Thanks MB and SmileTime, both golden bits of info. I think we have it now. I am going to use the Z pattern much like that original drawing, the difference being we figured out how to do it in 3d, and I think it will require a bit less than the plan we had going, so we should be able to put a bit of polish on the assets.
concept
Using the Z-pattern thing with this angle is going to be the cake. I drew in the Z-pattern so I could place the focus points a bit better. I'm not sure what we will have in the bottom right corner, it seems like a good spot to place something but I don't want to place something for the sake of doing it, it has to add to the picture. Since that area is going to be on a beach (in the dream area, more on that below) it would have to be something that exists in his dream, or on a beach. But I don't think it really needs it. The problem we faced when we originally sketched this out was that the transition between the grey world and the dream was too ambiguous, but I sketched it out in blender (you'll really have to use your imagination to fill the gaps here).
blend
The train station will curve around to the left of the screen so we can use the polygons making up the station wall to define our 'rift'. I think if we get Janga to do some fancy dissolving particle effect and maybe have a few of the tiles/bricks floating/peeling away from the wall we can get a nice transition.
My main gripe with this is that we can't really use the particle stream as a way to lead the viewers eye through the crowd. Although it will be running directly down the middle of the Z so I think it still serves to concrete the composition.
The dream world will be a colourful beach scene. I tried to think of something that universally conveyed freedom, and was easy to make and (besides the ocean but I think UDK can handle it) the beach was the only thing that I could think of. It fits the theme, takes relatively little work and sits in with the composition well. Also I want to have some of the beach spilling through the rift and into the real world, perhaps have the character sitting on it. I think this will be a nice touch, to show how much our perception of the world around us really affects what we feel.
SmurftYours has most of the train done and it is looking great. I am working on the main characters head. I will try to get a concrete drawing of the scene done soon and from that we can create an asset list.