Iron Man Ideology

Iron Man

Dominant Ideology - This Clip supports the very common dominant ideology of america being the one to swoop into danger and being the hero, world police. it does this by showing Iron Man arriving and saving civilians from terrorists who were holding the civilians captive at gun point. The scene represents Iron Man as someone who is very powerful and seemingly a unbeatable hero, showing the very common place convention of a strong one man army action hero.

The hypodermic needle theory suggests that audiences will see a media and that the information from the media will be forced onto the audience, for instance in a scene like this might make american viewers see Iron Man (an american) killing terrorists and then view this sort of "Justice" as right and then support this type of action in real world situations. Potentially leading to viewers going to fight terrorists believing as if they can be like iron man. Some members of the audience might receive gratification from the movies violence.

Textual Analysis of 3 Magazine Covers Targeting Different Audiences by Michael on Scribd

4 frame stop motion (Bobbing Smiley)

Video Game Ideologies and Perspective

Ideologies

Bioshock (2007) by Irrational Games
Perspective: First Person, for immersion in the world of rapture and immersion into the protagonist  of Jack.
Dominant Ideologies: The Character Andrew Ryan is Bioshock's biggest example of an Ideology, Ryan has a hatred of what he refers to as "parasites" consisting mainly of people who support left-wing political viewpoints, namely socialism and communism. Ryan is also shown to hate the religious, but more notably the unselfish as he believes this altruistic way to be the root of all evil. 

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015) by Kojima Productions
Perspective: Third Person over the shoulder of the protagonist, Snake
Dominant Ideologies: One of the secondary characters in metal gear solid 5 is the assassin Quiet. Quiet is a good strong character in the game that is ruined by a common dominant ideology in gaming, overly sexualized female characters. Quiet simply wears a bikini, underwear and ripped tights. This choice of design of Quiet ruins the character and makes the genius Metal Gear Solid creator, Hideo Kojima look shallow and a person who is terribly backwards thinking especially when Kojima tried to justify Quiet's look by the weak story justification that "she breaths through her skin".

Undertale (2015) by Toby Fox
Perspective: The game primarily plays from a top down perspective
Counter Ideologies: In most games the main objective is to kill your enemies. Undertale is different than the norm and gives you a moral choice more than nearly any other game. From the beginning Undertale tries to tell the player that there is another way that the player doesn't have to kill and can show mercy to the players foes. The player can of course disobey the game and kill whoever they want but by doing this the game gives the player consequences, the only way to see the games true ending is to be a 100% pacifist.

The Walking Dead: Season Two (2014) by Telltale Games
Perspective: Third Person
Counter Ideologies: In most games you play as a adult male or as a adult female, in The Walking Dead you play as a 12 yr old girl, this is very uncommon for a video game protagonist the only well known example being Ellie from The Last of Us. In games where children appear they are usually shown as weak and innocent, The Walking Dead's Clem is the opposite shown to be very brave, mature and strong in the games harsh environment.

magazines ideology

Dominant Ideology in the Media (not finished)

Video Games
Undertale (2015)
Progressive gender ideology, the protagonist has no set gender as gender has no point in the overarching story and the player can easily project themselves into the character if the protagonist has no set gender.

Papers, Please (2013)
Against a communist ideology, The game makes the player face the harshness of a rough communist country, clearly portraying communism in negative light

Movies
The Lion King (1994)
Scar represents a selfish and self- serving leader, which could be a comparison to a dictator. During one scene where Scar addresses his hyena accomplices, the imagery shares a likeness to Adolf Hitler’s wartime speeches. 

Kick-Ass Exam Question

Q.1 - Analyse how an audience may read the combination of sound, camerawork and editing in the clip to create meaning

The scene from Kick-Ass give the audience many meanings created by its clever use of soundtrack changes, speed of editing and the movement of the camera.Sound is by far the biggest player in this scene. The soundtrack at the beginning of the scene is a calm guitar riff as Kick Ass arrives at Rasul's Place it continues while Kick Ass explains his reason for being there. As Rasul gets up from his chair and approaches Kick Ass the tempo of the riff turns more tense showing the Audience that Kick Ass hasn't got the upper hand in this scenario the riff becomes tenser gradually throughout this part of the scene showing that this is a dangerous moment for our main character and that he does not have the power in this conversation the music notably ramps up more when Kick Ass tries to get Rasul to do what he wants and fails. Then the score seems to take a darker tone as Rasul and his men surround Kick Ass further showing that he is in a tight spot and that Rasul has a clear upper hand on him. As Rasul goes to attack Kick Ass the score adds strings to add to the tensity and as if it is building up to conflict. When Kick Ass uses his surprise taser the string overpower the soundtrack for the entire tasing to make the surprise attack look more grandiose. However once the tasing ends and Rasul appears to be more annoyed at Kick Ass than hurt the soundtrack goes back to tense reflecting that Kick Ass is in real danger with no sign of survival, Until the arrival of the yet unknown, Hit-Girl. As Rasul is stabbed in the back and slumps down to the ground Hit Girl is revealed the music takes a suspenseful quiet tone as the audience wait in anticipation for what this new arrival plans to do. Then as Rasul's men launch an attack on Hit Girl, a bombastic and cheerful song plays as Hit Girl takes the men out. This Musical Shift is meant to show that as she kills them she is having fun with the killing due to the songs cheerful atmosphere; it is also a use of juxtaposition with a cheerful song onto a backdrop of a flurry of deadly blows and dismemberments. Also this large shift in musical tone also challenges the usual comic book fight scene tone in a typical generic comic book the music would be tense and thrilling in this type of scene. After Hit-Girl kills the last gang member in the room the song finishes and goes back to the normal slow intense music from before as a final attacker silently approaches her the music ramps up in intensity as he nearly stabs her in the back, the score is however cut short as he is sniped by Big-Daddy and the score is silenced for a few seconds as we hear Big-Daddy Scolding Hit-Girl this is done to show importance of this piece of dialogue portraying that even though Hit-Girl is a trained killer she is still a kid. The Fight scene contains clearly over the top and exaggerated sound effects this is done to remind the audience that this is a comic book movie and is not grounded in reality.

The Camerawork in this scene is the most prevalent in the first half of the scene. The shots get tighter and closer to the face of Kick Ass to add to the already rising tension between him and Rasul. After Kick Ass uses his taser on Rasul the camera takes different height shots to give the audience perspective of the power and status of characters. Kick Ass is shown restrained on the ground from a higher level looking down at him to show his low chances and power here while Rasul is shown from low angles looking up at him showing he has advantage and is stronger than Kick Ass. As Rasul is impaled the camera focuses on Hit Girl for most of the rest of the scene, she is primarily the focus of the frame. We then see a POV shot from her perspective to show what she is looking at as she plans her attack and a look into her head. As the scene dissolves into a fight the camerawork is done a bit more handheld and seems to flow with Hit-Girls movements and her blades movements. Occasionally cutting to reactionary shots of Kick Ass cowering on the ground again from a high angle looking down at him to show his weakness and total uselessness in this fight. The fight also shows reactionary shots of the gang members, as they are being mercilessly outmatched and slaughtered by Hit-Girl further showing her high status over everyone else.

The Editing in this scene is quite simple having few normal speed cuts from Kick-Ass and Rasul during their confrontation, However once Hit-Girl arrives the editing changes to a higher speed quickly cutting from shot to shot illustrating the fluidity of her combat style from many angles and also quickly showing glimpses of Kick Ass bewilderment in the scenario before it cuts back to shot after shot of Hit-Girl proving she is the star of this scene and not Kick Ass even though he is the title and main character. The Shift in Editing also shows two different types of intensity in the scene, the first being the tense slow build up conflict between Kick Ass and Rasul and other being the intense high octane light and fun but yet bloody and mature Hit-Girl murder spree. They also have edited the fight scene adding in light blood effects and the most likely CG leg dismemberment this is done to fit the films R rating and to give the film more grit and realism than the average dark yet unrealistic notably bloodless fight scenes in say a marvel comic book movie. Even though the blood in Kick-Ass can be slightly excessive in some parts for shock factor while realistic in others.

Q.2 -Evaluate the possible effects upon society of media representations. examples from the 'Kick Ass' clip 

The scene shows a lot of violence and explicit language, some members of society could find these things to be quiet offensive and excessive. They could also think this scene and movie is glorifying these sort of actions and that they are inappropriate to be in a film due to it being unsuitable for children and could worry that it could possibly have a negative effect on them and make them potentially copy the actions. Even though the film has a clear R rating so children shouldn't be allowed to see this film. 

The scene heavily focuses on Hit-Girl (A Child) brutally killing a group of gang members. Some PC sensitive audience members might take offence to seeing child represented in this light. They might assume that the creators are trying to glorify a child killing people due to the jolly music playing and the many shots of her smiling as she kills. They could also be worrying that this could lead to other kids recreating the killing and thinking its fun due the scene showing murder in a light comedic tone. This fun tone murders could be seen as making murder look like it is being represented as a game when in reality it is a serious issue, due to its nature many might forget its just a film and not a real representation of real life. In the scene we also see Hit-Girl use the C word society could also see this as a bad representation due to a child using swear words is considered wrong and taboo in todays society even though many people use words like this a lot in older life. Many could be offended by these words being said in film and by child no less because of their meanings. Due to Hit-Girl being a child it could seen weird for her to be shown as swearing killer by some as many see children of that age as pure and innocent even though in todays world it is really hard for a child to actually be innocent due to many current events. This ideal is more wishful thinking as nowadays kids are very exposed to these words by the general public using these words as common as any other and violent acts from the news and the media, so this representation of a child being heavily exposed to these taboos is actually more closer to real life than most would like to admit.