First Kiss News Update: Filmmaker Tatia Pilieva captured in a three-and-a-half minute film where she pairs off 20 strangers and asks them to kiss. The kissing couples are taken in black and white images, and throughout, the mellow tones of SOKO's song "We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow" play.
The short flick is presented by the women's clothing company Wren. CEO and Founder Melissa Coker recruited her old high school friend Pilieva to help her line up 20 people they would put in front of a camera to share a real life "first kiss" scenario.
According to Today, the video, posted Monday, had already racked up more than 5 million views by Tuesday afternoon. In a tweet Tuesday, clothing brand Wren revealed it was an ad for the company's fall 2014 collection. The video, according to The Telegraph appears to have delighted viewers who left comments on the film's YouTube page describing 'First Kiss' as "beautiful".
"The key trick I used was not to say 'action. I've done lovemaking scenes before, but there was something so tender about this that we all kind of melted behind the five cameras we were using," said filmmaker Tatia Pilieva.
The participants are friends of Coker and Pilieva who did the act without being paid for the advertisement.
Pilieva said, "We kind of grouped them together just by instinct. I was really nervous at first, but you can see how some of the people responded."
Some of their interactions didn't just end at the shoot.
"At least one couple went to the park for breakfast after, and another couple I heard winded up going to lunch," Pilieva said. "I'm positive at least some friendships developed. I don't know if any romantic relationships developed, but I could just be out of the loop."
According to ABC News, Soko, a participant and the songwriter and voice behind the video's title track, was able to further connect with her female counterpart after their first kiss.
"It felt like the longest kiss of my life, but I wanted to just kiss more. It was so pure. Afterwards we went to get breakfast and then we ended up just hanging out the next four days. We didn't really take anything further romantically but we made a real connection and I feel like that's one of the most beautiful things people can take away from this video." Soko said.
