Creative Brief: "Take Me Back" by HAIM - Visual Interpretation

Project Overview

Project Type: Music Video / Personal Narrative Film
Song: "Take Me Back" by HAIM
Objective: Create a visual interpretation of post-graduation longing, sisterhood, and the bittersweet ache of growing up

Project Background

This video was born from a deeply personal moment. The day "Take Me Back" was released, I sat with my cousin Nora, crying, laughing, replaying the song on repeat. I had just graduated, uncertain of what came next, carrying grief and distance as the people I loved scattered across cities and timelines. The song ached for the simplicity of the past, when nothing felt serious and everything felt close. Before it even ended, I could see the visuals in my head.

Weeks later, I texted Nora. We shot the entire video in one day. I edited it that same night, needing to capture the emotion before it faded.

Setting & Context

Location: Chicago, Illinois
Season: Fall into winter, the season of nostalgia, reflection, and transformation

Chicago is where we grew up. It holds our memories, our history, our before. Shooting there wasn't a practical choice, it was the only choice. The city, the light, the cold, it all carries meaning. Fall transitioning into winter mirrors the emotional arc of the project: the beauty of what's ending, the quiet before what's next, the bittersweetness of standing between two versions of yourself.

This is the season of nostalgia. The light is softer, the air is sharper, everything feels more tender. It's a time for reflection, for sitting with what was, for letting go. It's also a time of freedom, bundled up, faces flushed, moving through familiar streets with a kind of joy that only exists when you're home, even if just for a moment. The season holds both the ache of loss and the lightness of being present, alive, free.

Creative Challenge

Translate an intangible feeling, nostalgia, longing, the heaviness of transition, into a visual story that feels intimate, cinematic, and true. Capture the tension between wanting to go back and knowing you can't. Honor sisterhood, memory, and the quiet hope that comes with moving forward.

Emotional Core

  • Nostalgia: The ache for a time when life felt lighter, closer, easier

  • Sisterhood: The people who hold you through change

  • Longing: The desire to return to a version of yourself that no longer exists

  • Bittersweetness: Grief for what's gone, excitement for what's coming

  • Freedom: The lightness of being home, even temporarily, of being seen and held

  • Joy: Small, fleeting moments of laughter, warmth, and aliveness

  • Growth: The tension and beauty of becoming more while letting go of what was

  • Healing: Using creation as a way to process and release

Creative Concept

"A Memory Stitched Into Film"

The video mirrors the song's emotional arc: soft, intimate, melancholic, but quietly hopeful. It's less about narrative and more about feeling, moments that evoke memory, distance, closeness, and the passage of time. The visuals are driven by light, motion, and connection, reflecting the push and pull of wanting to stay and needing to move forward.

Visual Direction

Mood: Intimate, cinematic, soft, melancholic, tender, free
Tone: Reflective, nostalgic, honest, unhurried, alive

Key Visual Elements:

  • Natural light and seasonal atmosphere: Soft autumn golds transitioning into cooler winter tones, light that feels both warm and fleeting

  • Chicago as character: Familiar streets, lakefront views, neighborhood corners that hold years of memory, Lake Shore Drive

  • Intimate framing: Close-ups, handheld camera work, moments that feel private and unguarded

  • Motion and stillness: Movement that mirrors the song's rhythm, slow pans, gentle zooms, handheld drifts, bodies in motion through changing seasons

  • Sisterhood and closeness: Old at home videos, Talaga family 

  • Environment as character: Locations that feel lived-in, familiar, grounding, home, nature, streets walked a thousand times

  • Seasonal textures: Falling leaves, bare branches, cold air visible in breath, the crispness of late fall and early winter, lake 

  • Simplicity: No heavy styling or production, just raw, honest, real

Color Palette:
 Warm autumn golds, burnt oranges, red, muted earth tones fading into cooler blues and grays. Desaturated slightly to evoke memory and distance. Natural, organic color grading that feels like a photograph from another time, nostalgic, soft, lived-in.

Shooting Style:

  • Handheld for intimacy

  • Slow motion to stretch moments and emphasize emotion

  • Natural framing, no overly stylized compositions, just real life slowed down

  • Shot and edited in one day to preserve immediacy and rawness

  • Captured in the transitory light of fall into winter, golden hour, overcast skies, the glow of late afternoon

Music & Narrative Strategy

The song itself drives the pacing and emotional arc. Every visual decision is in service of the lyrics and the feeling they evoke. The edit mirrors the song's build, starting quiet and reflective, swelling with emotion, then softening again. The video doesn't tell a linear story; it evokes a feeling, a memory, a longing. The rhythm of the season, slow, contemplative, bittersweet, matches the rhythm of the song.

Key Themes

  • Growing up means letting go of specific versions of ourselves and the people around us

  • Distance and grief coexist with excitement and hope

  • Sisterhood as an anchor through transition

  • Chicago as home, the place that shaped us, the place we return to

  • Fall into winter as metaphor: the beauty of endings, the necessity of change, the freedom in letting go

  • Creation as a form of healing and processing

  • The past is gone, but the love remains

  • Joy and bittersweetness can live in the same moment

Collaborators

Director, Cinematographer & Editor: Eleanor Vanecko
Talent: Nora (cousin and collaborator)
Music: "Take Me Back" by HAIM
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Production Notes

  • Shot in one day in Chicago during fall transitioning into winter

  • Edited the same night to capture emotion before it faded

  • Entirely self-directed and self-produced

  • Created as a personal project, not commissioned work

  • Filmed in locations meaningful to both director and subject, home, neighborhood, the city where we grew up

Outcome

This video is more than a music video, it's a memory stitched into film, a moment of healing. It reflects the bittersweetness of what's no longer here, the weight of growing up, and the quiet hope that comes with moving forward. Shot in the city where we grew up, during the season of nostalgia and reflection, it captures the freedom, joy, and growth that come with standing at the edge of change.

The project showcases my ability to:

  • Translate emotion into visual storytelling

  • Work quickly and instinctively under creative urgency

  • Direct, shoot, and edit cohesive narrative work independently

  • Use music as the foundation for pacing, tone, and emotional arc

  • Root visual work in place, season, and personal history

  • Create deeply personal work that resonates universally

  • Capture the intersection of joy, nostalgia, and growth in a single visual narrative