Elevator Music

In this short, two people board the world's longest elevator. After a short period, the woman pulls out her phone and begins playing music over her speakers. In response, the old man pulls out his phone and plays classical music. They take turns increasing the volume to try and drown each other out, until another woman boards. After a moment the new woman pulls out her phone and begins playing electronic music. The screen fades to black and we see the elevator crowded with people, all playing music on their various devices loudly. The elevator stops again to let on a man with a large boombox on his shoulder. Everyone puts their music away, assuming he's going to blast music and drown them all out. Instead, he puts in a tape and then plugs in his headphones to listen respectfully to his music. The girl smiles at the old man and the short ends.

I have experienced people playing their music out loud in public, which strikes me as incredibly rude and strange. While it was rude for the girl on the elevator to start playing music, the old man and everyone else who enters takes the interaction a step further. They escalate the situation until everyone is stuck in a small elevator surrounded by people playing loud, cacophonous music over each other. It makes the entire situation unpleasant for everyone. I think the message is that you don't have to retaliate or escalate a situation, and by doing so you make the situation worse. At the end when the man with the boombox comes in and uses earbuds to listen to his music, he chooses not to engage in the situation which stops everyone from continuing their behavior.

I think that the audience for this short could be very broad since I interpreted the message as something that could apply to everyone. But I think it was aimed more at young adults and up.

All of the music played is different styles, and the people in the elevator are of diverse ages, genders, races and cultures. Trying to drown out one another seems competitive, like trying to prove that their experience is better than someone else's. But they are all able to stand peacefully together at the end of  the short despite their differences after kindness and respect is demonstrated by the man with the boombox.