Class notes from Tuesday, 4/3

Storyboards presented.  Issues and questions brought up:

• What if the elevator was in modern times instead of the 20's/30's?  Then it will more clearly indicate that the guy has been with the elevator for a long time.

• How do we clarify more that he's retiring instead of him dying or it's just changing of shifts?

• What if people got onto the elevator at different days, progressing up to the guy's retirement day?  Say, a month in advance, then a week, then a few days, then the day of retirement?

• Again, how do we clarify that the guy hasn't died?  Perhaps someone says, "See you in a bit!"?

• Perhaps people are props and you don't really see their faces, only the old guys.

• A person in a more contemporary uniform replaces the old guy so you know it's someone younger and newer.

• We can think about other people and other fantasies.  These are just placeholders.

• Why would you torture such a nice guy?  Right now it seems like a punishment more than his retirement reward.

• How do you convey that he can go back when he wants to?

• How do you convey that he's had his fun and is ready to go back?

• Maybe there's a "DING!" signifying the elevator has arrived on his "floor" but the doors don't necessarily open.

• Going from the previous comment, maybe he can hear the "DING!" and he's about to put on his hat, but then decides he wants to fish a little longer, so he puts down his hat.

• The guy shouldn't be so bright and cheery and energetic.  He can still be a nice guy and polite, but you can see that after 30 years, he wants to take a vacation and go somewhere.  He's not mean; he's just tired.  Very subtle.

• Is there a chance to step into the new world that the people are going into?

• Perhaps if we go into the fantasy world (camera-work wise) we're drawn in as the audience into this world, music surrounds us, as well as the scene, but this is cut short at the sound of the gates, and the doors closing off our visual clue.  Drawn into the world, but then it's closed on us so we're back in the elevator world.

• How do people envision the credits rolling?

• Crayon world - is it a literal translation of the girls drawing, or is it what the old guy interprets?  The old guy doesn't really need the girl's drawing --- it's more for the little girl to feel helpful by giving it to him. He humors her by looking at it but he really already knows.

• Plane transition - how?  Change of clothes?  At what point does it change?

• What exactly is the ritual going from old guy to new guy?

• Should he pick up people on the way?

• Perhaps he goes to the boat, and it's not really the elevator that he misses, but his special gift that he would give to people. 

• Some appeal to the jazz scene being something normal and the realization of something magical happening, at the point when we're introduced to the little girl.

• This seems like the movie "Xanadu" (located at http://us.imdb.com/Title?0081777)

• How does the guy step out of the elevator?  Where is the elevator in relation to the lake?  In the water?  On a dock?