael Goi

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