This may be the wrong thread to bring this up, and even worse, may be a stupid comment, due to my not having followed this Script forum in particular and the other fora in general.... but I have listened to all the podcasts...(not that I can recall much of the process or conclusions now!) and I have found (I think) all of your incredible pdfs of script outlines... and I have begun looking them over.
Now, maybe I missed you considering and resolving this already, but I would like to suggest, however, that you all may have assumed quite, quite a good deal on the part of your audience. WE know, because we have the scripts, who these characters (and Valar) are.... but one has to also realize that the average viewer doesn't, er... won't!! Perhaps there needs to be some exposition slipped in... In a word, does the frame need a frame!!?
In first LotR movie FotR this was accomplished with great efficiency and effectiveness by the voice over intro narration of Galadriel (aka Cate Blanchett)... and in the first Hobbit movie AUJ with the intro by Bilbo to Frodo.... Perhaps here, since in effect the Rivendell Frame plunks us down in the middle of things with unfamiliar characters, it might be better to start with a real short similar frame of the frame with familiar characters... I know there was discussion about surprising the audience with the reveal of who Estel is... buuuut, is that really going to work? Think for a moment how JRRT himself planned to link LotR back to TH: (see "The Quest of Erebor")... our familiar hobbits are sitting around with You Know Whodalf (and in our case perhaps with Aragorn/Elessar and Elrond sitting in too!)... So what might work is just a few moments of some hobbit asking these Wise how it all began for them... Aragorn replies: Well, I'll tell you how it began for me... (looking at Elrond... as Gandy looks on amused and somewhat wistful...) And then you launch into your Estel-Gilraen-Elrond frame sequence with a morph fade from Aragorn to Estel....
But I think you will still need to sneak in some pedestrian exposition naming... Very early, Elrond needs to address Gilraen by name and vice versa... and she (or he) a couple of times address by name Estel and Arathorn...
Because I fear that without this linkage, folks are going to quickly feel little or no interest in the frame and its characters which goes on quite extensively... and that, it seems to me, would be unfortunate. What say you all?