An Analysis of Agent Carter

Agent Carter is a follow up to Captain America, the main character being Steve’s love interest. The short clip portrays the struggles of a female worker in male dominated industry. The usage of Mise-en-scene, sound edits, master edits, and different shots all help establish the emotions and tension being shown. Each works together to create the social and personal struggle that Agent Carter suffers through in the clip simply because of her gender.

                Mise-en-scene appears primarily through the use of lighting. The lighting is very low-key in the first few minutes, showing the grim location and postwar situation. At night the internal lights are turned on, changing the mood to become more tense and suspicious. The lighting outside Zodiac’s location also gives off a noir sense, especially with the gangster like men. Space is also used as both deep and shallow. The scenes mostly use shallow space with the camera being directed at the characters. The shallow space allows the character’s to be focused upon rather than the background. In Agent Carter’s confrontations with the head agent shallow space is constantly used. Deep space is used in the intro scene with Captain America. Costume’s represent the difference between men and women in the short. As the only women shown is Agent Carter she has a different costume than all the other men, who wear almost exactly the same uniform. There are two settings, the Zodiac location and the office. The office limits Agent Carter from success, while the Zodiac location is run-down and freer for Carter. Master shots, while infrequent, are used well in the limited time.

                The Marvel entrance to the short can be interpreted as Leit Motif as it is the theme for Marvel. Simultaneity appears next with the transitions between Agent Carter and Captain America in the first few moments. The scene continuously cuts between the two speakers’. The emotions and increased tension in Cap’s last moments come across with the scene ending with Agent Carter. Leit Motif is used once again as mourning music plays throughout Cap’s death and the one year transition. Contrast occurs once when Agent Carter is denied difficult work, and the men returning from said mission later. The contrast shows the sexist trust in the men who were expected to succeed, but in fact were not able to complete the task. There is also parallelism when Agent Carter is writing her report and then the scene transitions to outside the Zodiac location. This creates tension as she was told not to seek the harder jobs, but she continued all on her own. The master techniques are useful in transitioning the short film as it emphasizes the impactful scenes in such a small amount of time.

                Diegetic are much more frequent than non-diegetic sounds. The main sounds are the music, the conversations, sound bridge, and direct sound. The music appears as both diegetic and non-diegetic. The diegetic form appears in the zodiac location when Agent Carter fights against the two men. This music provides the mid-1900s feel that the film is established in. It also shows the carelessness of criminals and how easily Agent Carter is defeating them. Non-diegetic music is used as the film music. Throughout the entire movie there is constant use of film music to show emotions such as the gentle violins during the beginning to symbolize grief. The conversations are diegetic and are used to develop the themes of the clip such as men being condescending towards females. Sound bridging assists in softening the transitions and is a part of the film music. Direct sound is used when Agent Carter attacks the two men outside the Zodiac’s location. Although it’s unlikely that the sounds are realistic, the characters still seem to hear them. The sounds both entertain by emphasizing the fight and also shows Agent Carter’s strength. The sounds in the film are necessary to provide its clean transitions, show the themes, and express the emotions.

                There are a variety of shots used within the short film as well, the main one’s being establishing shots, close shots, full shots, medium-long shots, shoulder shot, and perspective shot. The establishing shot is done during the one year transition, it’s a large shot of New York City. It establishes the setting and location of the short film. Close shots and full shots are used very frequently throughout the clip. The close shots and full shots show the different emotions each character has. Close ups on Agent Carter show her frustration with sexist oppression. Close ups on the other agents show their sense of superiority towards Carter. Full shots do just the same, but show more body language. Medium-long shots are used when Agent Carter arrives at the Zodiac location and it creates a sense of confidence in her persona. Carter imbues an aura of dominance as she begins to take control of her work. The shoulder shots and the perspective shots occur during the conversations. One particular example is when Agent Carter is asking her Boss for more work. The camera is first from Agent Carter’s perspective and then transitions into a shoulder shot. For the few seconds in the scene, the viewer can feel as if they are being looked at by the Boss.

                Together, mise-en-scene, master edits, sounds, and camera shots all function together to create the themes of the film. The sexist themes portrayed are established by mise-en-scene and the master edit primarily. The sounds and camera shots add the accents to the film and emphasizes emotions. The different usage of space comes together with the close and full body shots to show how characters react. The sound is used to transition the different camera shots and camera shots. Agent Carter accurately sets the terrible inequality between the sexes of the mid 1900s and even modern issues.