The colours of this music video are blue toned, showing the atmosphere of this video. The calmness of the scenes where Lorde is lip-syncing compared with the scenes outside, showing two different stories. The costumes of what the people( who were with Lorde) are minimal along with the background which also only seem to have plants around. As the lyrics suggest that this scene could be the 'palace.' 

 

The colouring outside seemed clearer but with a hint of blue tint as well, making it similar to the scenes indoor, could mean that there is a connection between these two. The establishing shots of the abandoned buildings and oceans show that they are in an excluded and secretive space, especially when we see a person, with a bag covering his head. 

 

The characters of the people outside seem like they are about to partake in something serious is shown through how they are very aware of their surrounding, and also the secrecy, through the close-ups of walking.

 

This whole video could be made with the idea of from the lyrics of the chorus which is :

'We live in cities you'll never see on screen
Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things
Living in ruins of a palace within my dreams
And you know, we're on each other's team'

 The idea of what the world we think is like, is completely different to what we are told/shown through the media. We know there are situations/places etc that are quite bad but we still choose to ignore it, and not to portray it at all.