The Black Keys music video ‘Tighten up’

The opening for this music video begins with an establishing wide shot with Dan Auerbach who is the main vocalist and guitarist in the band and a young boy who the audience soon find is playing the role of his son in the music video. The setting for Tighten up appears to be set in a rural area in a playground; I can infer this as in the next tracking shot, the two continue to walk together past a basketball court with the diegetic sound of kids laughing and talking faintly in the background. In the next shot we see another older male played by Patrick Carney, the drummer for The Black Keys. The two males greet each other, portraying to the audience that they are good friends. The beginning of the song starts as the camera focuses on their children playing in the park with the two adults blurred into the background. Auerbach's son looks up towards a young girl who is also playing in the park. This narrative music video then becomes a hybrid of a performance as the young boy starts to lip sync to the lyrics of the song ‘I wanted love, I needed love’. This supports Laura Mulvey’s theory of ‘The Male Gaze’ and ‘Scopophilia, the pleasure of looking’ as the young female is being seen as an object of desire by the male child however, this is not typical for a music video of this type as it is the young children that desire each other rather than people from an older generation. This could arguably present to the audience that love is childish and also presents an element of humour. The young boy gets up and climbs the frame in the playground to be close to the young girl that he desires, this is seen through a range of quick cuts and tracking of the two children, this creates a sense of Voyeurism. As the boy leans forward to kiss the girl, she disappears and the audience next see her shown through a wide shot whilst she plays with the other young boy in the park, the dads of the two boys are still out of focus in the background. In the next shot, there are cuts using mid shots between both boys, showing their facial expressions. Carney’s son raises his middle finger at the other boy reinforcing the comical and almost immature side to this music video. Both boys look like younger clones of the two band members as they dress similar and act in the same manner. The young boys start to fight with each other, this is shown through a two-shot between close ups of their facial expressions. A cut is then used to the dads of the boys and they continue to let their young children fight and injure each other portraying that they aren’t interested and don’t care. A mixture of quick cuts between the adults and their children until the adult suggests breaking up the fight. The adults then end up being involved in the fight and the range of quick cuts with different angles suggests how chaotic the scene is.