My Chemical Romance are why you lost sleep over "A summoning..." nods

It seemed like Planet Earth seemed genuinely stoked for the My Chemical Romance reunion show at the Shrine in Los Angeles last December. While the legion of stans who couldn’t make it settled for fuzzy cellphone coverage of the event, there was that nagging feeing. C’mon guys: There has got to be a tour.

Of course, MCR don’t do anything resembling a half-measure. That’s why “A summoning…,” the micro-movie that announced their American tour dates, felt more important than the actual LA show. That excitement came courtesy of director Kris Mercado and producers Audrey Ellis Fox and Joanna Shaw working in tandem with the band.

Read more:  My Chemical Romance nods you missed in “A summoning…”

In a recent story in Variety, Mercado said he first met the band backstage at the Shrine Auditorium. He told Gerard Way how much he admired his ability to work in all kinds of mediums, from music to comics to television production. Ellis was tasked with the roles of location scouting and casting director. (All during Christmas, no less.) Shaw’s company Unicorns And Unicorns was enlisted through Warner Music, MCR’s label.

In typical My Chemical Romance form, the band (not the label) were completely hands-on with the project. The group members and associate Brian Schechter had created the “A summoning…” script, incorporating all kinds of talismans (the demolition lovers, the Draculoids, etc) of MCR lore up to the present day. Mercado, according to Ellis Fox, “did an incredible job putting his own spin on the creative and modernizing My Chemical Romance’s history.

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“The whole concept came from the band,” Ellis Fox continues. “All the Easter eggs that the fans went crazy over, those were all placed by the band. And then Kris and I were able to do our own spin on things. Usually with music videos you sort of talk to the band through a label. But this was direct.”

At last count, “A summoning…” is reaching close to 1.5 million views and has inspired intense frame-by-frame discussion throughout MCR’s fandom. As it should. It’s the kind of greatness that happens when a bunch of visionaries get in the room.

Watch “A summoning…” (again) below.