Case Study- Agent Carter
Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog!
Today in class we took our first mock exam for paper 1 media studies. We watched the clip four times and had two minutes in between to write down our thoughts and any elements we had seen.
The movie excerpt we watched was from Agent Carter. Here was my entry of how elements work together to create the social significance!
In Agent Carter the social significance is about a woman, in the post civil-war era, in a male dominated field being undermined, because of her gender. Throughout this excerpt we see Peggy, the female protagonist, in an office, only filled with men being talked down on and referred to as "sweetie" or "darling" rather than what she truly is, which is agent carter. The representation, which focuses on the way individuals and groups are portrayed to the audience, is the imbalance of power between men and women in the workplace during that time period, as that was the gender norms. Throughout the clip we watched there are many attributes that work together to make the social significance what it is, to the audience.
The director establishes where the scene is by having a master shot which showed where all of the characters desks are; along with other utilities. Peggy's desk is all the way in the back, behind of all the men's desk which gives the audience a sense of "unimportance" in Peggys line of work and what is needed of her. While Peggy is in her seat, the head agent comes up to her and places a hand on her shoulder. This is a two person shot where we can see the body language between the two. Which is uncomfortability and unconventionality, because if it were a man, the head agent would never do that, which shows how low he thinks of her as a colleague, but as a fragile woman.
Buckingham's theory, which is that genres develop to reflect specific issues of that era, women are starting to work and blend into work places. And by saying this era, it is post civil war. That is reflected by the mis-en-scene, with the costumes the characters are wearing along with how the director designed the set. We are able to see props, that were progressive towards mid 20th century, like typewriter machines, old-time phones, and neon/light colored beetle cars.
The undermining also comes from Peggy having lost Steve. Because of that she is seen as fragile. A high angle shot was used as we see Peggy looking down at a photo of Steve showing the vulnerability coming from her end. Earlier in the clip, as Steve is flying and saying sorry/goodbye to her the audience gets a close-up of Peggy's face and she's crying, showing that they had a relationship, and she had lost someone important. So, by having a man ask her how she is holding up, the audience is expecting her to reply in a state of fragility or sadness since that falls under societal norms. Instead we get an answer of retaliation about how she isn't being put to work on the field.
Peggy gets left alone in the office while the men go and get drinks, and didn't bother to invite her since women don't "fit that scenery". The phone rings which causes the alarm to blare and red flashing lights appear. The contrast of dark lighting and red flashes, all while a close up on Peggy's face shows uncertainty and mischief while she picks up a call she knows she shouldn't have. The music turns ominous as she sets to "fight" the bad guys by herself. We get a dolly shot of Peggy walking to the location wearing her work uniform and heels. The sound emphasizes on the heels, so its diegetic, and makes the audience see how empowered she is at that moment. about to fight wearing heels and a skirt, which is a standard female expected outfit.
Overall, these elements work together to create the social significance of this clip. The shots working with the lighting and contrast in the sound with scene to show Peggy going from being undermined to doing something empowering and proving herself to, quite literally, herself. The dialogue conveys societal and gender norms at that time period. The mis-en-scene showed the imbalance of power through dialogue and costume of men and women. All of those are examples of how elements of film can create meaning in a film.
Here is my written entry from our mock exam!
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