Practice Essay

Practice Essay “Agent Carter”

Elements are very important to create a film. In the provided clip, many elements were used among the short 5 minute video.

To begin with, there are 5 master shot films. These include Simultaneity, Parallelism, Contrast, Symbolism, and Leit Motiff. In the beginning of the film it starts off with with Steve plummeting down from the sky while Peggy watches in horror. Moving back and forward from Peggy praying Steve lands safely, to Steve telling her not to worry because he has to do what he has to do for the greater good, this would be an example of Simultaneity. Simultaneity is editing where the camera cuts from one action to another to show relation between the two. Steve, knowing his landing could possibly land in death, hangs a picture of Peggy in front of him while he plummets down. Moving on in the clip, Peggy is at the agency and opens up her drawer to find a picture of Steve. This shows shows parallelism and symbolism at the same time. Parallelism is editing where two different scenes happens at the same time, but different locations. Steve and Peggy kept pictures of each other to show the audience the closeness of their relationship. Contrast is cutting between two different scenarios to highlight the difference between the two scenes. Leit Motiff is a repeating melody with a character or object. These editing scenes were able to help create and capture emotions and moods.

To go on, the clip transitions from Peggy crying for Steve, to a city with a title named “One Year Later”. This is viewed as an establishing shot a new clip coming in. And establishing shot is a shot which sets up the scene. This scene begins with alarms ringing to create alert and panic among people. This sound is a diegetic sound due to the characters responding to it. Diegetic sound is a sound where it is not edited into a film. Once the ringing of the alarm started the characters shot up from their desks, ready for something to happen. This is called staging. Staging is when the characters and props are blocked and placed in a film. The setting of the agency gives 1950’s vibes because of the props and costumes used. Costuming and props are also a part of the miss-en-scene, which is scenery and stage in a film. The characters of this scene are dressed in fancy work suits and are wearing old fashioned hats and shoes. Now in today’s generation no one dresses this way unless they are a businessman or woman. 

Another huge key factor in this scene was lightning. Lighting was used to create suspense, like when Agent Carter went out by herself to investigate. Low key lightning was also used when she received the call and went to go investigate.

In conclusion, this short Marvel clip used many elements to capture emotion and bring everything together.