The protagonist in the film “The Elevator” is a unnamed man meant to be a stand in for the viewer similar to the main character in my Short film “Work Flow.” Both are faced with an apparent problem at the beginning of the films.. In the Elevator the problem is the amount of people in the Elevator, in Work Flow it is the essay that the MC must finish, however the true problems are both more internal. In the Elevator the MC is fighting against his paranoia and in Work Flow they are fighting against their laziness and procrastination. Work Flow is, in part, about stagnation. The Protagonist never actually overcomes their problem, only putting in a token effort at the end to avert only the absolute worst outcome. Meanwhile The Elevator’s apparent problem of the over-taxed Elevator is solved by him simply leaving it, but his internal flaw of paranoia “screws him over” so to speak with him getting trapped in a second elevator with people sick with the Swine Flu. Both end with the Protagonist entering into a worse level of “Normal” then they entered.

The Elevator keeps the focus almost always on the Protagonist, giving him slightly more light then the others in the shot to always keep the viewer’s attention on him. A similar effect will be used for the protagonist of Work Flow.

The shots in the Elevator are almost always meant to convey claustrophobia, constantly returning to the same direct shot of the protagonist being surrounded by an increasing number of people. In Work Flow the entire film will be composed almost entirely of different instances of the same shot cut together with the only major change being the protagonist doing a completely different task every cut.

Overall the visual style in The Elevator is, for lack of better terms, stable and personal. There are no particularly “artsy” shots and almost the entire video is focused on the Protagonist and his reactions, only cutting away to establish important information. (New people getting on, the floor changing, ect.)

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