In this music video, the opening shot is a wide frame shot of the singer stranded in the middle of the highway. Her eye-catching yellow outfit as well as her icy grey hair, and red wagon in hand, are all elements that contrast against the very natural and deserted background. The story-line of this video unlike her previous two, showcase narrative-like aspects. Basically, Billie is stranded in the middle of the highway whilst carry a red wagon filled with trash bags loaded with cash which appears to be stolen. Billie Lip dubs and “preforms” the entire song on this road that leads to nowhere, till a cop car comes into the frame and Billie and the cop stand opposite each other in silence as the MV fades into darkness.
Each scene was focused on cuts that would zoom into Billie’s minimal movement and sort of dancing and vibing to the song, playing with the stolen cash, and while also zooming out showing the vast space and natural area surrounding her. The camera work allowed us to feel the sense of recklessness that Billie was facing as she danced in the middle of the highway carelessly to the beats of her music. The movements appear to be unchoreographed or rehearsed and you can truly feel the rawness and how she truly feels with the music. The primary colors stood out amongst the raw saturated background, but also highlighted Billie’s unapologetic actions and evoked even more fearlessness in her motions.
Evidently, there is something haunting about being isolated in the middle of a highway, crossing around and dancing in the middle where perhaps at any moment a car could come speeding by. I think the juxtaposing of the bright primary and overly saturated colors acted sort of like a thematic oxymoron. Maybe it was to conceal the spooky undertone, but I feel as though if anything it highlights it.
The last 30 seconds of the music video, starting at 3.00 have to be my favorite. I think the way it was because it was very detail-oriented and created a very movie-like feel. It reminded me of a Western movie standoff. As the music dies down and the sound of the cop car sirens become more prominent, Billie is facing a police officer who has parked his car in the middle of the highway that she was prancing around seconds ago. She now is almost isolated, and lets go of her wagon of cash that slowly begins to role up the road towards the cop. The cop is scene swinging his black stick in one-hand while eating his donut, and Billie is seen with a very intense look in her eyes as the wind blows her hair onto her face. The camera zooms out into in undershot camera angled away from the two subjects, but towards Billie’s side, and focuses on a yelow sunflower placed in the middle of the concrete highway that slowly falls and dies down into the ground.
The next clip cuts into an overhead shot of the scene, but towards the cop’s side, that gives us an illusion of the closenes between the two subjects.
The next shot is a close-up shot of Billie that cuts into another close-up shot of the cop.
The final shot is a zoomed out over-view shot of both of them stil very distanced, with nothing but nature and the wagon filled with cash between them.
Ghida Dalloul 