Hey, guys. I was really bored, so I decided to come up with my own concept for a video for "Don't Stay." Read through it and tell me how you like it. (You get a better vibe reading this if you're listening to the song at the same time.) ----- ”Don’t Stay” Video Concept The video starts off showing a cloudy, rainy sky. You hear raindrops, and suddenly, you hear a giant downbeat, almost like a rumble of thunder, and lightning flashes. You can hear someone pounding on something. The camera pans down from the sky and shows the window of a house, and it zooms inside the window. Mike is shown standing over a metal table beating on a picture of 2 people with a baseball bat. The picture has been ripped, so the faces are indistinguishable. Mike picks the picture up off the table and tosses it out the window. The beginning riffs of “Don’t Stay” are heard as the glass shatters. [NOTE: The house that Mike was in and the house that the scene will shift to are NOT the same house. Mike beating on the picture simply symbolizes how the man in the rest of the video feels about the woman he is with.] The scene shifts to the backyard of a different house, where the band is shown performing. Rob’s drumming is simultaneous with the thunder and Joe’s scratching is simultaneous with the lightning in the sky. Mike and Chester are shown facing each other just outside the back door of the house. Rob is shown underneath a swing set playing; Joe is shown in a tree house; and Brad and Phoenix are jumping around the backyard playing their guitars. The camera pans back up to the sky as the intro riffs finish, and then sweep in through the backdoor as Chester begins singing (“Sometimes I need to remember just to breathe…”). A woman is shown standing in the kitchen crying, as a man is shown screaming at her (“Sometimes I need you to stay away from me!”). The camera encircles the two as they are screaming at each other, corresponding with Chester’s singing in the first verse. Mike is shown walking in between the two. He glances at the woman and then at the man, and continues on. He walks up the stairs and Chester walks between them into the living room. The man shown screaming at the woman is then shown screaming “don’t stay” simultaneously with Chester. The camera suddenly shows a mesh of Chester and Mike’s faces (both their faces combined) singing the next part of the chorus (“forget our memories, forget our possibilities”) and Chester is then show pounding on the wall in the living room singing “what you were changing me into.” The camera zips upstairs and shows Mike sitting on a bed screaming “just give me myself back and don’t stay!” Chester and Mike’s faces mesh together again as the next part of the chorus is again sung (“forget our memories…”) and Chester is shown by himself again flipping a table in the air singing “take all your faithlessness with you.” The camera zips back upstairs again and shows Mike flipping a table simultaneously with Chester as he sings the final part of the chorus (“just give me myself back and don’t stay!”). The camera switches and shows the backyard, where Brad and Phoenix are still jumping around in the backyard as the play. Joe is shown in the tree house again, scratching. Mike and Chester are shown standing there, banging their heads. As Chester begins singing the second verse, the camera pans over to the neighbors’ house and shows 2 people peering out their window at the band in the backyard. Suddenly, their attention is shifted back to the front of the house, as the man is shown walking behind his wife as she goes out to her car. As she gets in, he grabs her arm and, in unison with Chester, says “Somehow I need to be alone!” She pushes him away and gets into the car. He slams his fist on the window as the chorus begins again (“don’t stay!”). The neighbors walk out of their house and stand on their porch and watch as the man slams on the window of the car. The camera keeps panning back to the band performing in the backyard and back to the man pounding on the woman’s car. As she starts to drive away, he runs along side the car as he screams in unison with Chester the final “don’t stay” of the chorus. The camera pans back and shows his face. Anger is burning in his eyes. Suddenly, the man “melts” into Chester and the bridge starts. Chester starts screaming and jumping around like a lunatic while screaming “I don’t need you anymore / I don’t want to be ignored…” The camera swings around Chester’s back, and when it gets back in front of him, the rest of the band is behind him performing the song. Then, a car turns onto the road and slams on its brakes and skids to a stop just before hitting Rob from behind. The bridge comes to an end as Chester and Mike are shown screaming the second half, and Mike finishing by screaming “with no apologies.” The chorus starts up again and shows the woman in her car driving away. She looks into her rearview mirror and it shows the man standing in the road. The band is no longer there, and the man has returned to where he was standing. She looks away and turns onto the next road, and turns her radio on. The camera pans back to the man standing in the road. He throws his hands up and screams “take all your faithlessness with you,” and he walks back inside the house. The camera sweeps over his shoulder and upstairs, where it shows Mike scream “just give me myself back and don’t stay.” As Mike is shown screaming the final “don’t stay,” the scene melts into Chester in the living room screaming “don’t stay” over and over to close the song. The camera sweeps back through the house and back into the backyard where the band is shown performing once again. As the song comes to a close, the camera pans back up to the sky, where a huge crack of thunder and a bolt of lightning ends the song. The man walks into his backyard as the bolt of lighting hits the ground where Chester was standing. He walks to that spot and looks up, and whispers “don’t stay” as tears fill his eyes and the video fades to black.
That was excellent. Though I kept getting confused with where I was in the story and where I was with the song, the song was going faster than I was reading so I had to rewind a few times to get to where the story was. But it was really good!
will this is really nice, i think you should mail LP's management, or post it on the LPMB, you should write short stories, you have a very imaginative mind great job
Wow...I would REALLY like to see this video...looks better than Numb... Although.....what if the next single won't be Don't Stay...?
Wow Will that was amazing. I really think you should contact them on that concept. It sounds like something they would do and i can just picture it in my head right now. There is only one word for that idea........WOW!!
What I didn't like about it is the way the video portrayed the man being sad after the girl was leaving...but yet he was yelling at her to "don't stay"? If he's telling her to stay away from him and to don't stay then why would he try to get her back out of the car? Didn't quite understand that part. On another note: Linkin Park could possibly bust out a video of just live shots...which they did with Points Of Authority(which was the fourth US video). But since MTV said they would be shooting the video in December it probably won't.
It's because he's happy she's finally out of his life, but he's upset that it ended the way it did. [/b][/quote] Well, I mean...I get him being sad. Even if you're fed up with your girlfriend you're still going to be upset after the break-up. But usually you don't run after them as soon as you break up. I dunno...just seems too differen't for me. I, personally, think having differen't shots of her driving away and him in the house standing with a sad/confused face would be better. But you did a good job, Will. I think the video(if it ends up being the new single) will end up being something similar to what you made up.
Well, I mean...I get him being sad. Even if you're fed up with your girlfriend you're still going to be upset after the break-up. But usually you don't run after them as soon as you break up. I dunno...just seems too differen't for me. I, personally, think having differen't shots of her driving away and him in the house standing with a sad/confused face would be better. But you did a good job, Will. I think the video(if it ends up being the new single) will end up being something similar to what you made up. [/b][/quote] Well, I meant to put that he was still pounding on the car but forgot that part, lol. Anyway, thanks for your guys' comments.
WOW!!!!!!!! it's f*cking amazing!!!!!!! If it could be a video it would possibly be one of their best videos ever!!!!!! GREAT JOB!!!!!!