Comments on Episode 1 Outline:
'Rivendell': There was some desire to see Elrond enter his library while Estel is playing in the hall. So, Elrond becomes the final elf who sees Estel running and playing, and this 'explains' his sudden appearance without it being overly-convenient timing, and makes the transition to the library more natural. The artifact in question was up in the air. One suggestion was a vase with a representation of Elwing on it. She is Elrond's (living) mother whom he has not seen since he was 2 years old, and thus any memory/memorial of her would be rather precious to him. It is, of course, a made-up item, though. My suggestion, given after the discussion, was that it be the silver harp we see Elrond carrying on his journey to the Grey Havens at the end of Lord of the Rings. Obviously, that object has enough importance to him for him to take it with him from Middle Earth, and I have read conjecture that this might have come to him from Maglor (his foster father). The added advantage is that it would not be destroyed, just damaged, and could be repaired. We were open to any other suggestions people might have for the artifact - anything from the history of Middle Earth that could (reasonably) be preserved in Rivendell is fair game here!
Typo: 'seized with fear'
'Elrond's Library': There was some desire to have the conversation between Elrond and Gilraen occur with Estel not present, so they could be a bit more candid about his background (mention the Dunedain). I think we had these conversations as separate scenes, with Gilraen 'fetching' Estel from the library, and then Elrond going to speak with her later to clear everything up. We can keep it the way it is written in the outline, so long as we mention sending Estel away first.
'Hall of Tapestries': This is looking much improved! I agree that we need to work on the transition. Perhaps Elrond could explain that the great deeds in the old tales are impressive in their own right, but much more interesting when you know the whole context of where these people came from - who they are, what they were fighting for, etc. Perhaps after a few back-and-forth questions with Estel (who knows he is not an elf, but is ignorant of the rest of his history), Elrond could get to the 'let's begin at the beginning' point - though it would be best to have Estel ask a question that prompts that.
I would split out the first, pre-Music, part of the Timeless Halls into it's own section ('The Ainur'?), and then begin the 'First Theme' with
f.) [This point was also meant to be VO by Elrond, as no one wants to put words into Ilúvatar's mouth and the published Silmarillion does not actually have his dialogue here.]
I agree that we need to work out the 2nd Theme - I think you have the gist of it, though, with the groups forming and the colors. Perhaps Manwë could be a leader in the 2nd theme?
As for how the 3rd Theme ends, we do want to show the vision of Arda, as they see the vision before 'Ea!' However, there was strong opposition to seeing Arda 'floating in space', so the vision has to fill the screen and be a more zoomed-in vision, showing various aspects of the world and its history, but with some sort of hazy/misty quality so that it is clearly not real substance. After 'Ea!', do we see the reaction shots only or Arda-made-real? I forget, though I thought it was the latter. . . I know we wanted to see more of Melkor's reaction shots in Episode 3, especially to the line that everything that he does will be incorporated into Ilúvatar's plan, so we have to save that and the Ainur leaving for Episode 3.
References to the Blab discussion
: https://blab.im/brian-fattorini-silmfilm-project-episode-outlines-season-1-session-1
Overview of the entire 'Timeless Halls' part of the episode
: 3:44:30 - 4:08:00 (with Tulkas interlude 3:50 - 3:55 )
Melkor/Varda conversation pre-Music:
3:33:40 - 3:38:00
The Music of the Ainur:
3:55:00 - 4:08:00
Episode Ending
: 4:10:50 - 4:15:40
(Hehe, I am silent and invisible during these segments, but clearly the people on camera can hear and respond to me I would not expect *anyone* to try to listen to the 4+ hour discussion linked above, but if you fast-forward to the indicated clips you can at least listen to what was said about those topics. As you can see, we were rushed at the end and didn't have much time to discuss the actual Music in any great detail (and none of the aftermath), but there's something there, at least.)