Film Analysis Of Hayley Kiyoko's Girls Like Girls

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Think of hazy summer days spent cruising on a bicycle, waves of heat rolling off the pavement as you make your way to a friend’s house. Breathe in the scent of summer sweetness, mixed with tobacco smoke and cheap beer, and the taste of cherry chapstick as a pair of soft lips meet yours in between giggles. Now open your mind as you become immersed in the world of Hayley Kiyoko’s Girls Like Girls. As one might suspect, the song itself is about girls liking girls, and the video is much the same, following the love story of characters Coley and Sonya as they overcome their own initial reservations about their feelings towards each other as well as the opposition of others. Though the narrative may appear self-contained, it serves to convey a much larger message, as Kiyoko attempts to normalize romantic relationships between women, subverting the opinions of those that seek to suppress or fetishize innocent expressions of love. We begin with an aerial shot of Coley, a girl who appears to be 18 or 19, riding a bike down an empty street lined with …show more content…

The transitions between shots are fairly rapid, switching from perspective to perspective, reminiscent of snapshot memories. Upon further observation, long shots also tend to correspond with the bridge, and are combined with moving frames and tracking shots to draw the viewer into the world of the main characters. Lighting is a key element in the world-building as well. The director makes use of three-point and diffused, natural lighting; there’s a sepia overlay which desaturates the colors and creates an almost dream-like effect, which when coupled with Kiyoko’s lyrics and voice, give the video an ethereal quality. Given the suburban setting and Californian aesthetic, Girls like Girls embodies the concept of a classic summer romance, albeit with a twist--which one might say is the point. In an interview with US Weekly, Kiyoko herself

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