"Girls Like Girls" is a song
recorded by American singer and songwriter Hayley Kiyoko for her second
extended play ‘This Side of Paradise’.
The song was released with a music video as the second single on June 24, 2015,
directed by Kiyoko and Austin S. Winchell.
The mise en scene denotes the indie-pop genre of the
video; neutral warm colour schemes are utilised such as pinks, creams and
blues, props such as cigarettes and alcohol are used and open landscapes are
featured often. The actors and the setting are portrayed as being as one with
one another and the lighting changing little even through transitions from
inside to outside. This lighting appears to be natural This gives the fluency
to the video and a sense of a continuous dreamy atmosphere. Much of the video
is set in a house (kitchen, lounge, bedroom, bathroom) and the rest in a dried
out barren field, these are places the audience will be familiar with and are
able to place themselves in therefore making this something the audience can
identify with. This also normalises the subject matter which is something the
artist seems to seek to do in this video.
The costume choices fit in well with the aesthetic and
colour scheme of the video and as the events of the narrative seems to take
place during the summer and this is mirrored in the clothing choices made. Current
indie fashion styles are worn by all actors throughout which would make this
appealing to its intended indie audience as they may identify with and want to
replicate this style.
This is a narrative based video; artists will often
use hybrid videos of both narrative and performance based styles as a chance to
both tell a story and advertise themselves to an audience simultaneously. This is
not the case here and the artist does not feature in this video at all which
shows she is not trying to display a star image but a story and cares about the
message her music is sending. The use of title slides that are layered over the
opening sequence of footage and end credits creates the impression that the video
is more like a short movie than a music video. This is supported by the moment
of dialogue near the end of the video which adds more in terms of the telling
of the story and engages the audience with the characters in a more genuine
manner. The story is not told using a linear narrative but instead portrayed in
style of someone’s personal recollection of events with different moments of
the story being told at different times. There are also elements of a cyclical narrative
being used with the beginning of the video using a drone shot of the main
character riding her bike with a bloodied face and the end shot featuring a
continuation of this shot. The opening shot is also effective as it urges the
audience to watch on to contextualise the footage.
Continuous editing is used throughout the video to
create an easy to follow visual narrative. The music video uses very little
special effect techniques apart from the use of slow motion in the dancing
scene where this creates a dream-like atmosphere to the moment which give an
evident idea of how the protagonist feels about the other character.
Handheld camera shots are occasionally used throughout
the video this shaky motion gives these particular shots a voyeuristic feel
which almost makes the audience feel like they shouldn’t be watching and the
action between the actors seem more intimate. A range of shots are used with
many of the moments between the female actors being portrayed using close up
and extreme close up shots to further convey the idea of intimacy between them.
Establishing shots are used to introduce the house to the audience and long
shots/mid shots of actors share a similar purpose for costume. Over the
shoulder shots are used fairly frequently also, upon entering the house we see
an over the shoulder shot of each actress’s reactions which gives us a clear
idea of the nature of their relationship. Another over the shoulder shot
features later on in the video and focuses on the reflection on the mirror of
the main protagonist watching the girl as they change which shows to the
audience that she wants the relationship to change but is subtle/shy about it. For
the majority of the video all shots are filmed on a similar level which denotes
equality among the actors but this changes when the boyfriend attacks the main
protagonist, this is shot showing him from an up angle which shows he has the
power but this is switched when she attacks him. In this section she is filmed
from an up angle and the camera is positioned below her as though the audience
is seeing this from the boyfriend’s point of view.
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