Film Practice Essay

 

In the 2013 film “Agent Carter”, directed by Louis D’Esposito, it embraces many diverse camera angles and camera shots. In the first scene, Captain America appears in the shot while operating a plane. The first few seconds is a close up shot of him which then cuts to a close up of the character Peggy Carter. In this shot, there is an example of mise-en-scene as the setting is Peggy sitting alone in a dim room caused by lowkey lighting. The lowkey lighting is used to set a dramatic and emotional tone. The camera then cuts back to Captain America. He is seen putting a picture of Peggy on the dashboard of the plane while there is emotional non-diegetic sound playing. The use of this music impacts the scene as it makes the audience believe that in a couple of seconds, Captain America is going to die from a plane crash. After the scene with Peggy and Captain America, the camera fades to black and text is displayed on the screen that says, “One year later”. The use of this comment was to trick the audience into believing that Captain America is no longer alive. These are two contrasting scenes because it goes from Peggy sitting alone in a dark room to one year later while providing an establishing shot of the city during the daytime. The scene cuts to an office setting which appears to be at Agent Carters job. Mise-en-scene is used here by costume and makeup as Agent Carter is seen wearing a navy-blue blazer and skirt, minimal makeup, and an old hairstyle to indicate that the year is around the 1940s. Agent Carter hears the sirens go off as she decides to answer the phone. There is diegetic sound as the audience and Agent Carter can both hear the phone call. After the phone call, it cuts to a medium long shot showing Agent Carter carrying a suitcase while crossing the road at night as a car drove by. There is a brief mischievous non-diegetic sound as the shot transitions into a low medium close up of Peggy. The camera transitions into a panning shot of her walking past a car. The model of the car is part of the setting to further show the audience that the time is in the 1940s. This a technique used from mise-en-scene. The scene then cuts to a long shot of Peggy walking to the building. She is approached by two men who she must fight off. During this fight scene there are multiple camera angles to create chaos as it shows that Peggy is a good fighter. After Agent Carter fights off those men, she ends up kicking one of them through a window as the man inside is frightened by this which causes a reaction. This is called a reaction shot which is used to capture a moment when a character is reacting to something off screen. The reaction shot helps the audience understand what they should be feeling as well. The man’s acting in this scene also helps convey a true feeling of terror from how strong Agent Carter is as he is surprised because she is a strong woman.