Agent Carter Practice Essay

The short film Agent Carter demonstrates the many key components of film making. The use of camera shots, angles, movements, composition, editing, mise-en-scene, and sound were all placed together to work coherently to make the short film Agent Carter have an impact on the audience in the short time that it was presented.

            One very noticeable shot used in the short film was the establishing shot of the New York city skyline. By the film makers showing the audience where the movie is taking place it allows them to assume that the movie is going to be full of action, because the City of New York is known to restless all times of day. Another noticeable shot was when Agent Carter was sitting down at her desk and all the other men were going to head out for drinks, they were all standing behind the desks in a line and told her to polish up and lock up the place. This shot can be viewed as a full body shot of the men all standing in a line towering over Agent Carter and this also shows the sexism that is involved in the movie, because men were superior to women.

            Different editing techniques were also a predominant part of the short film. At the very beginning of the film the audience is caught viewing the quick back to back transitioning between Agent Carter and Steve. This would be considered simultaneity because these events although very different are occurring at the same time. The back and forth action not only shows the expressions of the characters faces while they are talking over a communicating device, but it also appeals visually to the audience because, we can see what is happening to the characters within the environment they are in.

            The mis-en-scene is crucial to the short film Agent Carter. The male characters in the film are depicted wearing older fashioned suits, ties, and glasses, and the grand majority carried brief cases with them. This gives a uniform feeling of all like mentality. Steve, the character at the very beginning was shown wearing a superhero outfit. This symbolizes the importance he plays in the movie. The movie opens up with the setting being inside of a spaceship with Steve driving it, then it moves towards the dark office building where everything is uniform and can be considered otherwise boring. The placement of Agent Carter’s desk in the back corner of the office building shows how she is isolated from everybody else and demonstrates the sexism that was around during that time period.

Before any action occurred, the audience members were introduced with music. The music was added to the beginning of the movie to add anticipation and also help set the mood of the scene which at the time was somber, because Steve was about crash in the space craft. When Agent Carter was fighting the two men there was added sound to the punches and kicks the men received to emphasize them. This is called post-synchronous sound, because it was added into the film after it was done being filmed.

            Overall, the short film Agent Carter used multiple film techniques to create a work which conveyed emotion and pleasure to its audience members. It was able to incorporate all of these various aspects to create a great piece of work.