After enough frustration with GC, I opened Maya to start messing around with the ideas and create some forms.  Here are two early images.

The top image is taken inside the "guitar string."  The bottom shows the form of the string in it's oscillation over time, similar in movement to the juxtaposition of the two men and the old women in the movie scene that inspired my earlier animation.  Anyone know how to create a more nylon string texture in Maya?