Film Viewing Practice Essay “Agent Carter”

The excerpt watched was from Marvel’s “Agent Carter”.


Shots, Angles , Movement, Composition
As Peggy and Captain America communicate with each other in the beginning, scene there’s a close up shot happening so that the concern and anxiety of both parties is properly visible to the audience. A wide shot goes to show the interior of Captain America’s aircraft. When Peggy understands he is in trouble, a reaction shot captures her crying. After the scene between Peggy and Captain America, the camera tilts up as a city landscape by a bridge is shown. Right upon hanging up the phone, Agent Carter’s(Peggy) boss leaves his office and enters the next room over where all agents are standing and paying close attention. The camera pans to the left to connect his movement from his office to the next room.

Editing

Parallelism is shown twice as the camera shifts back and forth from Peggy to Captain America during their conversation and as Penny is alone after hours in the office. Because Agent Carter and Captain America are speaking to each other and are experiencing a stressful situation at the same time,  parallelism really allows the audience their changes in emotion and the situation at hand. When Agent Carter is ordered to stay at work late while the rest of the men go to the bar, the emergency  phone rings. It is shown on camera ringing on the desk then Peggy is shown as she’s walking around the office normally. She is then shown walking to the desk to pick up the phone as the phone is seen a few times ringing on the desk it sits on.

Sound
As the opening scene started, sound was already being depicted through a voiceover. Agent Carter is heard speaking during the graphic title’s presentation reading “Marvel”. Agent Carter continues speak to Captain America while he’s attempting to land an aircraft gone out of control. The scene uses direct sound and sound effects. The dialogue in the excerpt is very frequent because Agent Carter is constantly either being told to do or having a conversion with someone for herself. Sound effects are exercised often as well. Being that the genre of the movie is action and adventure, it would make sense to use sound and any other available possible effects to create the right environment for an audience to clearly interpret the sequence of the film. In the excerpt, sound effects are translated to aircraft sounds, glass breaking, footsteps, fighting off two men, and more. Background music comes to use whether it’s at a high or low volume to fill in and give personality to the more silent shots.


Mise-en-scene
Because Marvel movies tend to be all about superheroes, Mise-en-scene is really displayed in many areas. For example in the opening scene, Captain America is wearing his signature super suit. The suit adds to his personality and overall role in the movie. Instantly the audience is able to notice everyone at Peggy’s workspace’s attire. The setting of the first few scenes take place in an office building. Therefore, everyone (mostly men) are dressed accordingly in blazers and pants. Peggy wears a blazer and a skirt. It’s interesting to see the ways in which the beginning scenes are set up because a specific time period in America has a lasting effect of the rest of the movie. At Peggy’s job, she’s the underdog and being a woman clearly affects her fellow coworkers’ view of her. Another reason, as can be understood from the opening scene, let’s the audience know that how ever Captain America’s landing went took a big toll on her work life. The film takes place in what could be observed as the 1940s in the United States. This era was notoriously known to alienate all other people who weren’t the common American man. This included women, people of other races, etc. In Peggy’s case, the scenes are set up to show how undervalued she is to the men in her workplace and that she faces in her daily life. At her job, Peggy wishes to go out into the field and take on real emergencies, but instead is drowned in piles of other people’s work that she has no interest in doing what so ever. Some other eye-catching props that indicate the time period are the phones, hairstyles, wardrobe, and use of language. The lighting started off as highkey and bright in the beginning and then turned to lowkey and dim for the rest of the excerpt.