Class notes from meeting w/ Sean Friday, 4/6

• Last day, how does he feel about it?

• Didn't grab him emotionally because

• the character are too instantly likeable

• you want your feelings to take over your thinking

• connecting client to place and client to man -- these need to be bumped up as strengths

• he likes the client and is willing to make sacrifices to make them happy.  His sacrifice is what he's been doing his whole life.

• he goes through the ritual where he has to massage his hands in order to take them where they want to go (arthritis).

• His stakes (currently) aren't quite as high as we want them to be.

• There's a  conflict between it being his last day and his wish for the lake.  We want him to be happy going to the lake, but then again, he's morose about his last day.

Ideas:

• What if he doesn't know it's his last day?

• What if 3 people come on, they're dropped off, elevator automatically goes to its next stop, when the person gets on he realizes that it's his last day.

• Play both sides.  Don't set up from the beginning that it's his last day.

• He knows that some day he's going to be replaced and it's a surprise.

• Chatter box?  Is he a chatterbox?  What if the couple was?  One person wants to go here, another person wants to go there, etc.

• The sketch book.  A drawing of the couple in their world?  Someone else in their world...  It becomes a flip book of people in their different worlds.

• Downplay: grass is greener, it's his last day.

• Up-play: longing for a better world, sketchbook and arthritis

• Who is he?  Is he the type of person who knows the right place?

• he's a quiet man, efficient.  How much dialogue does he have?  minimal.

• Old guy punches in keys old-style (one finger at a time) while new kid uses all fingers at once.

• New kid all hot and fancy until he forgets to press that one button that the old man completes.

• is there a way to emotionally reveal the old man at the end?  Before old man leaves, he says to the young, "You'll do just fine."

• Is there a slogan belonging to the company that he says just as he leaves "your happiness is our pleasure."

• His fear of being replaced is relieved by person saying "I know just the place."

• while elevator's moving, he can banter with new person, "Don't worry, my first day was rough too.

• Go through the motion of pushing the buttons and then the elevator begins to move.  So during this movement time he positions himself to open the door.

• Heighten the relationship between the little girl and man.  Is she shy?

• The girl doesn't say anything the whole time.

• "Where to this time, darlin?" and she silently hands him the picture.

• Maybe she's drawing at the same time the other couple is talking.  The drawing is a picture of him and her in the elevator.

• What if he gives her a new present of a sketchbook and she gives her old ratty one to him.  It establishes a prior relationship between them.  Her old one is ghetto, like a lined notebook or something.

• Maybe girl tries to bring him with her but he says, "Sorry, hon.  I have to stay here."

• he picks up new guy after the girl.

• The elevator automatically goes there.

• He's looking at the sketchbook, elevator dings, he looks ups, and in comes new person.

• Preference that the first scene is the boat.

• Don't need to see the mechanics of elevator.

• Begin and end on the lake.

• Mirroring the opening with a picture of the boat.  So boat and elevator sound is the same beginning and end.  Elevator is a comfort sound.

• he smiles at the end when he hears the elevator come to a stop.

Visual - couple's world: energetic; girl's world: comforting; operator's world: how to reflect his personality.
Mystery
Ambiguity
Likeability
Knows clients - sacrifice
chatterbox - couple
client = place
client = man
Longing for better world
I know just the place.
Wish fulfillment
Sketchbook
Arthritis
I don't get out too much.
Quiet man.

what clothes do they wear?  same inside elevator as outside elevator?

End credits: sketchbook flipping in the wind