From story to video: building the visual world of the first Innocent Games film
■ Production notes from the first Innocent Games music video.
My initial idea seemed relatively straightforward: take By Her Side, the opening track from Innocent Games, and use it to tell the beginning of the album’s story in a linear way.
The track lasts approximately two minutes. Within that short time, I attempted to show Maeve, Clara and Tomáš arriving separately in Lhasa; introduce the three characters; follow them as they explored the city; show Clara becoming unwell and Tomáš coming to her assistance; and finally depict Clara leaving Tibet, with Maeve and Tomáš continuing on their own.
The first assembly was not unsuccessful. Even without transitions, effects or the music, the sequence communicated the basic story clearly. But watching it also revealed two fundamental problems.
Although Innocent Games was inspired by a story and conceived as a continuous, hour-long journey, the album was not designed for literal visual storytelling. Its progression is shaped more by emotions, memories and dreamlike moments than by a strictly linear narrative.
The second problem concerned By Her Side itself. Within the album, it is a tranquil introduction built around the feeling Tomáš experiences simply from being close to Maeve. Musically, it was written to lead into and contrast with the following piece, Tenderness. It was never really intended to stand alone or carry so much narrative information.
For that reason, the first draft could not work. I need more time for the story to breathe. But more importantly, the film must move beyond simply illustrating a sequence of events. I want it to explore the two forces drawing Tomáš in different directions: his growing feelings for Maeve and the spiritual purpose that originally brought him to Tibet.
The narrative will remain present, but it can now be interrupted by slower, more abstract symbolic passages: images suggesting memories, dreams, subconscious symbolism and emotion rather than advancing the plot. There can be close-ups of facial expressions, quiet observations of Maeve and moments that feel less like an objective account of events than Tomáš remembering her while retelling their story.
The first version just establishes the narrative foundation of the film. It also helps me understand that the visual language of Innocent Games needs to resemble the album itself: partly a story, partly a memory, and partly an inner journey.