MOTHER: We begin with the "sleepwalking Asuka" scene, where Shinji almost kisses her and she calls out for her mother. Immediately after he says, "You're still just a child", the acoustic guitar begins.

This song's AMV consists of various characters enumerating their doubts and fears to the MAGI, searching for some sort of solace in the cold logic of the supercomputer's calculations. However, the MAGI has other ideas: "Mother's going to make all of your nightmares come true. Mother's gonna put all of her fears into you."

GOODBYE BLUE SKY: Here, we confront humanity's tendency to screw things up royally, and look at the damage Second Impact has caused, both immediate and the kind that doesn't show itself but hurts all the same. "The flames are all long gone, but the pain lingers on."

EMPTY SPACES/WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW?

We begin with the scene where Misato chews-out Shinji for disobeying her in the fight against Shamshel. At the end of the scene, we get an accomplished pull-out on the single frame and cut into Gerald Scarfe's original "Flowers" animation.

Here are the "What Shall We Do Now?" lyrics, with character sections.

Shall we buy a new guitar?--Unit 01's new gun
Shall we drive a more powerful car?--Misato's car, obviously
Shall we work straight through the night?--Gendo, Ritsuko, Misato, Kaji
Shall we get into fights--Asuka
Leave the lights on? Drop bombs?--Members of UN/JSSDF
Do tours of the East? Contract diseases?--Unit 01 shot, after eating the S2 Engine
Bury bones, break up homes, send flowers by phone?--Photomontage of Gendo, the Eva Graveyard, and Yui's headstone w/flowers
Take to drink, go to shrinks--Misato again
Give up meat, rarely sleep--Rei
Keep people as pets? Train dogs? Race rats? Fill the attics with cash?--not sure yet, but I'll think of it.
Bury treasure, store up leisure but never relax at all with our backs to the wall--Again, not sure.

Comparison shot of Screaming Pink Doll and Eva 01, after eating the S2 engine.

[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]
^^Screaming Pink Doll
-------------------------------------------------------------
[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]
^^Eva Unit 01, supplied from the Wiki page.

Just a coincidence I've been mulling over for a while. I admit there's a better shot of 01 that looks more like the Pink doll, but I can't find one.

YOUNG LUST: This one goes out to Asuka as she arrives in Tokyo-3 for the first time. Despite the boys and their fawning over her with the words, "Oooooh, I need a dirty woman", they don't even bother to look at the pain behind her carefully-cultivated "dirty girl" image. The AMV acts accordingly, having much fun with showing her surface persona and the deeper pain behind it. Instead of the telephone conversation from The Wall, we end with Misato listening to Kaji's final message (not sure if this works, but even so....).

ONE OF MY TURNS: We possibly begin with a live-action representation of Misato trying to comfort Shinji after Rei's "death". I say live-action because we need a seamless transition into the opening lyrics. Cut to the AMV just as she tries to take his hand, and dissolve into a series of clips: Rei slapping Shinji, Asuka kissing/suffocating Shinji, Unit 01 screaming, etc. on the sustained guitar effect, and then go into a shot of Unit 01 going berserk on Shamshel as "Run to the bedroom" starts. The footage is really violent, graphic and most of all vicious, using the "Shinji strangling Asuka" footage on the guitar solo. The final line ("Would you like to call the cops?") could feature Shinji threatening to blow up NERV HQ, and we could use a clip of Asuka on "Why are you running away?"

DON'T LEAVE ME NOW: This should really be a Gendo/Shinji duet, with Gendo singing to Yui, and Shinji singing to everyone else who's "run away". We need to reuse Yui's tombstone and the strangling scene, and introduce the bit where Shinji's watching Misato and Kaji having sex on "How can you treat me this way...running away..."

I have an interesting idea on what can be done with the guitar solo...a mashup with The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." Naturally, this is set to Asuka getting mindraped by the beam of light and other stuff. I leave any potential editors much leeway except for my own suggestions.

PartyHard wrote:I've just watched The Wall movie. Good luck and bring on the mindfuck.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Keep us posted.

ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL, PART THREE: I love what was done in the Berlin 1990 show, with that little transition between "Don't Leave Me Now" and this. With the interlude, we can use shots of the "stage" sequence from Episode 25/26 (the director's cut versions), and then the stage area begins to break up in time to the scream and the "TV being smashed" sound effects. The lyrics go like this, performed by each member of the band:

Asuka: I don't need no arms around me!
Rei: And I don't need no drugs to calm me! (composite shot of Rei and her pills)
KAWORU: I have seen the writing on the wall[i]
Shinji: [i]I don't think I need anything at all...No! No! I don't think I need anything at all!
ALL TOGETHER: All in all it was all just bricks in the wall. All in all you were all just bricks in the wall.

EMPTY SPACES: No AMV here, just the lead performer singing:

What shall we use to fill the empty spaces/Where we used to talk?/How shall I fill the final places/How shall I complete the wall?

GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD: Rei killing herself with the N2 mine as the lead singer sings.

INTERMISSION: A specially-designed "EVA Power Timer" pops up with the word "Intermission" underneath it, counting down from 30 or 45 minutes.

HEY, YOU: The band has left the stage for now, and is playing the music from behind the screen. With Rei's death, Shinji has completed the wall, and is now going mad. I can't think of anything else to say, except for the fact that the lyrics match the visuals.

At the guitar solo, EVA 01 comes crashing out of the big ball, spilling the thing's blood everywhere. He's escaped from one prison, but something reminds him and us:

"But it was only fantasy...The wall was too high, as you can see...No matter how he tried he could not break free...and the worms ate into his brain." (Here we use shots from "The Lilliputian Invader" to represent the worms of decay.) Suddenly, Shinji lashes out at the world, begging Rei and Asuka to help him, knowing that the only way to save themselves is to join together.

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?: Shinji gets sucked into the Big Zebra-Print Ball in the Sky (I can never remember anything except for the first three Angels...) and is all alone in the sea of Dirac. We use the scene where EVA Unit 01 rips itself out of the big ball as a contrast to the quiet acoustic guitar solo.

NOBODY HOME: This one takes its music from The Wall 2000, a tribute album by Danish band "Out of Phase". The version in question begins with violin/viola/cello instead of a piano, and we can use the "concert" scenes from Death + Rebirth as the visual.

This is Rei III's melancholy theme as she looks at all the things--physical, material, philosophical, and psychological--that she has inherited from Rei I and Rei II, both deceased.

VERA: Shinji, fast asleep and listening to the original 1979 version of this song on his SDAT player, begins to dream. He looks upon a vast, devastated landscape (the ruins of Tokyo-3) as Roger wails, "Vera! Vera! What has become of you? Does anybody else in here feel the way I do?"

I'm really not sure about what exactly to do on that one, so if anybody else has another suggestion, I'm open to it.

ANOTHER SUGGESTION: This one could be Fuyutsuki wishing for an earlier, more peaceful time. His thoughts of Yui become tangled up in this desire as he asks, "Vera! Vera! What has become of you?"

BRING THE BOYS BACK HOME: We use clips from Episode 26--specifically, the "CONGRATULATIONS!" scene--and shots from the scenes involving the graveyard where Yui is "buried". All in all, this one has the most potential to be something truly heart-wrenching. The music here is a slightly more extended version of the original 1979 album version, but leaving out the repetition of the lyrics as featured in the movie, and retaining some of Berlin 1990's orchestration (though it's all done on a synth).

COMFORTABLY NUMB:

We begin with the "I Hate You!" sound effect loop from...Episode 25, is it?
I think we could put this over a live-action shot of a NERV Ambulance heading to the apartment complex as some Men In Black emerge, led by Kaworu.

Kaworu walks on stage, and, upon seeing a near-lifeless Shinji (based upon all that's happened to him prior to that point), takes Roger's "doctor" part, while Shinji takes David's "Pink" part. On the line, "That'll keep you going through the show/Come on it's time to go", Kaworu hands Shinji a suitcase containing the Gendo costume for the fascist rally (it's a bit more "rock star's costume" than "military uniform").

During the second guitar solo, the AMV consists of EVA 01 and 02 duking it out on the way to Terminal Dogma, while two guitarists with red and purple guitars perform a duel, representing the EVAs. With thanks to JCMoorehead for the idea, a red disco ball shines, representing the beginnings of Instrumentality.

On screens 2 and 3, we get the image of Shinji in his schoolboy's uniform gradually giving way (thanks to some "ripple" and tearing effects) to the image of Gendo. This is cut in between live-action footage of the Shinji actor opening the suitcase and putting on the Gendo costume as Kaworu looks on as if to say, "You now have the power". The final shot is of Shinji/Gendo putting on the little round glasses.

LIVE-ACTION INTERLUDE (I'm not going to get this exactly right according to canon, I know, but it's the feel I'm going for in terms of this project.)

(We are in the iconic holographic meeting-chamber where Gendo and SEELE talk about the Instrumentality Project.)

RED: How are you coming along with Instrumentality, Commander Ikari?

GENDO: All is ready. We only need to activate the final command sequence.

GREEN: Excellent work. Your research has been commendable, though your actions have left much to be desired.

[*the telephone rings, and Gendo answers*]

GENDO: Hello? They're where? Good. I shall arrive shortly.
(to the committee)
The surrogate band has reached the stage. The public awaits my address.

(The other committee members fade away, leaving only Gendo and Lorenz)

LORENZ: Good luck, and Godspeed, Commander Ikari. Nihon prevails.
(LORENZ fades away.)
GENDO: Yes, Co-ordinator.

(Gendo stands up and opens the door. He is bathed in white light as the opening of "In the Flesh Part 2" begins.

IN THE FLESH, PART 2

If the first "In the Flesh?" was Let there be light, then this is Let there be dark. An image of the Japanese flag dissolves into NERV's new insignia: a white-on-red circle with two crossed hammers arranged in a croix sinestre. Black-and-white photos of the actor playing Gendo appear on the screen, like those old propaganda pictures of Stalin.

I'd like the backing video to portray the Gendo actor on SEELE video monoliths like something out of 1984, or, if not that, the actor and band being filmed at the altar of a Megachurch as this terrifying sermon/address is being issued.

RUN LIKE HELL

This song's dynamic is reminiscent of a rave scene, complete with strobe lights, lasers, smoke generators, and a gas-masked DJ (?!). The AMV consists of JSSDF personnel invading NERV headquarters and laying waste to the people working there, the scene with Misato and Kaji making out as Shinji looks on (during the second verse), and, my own personal favorite, a bunch of naked Rei clones in the aquarium, dancing provocatively, but with an unsettlingly mechanical look about them (blank expressions, oddly stilted movements, almost as if they're doing it against their will).

During the ending keyboard/guitar solo, the doors burst open, and a bunch of JSSDF personnel actually invade the theater, sweeping their guns across the aisles and looking threatening before exiting out the back at the song's conclusion.

One problem I have with the album version of this song is that it's too slow. "Run Like Hell" really needs to have that frantic chug-chug-a-chug-chug-a-chug beat behind it to give it a sense of real urgency and anger. Controlled anger, in this sense, as we don't want this becoming a runaway train.

WAITING FOR THE WORMS

Gendo does the "Eins, zwei, drei, ha!" count in Japanese as Shinji comes up onto the stage, taking his seat in an Entry Plug replica as his father sings the beginning part. (It goes, "Rei, ichi, ni, hai!") The lights on the EP prop flash (synchronization) as Gendo's voice becomes distorted through a megaphone. Instrumentality has begun. Horrific images of violence and brutality play as Gendo and NERV perform the "Waiting..." chant.

The "Rising Sun" animation from "In the Flesh, Pt. 2" plays, along with images of the MP Evas descending, as an altered line is sung: "Would you like to see the Morning Sun rise again, my son? All you have to do is follow the worms!/Would you like to send our other brothers [the Angels] home again, my son? All you need to do is follow the worms!" (On the second line, we cycle through images of each Angel to drive the point home a bit further, holding on Kaworu.)

During the guitar/synth orchestra solo, we are treated to an AMV of Asuka fighting the MP Evas, which cuts back and forth to Shinji fighting the "possessed" Unit 03, with the (dub version of the) speech from the latter playing over the soundtrack. I should look into the possibility of writing a new Megaphone Rant, with elements from the title theme, "A Cruel Angel's Thesis."[/i]

STOP

Shinji just can't take it anymore! The lights go out, save for a single spotlight on the Entry Plug prop, and he stands upright, ripping off his flightsuit (which reveals the schoolboy outfit underneath) and exits the Plug, taking a seat in a single metal folding-chair in the middle of the stage.

"I wanna go home
Take off this uniform
And leave the show
But I'm waiting in this cell because I
Have to know
Have I been guilty all this time?"

NEW IDEA: During "Waiting for the Worms", we are treated to a nice animated sequence (Screens 2 and 3) of the famous torii gates as they come to life, burst out of the ground, and re-enact the March of the Hammers, trampling everything in their path as Asuka loses against the Harpies.

I also have another theory as to why Shinji avoids his father: he knows that he has the potential to become just like the old man, and, indeed, this darker side reveals itself during the guitar solos of "The Second Brick", "Mother", "One of My Turns", and "Don't Leave Me Now"; unfortunately he does just this in "In the Flesh 2"--the stuff with Asuka dying in Unit 02 is Shinji coming to his senses.

Still have a few ideas about "The Trial" floating around in my head...I'm starting to think that it should be an original animated sequence.

THE TRIAL

Oh dear, the human race is really in a world of it now. Unit 01's turned into the Tree of Life*, the Black Moon has separated from the earth and gone into the upper stratosphere, and everything hangs in the balance. Shinji puts himself on trial in his mind, so that he might figure out where he went wrong, and save the world in the process.

Kaworu returns from the dead in this nightmare world, only there's something weird about him. Like that crazed grin on his face as he prosecutes his killer while Giant Naked Rei looks on, judging the proceedings. (A shot of Shinji's cum-drenched hand accompanies the line, "...was caught red-handed showing FEELINGS!" with the "big laugh" coming right at that sting.)

"Call the boy's father to the stands," the judge commands. Sachiel, the first angel, reappears. Only now, he's got a huge, hideous caricature of Gendo for a head, and he wields Longinus' famed toasting-fork as he rips Shinji's character to shreds. Despite his monstrous appearance, he speaks with a ridiculous, high-pitched Japanese accent. This is not meant to be a stereotype in any way; the idea here is that Shinji, having already become his father (in a manner of speaking), now rejects this figure that caused him so much pain by turning him into a joke--albeit a very frightening joke. (This passage is written phonetically, just so I can get a good idea of what it might sound like when said.)

"I arrway seh 'e kam ta no gud in za end you onna! If zeh ret me haf mah way, I coulda freh heem into shep! But ma hanz war tide--za breedin' heart an' artist ret 'em get away wif mahda! Ret me hamma him todeh!"

The next in line is Asuka, "the defendant's wife". Here, she is a crazed, monstrous parody of Unit 02 crossed with Shamshel, with very Asuka-like features and long red whips extending like hair from the top of the head. Her tentacles are long, biomechanical waldo arms jutting from her sides, which wrap around and pierce Shinji as she spits acid in his face with her words.

"You little shit, you're in it now...I hope they throw away the key! You should have talked to me more often than you did, but NEIN! You had to go your own way. Have you broken any homes up lately? Just five minutes, Worm your honor--him and me alone!"

(I find the Asuka vocals work so much better without affecting a menacing German baroness accent.)

Not sure what to do with Mother, yet, though. A horrendously desiccated, zombified Yui, perhaps?

OK, I think I've got it. Mother is a zombie-like Yui, representing a dream which should have died long ago but kept alive long after its expiration date, and twisted beyond all recognition. She pleads with Shinji to "become one with her" and implores the Judge for some kind of answer:

"Come to mother, baby, let me
Hold you in my arms
M'Lud, I never wanted him
To get in any trouble
Why'd he ever have to leave me?
Worm, your Honor, let me take him home!"

The Judge, of course, is Giant Naked Rei, for reasons unknown to me at this time...it seems to make sense, and it gives me a chance to pull out my best Barry Humphries impersonation.

I plan on giving the whole of "Nobody Home" to Rei, since the whole thing seems to fit her "mood-style" the best. It'd be something if Dana Fuchs* (Across the Universe) agreed to sing this one, since I imagine Rei's singing voice to sound exactly like hers.

*Her last name is pronounced "Fyooks", preverts.

Wow this sounds amazing can't wait to see it.

It's getting close to the "6 YEARS LEFT" mark, so I should probably do something with it starting this summer...it's supposed to be a one-night-only event at ACEN 2015, so that's why I'm thinking about it now.

Do you think I'll need to get anyone's approval, like, say, Roger Waters and ADV/Gainax?

One other question: how should I start to go about looking for band members and the editing/animation team? One thing I'll definitely need is a few people who have knowledge of computer animation--nothing too complicated, just the March of the Torii Gates (specifically those at Fushimi Inaritaisha) and the grotesque bunraku-style puppets of "The Trial Sequence".