The Concept
Our writing and creative team had an absolute blast dreaming up ideas for Kylie Spence’s “Lying Eyes” music video for Kylie Spence. All of her artistry exudes both a palpably confident intrigue and vulnerable searching, a rare air of sensitive strength. To match the sound and meaning of this particular song, we developed a kind of jigsaw mystery in the video’s story, portraying Kylie’s recent relational struggles through flashback and present-day storylines, all imbued thickly with symbolism. Only as the story closes along with the song do all the threads come together, allowing Kylie to move forward with new, albeit haunting, revelation.
The Video Shoot
We shot the video in the desert with a 1967 Cadillac convertible and international Gucci model, JJ. And—oh, baby!—does that car deliver visual punch in this video, and JJ’s no less easy on the eyes either! Moreover we knew Kylie would be able to embody the various emotional movements of the song in her acting, so for her counterpart in the video knew we needed to find an up-and-coming actor who could emotionally rival her—a mystifying someone whose eyes could draw our audience in vulnerably close, though they would already know all along this song is ultimately titled “Lying Eyes.” But you’ll have to see the video itself to see how the lyrics ultimately bear out in the visceral visuals. We will leave the ultimate mystery for you to explore, but here is a preview of some of the plot elements.
The Plot
The story starts when Kylie moves to kick JJ out of her car, out of her life, once and for good. But immediately after and all too quickly, she begins to reminisce about happier times they shared together, remembering the relationship through rose colored glasses, as they say. And, heck, we’ve all been there! Suddenly, however, almost as if summoned by her reflection, JJ appears and disappears again before her. After pulling over, while she looks around for him, Kylie stumbles across a photograph, but we don’t yet see its image. As she reflects on it, again, somehow JJ appears now in the driver’s seat of Kylie’s car, beckoning her over. Mesmerized by JJ’s charisma and motivated by her previous rose-hued reflections, she gets into the car with him, but knowing all to well where this can lead.
As Kylie sings now about the relationship again, the two drive through the long, deserted desert roads. But just as surprisingly as he appears, JJ disappears again in the blink of an eye. At this point, despite the struggle with her torn feelings, Kylie gets more honest with herself about the reality of their relationship. She’s reminded of the games JJ continuously played with her heart, and she regrets letting him back in so easily. When he appears suddenly in the middle of the road ahead of her, Kylie decided to end the relationship once and for all in one desperate, decisive move. As she speeds towards him, he gives one last look of desperation before she zooms right past or through—you’ll see what we mean. We see that JJ has transformed into something new, something we will leave for you to see—but to be sure, Kylie will only have her memories and honest reflections to contend with in the end. She closes out the video with more questions than where she began, but she also has more resolve, more clarity, more confidence in herself. But some mystery still remains as to what was real and what was not.
Spirinity Productions directed, produced the story, produced the video, cast the talent, and edited the footage for this video.