Music Video Deconstruction - Gasoline, Halsey

The song opens with an establishing shot of two pictures blurred together. They are difficult to tell apart, though it looks as if one is a photo of a house, and the other a wall. This would have been edited in post production and the shot remains on screen for seven seconds. This indicates that the video will be slow with a calm feel to it as there is not a lot happening.

 It then cuts to another establishing shot of the iconic ‘Hollywood’ sign which has been used to mark the setting of the song. The colours have been faded and dulled out in post production which makes the image appear boring and uninteresting.

The shot then fades to an extreme close-up of a girl’s face when more instruments join the backing, meaning the visuals are in time with the music. The close proximity to the girl’s face has been done to display the emotions written across her face, which indicates boredom by her lack of expression. A filter has been edited in post production to make her skin, hair and bedding look like washed out blue/pink pastel colours, adding to the idea of her boredom as the shot is not particularly vibrant or interesting.

After nearly a minute of the close up, the shot cuts to a long shot of the same girl dressing herself on the lefthand side of the screen. As she is not the main focus of the shot, the viewer's attention is directed towards the bookshelf which is the main focus of this shot. It gives the setting a more 'homely' feel and may suggest that her loneliness or boredom is dealt with through reading books. It suggests the character is shy and suggests that she lives alone as the wall is bare with no photos of a partner or children.

The camera then cuts to a panning mid shot of the girl’s kitchen whilst she stands beside the kettle, staring into the distance. The expression the actress wears is blank and vacant as she stares at something behind the camera that the viewers cannot see, though it looks as if she is in deep thought. The mise en scene has been carefully constructed in this shot as the kitchen looks clean and almost empty. It looks unused as the fruit bowl is full and we cannot see any kitchenware laying around, further indicating that she lives alone.

We are then met with a long shot of the female character collecting the post and her milk. The trees surrounding her home indicates that she lives hidden away, secluded from civilisation which matches her rather expressionless features in all the shots she has been in so far. The greenery is in the center of the shot here, standing out to the viewers. This has been done intentionally and the mise en scene has been constructed in order to show the house lies behind layers and layers of bushes and trees. It almost cannot be seen and it take a second glance to notice the girl as she is placed behind a shadow, indicating our attention should not be directed at her

The shot then cuts to a close up of a newspaper clipping from the front page the girl glances at. The title says "Gigi Hadid" -who I know to be the actress in this music video as the title gives away her name- "takes Oscar for Best Actress." This provides the viewers with context behind her ability to live alone in a large, luxurious home. Included in the article is a photo of the actress mentioned, Gigi Hadid, to further solidify the idea that we may be discussing the same character.

The iconic 'Hollywood' sign is then shown to us again, from a view further away than the first time. This establishing shot has been used to pinpoint Gigi Hadid's location and to show exactly how close to Hollywood she lives, which therefore indicates how rich and successful she must be to be able to afford a house like that. This shot was shown directly after a montage of clips of our character walking on to her balcony, further suggesting the significance of this establishing shot is to serve as a location marker.

After seeing the location marker, the camera then tracks the girl's walk as she leaves her house and travels through to her back garden. A long shot has been used to follow Hadid as the viewer's are presented with a clearer view of not only the character, but also of the backdrop and scenery. This is to show how amazing the view our character has from her house and how far she can see, though she does not seem to display any admiration or even care for this as the beauty is lost on her, further indicating her disinterest in the world. Her garden furniture is also interesting as there are four chairs, despite living alone, and only one table. The furniture all looks new and unused, indicating she lives alone and secluded without many visitors.

The camera then cuts back to the extreme close-up of Hadid we saw at the beginning of the video, only now we see it with a black and white filter over the shot that has been edited in post-production. This indicates a shift in time, such as a flahback, which may have been used to remind the viewer of the slow and uninteresting life she leads as it forces the viewer to remember that Hadid had not done anything productive during her day.

The camera tracks Hadid's walk as he leaves her house and takes a wander through a field. We begin by seeing only her feet, though the camera pans up until we can see her entire body. The scenery matches Hadid's costume as it is all a mix of pale colours edited in post-production to have a light pastel pink washed over the shots.

It is then suggested that Hadid returns back to her home as the camera cuts to a long-shot of a diving board and we can see her feet walk along to the end. To keep with the somber mood of the music video, she of course does not jump or display any form of reaction to the events she partakes in at all as this would ruin the mood of the video entirely and ruin any ideas that she lived a lonely and rather sad life.

When she jumps in the pool, we witness this from below the surface of the water and are looking down on Gigi Hadid as she swims across to the other side of her pool. The camera tracks her movements, panning in half a circle to watch her travel across the water. The water is a bright blue, much more vibrant and colourful than the way a real swimming pool would appear. This is because the colours have been emphasised in post-production editing to stand out. This is the only shot where the colours are bright suggesting Gigi Hadid feels less bored and lonely in the water, and that perhaps swimming is a hobby of hers she enjoys.

In the last shot of the music video we watch a close up of Gigi Hadid emerging from her swimming pool. This is the first time we see her staring directly into the camera and her expression is just as blank as it is in all other shots where we see her face. I believe this shot is important because of her vacant expression and the way she stares into the camera. Here we are able to see how she feels perfectly, and there is little emotion written across her face. It seems almost sad, in a way, as she lives alone and is clearly bored by the lack of activities she does to fill her time. The background is the rest of the pool and the sky, which is no longer beautiful and vibrant blue waters as it appeared in the last shot, nor is the sky bright as it had been before. A washed out darkness, almost a grey, has been edited on to the shot in post-production to make the shot appear more dreary to set the mood.