The selected few scenes from a randomly chosen five minutes of the Captain America movie holds many more film features than being credited for. When breaking apart this film and studying the editing, sound, mise-en-scene, camera shots and etc. styles, some may call it a cinematic masterpiece. As I broke apart the five minutes of the movie I noticed multiple things that I would like to share.
When the movie begins, the marvel logo is playing due to digital effects with a voice over of Captain America and Peggy speaking over it which lets the viewer know that they are in for a treat by showing off the popular company and can make viewer excited for the upcoming movie. This digital effect then fades to black as the movie is just getting started. The black then fades to Captain America in his heroic costume. The setting takes place in a shuttle as he is saying his goodbyes because he knows he will have to crash the shuttle. The simultaneity then switches to Peggy, or agent carter, being in the office on the call with him as she is vulnerably saying her depressing goodbyes to Steve. The viewers feel sympathy for the characters as well as sorrow. As he goes to crash the shuttle a non-diegetic sound of heroic background music starts playing to capture the overall image that a legend is sacrificing himself.
Later on, The shot of the shuttle then fades into a beautiful landscape setting of a bridge and city which gives off a sense of peacefulness, where the roll is used in the bottom left corner as texts appear saying "One Year Later". This landscape scenery then cuts to a close up of an alarm flashing. This alarm flashing is synchronized sound since it is making an alarmed noise. It is also there to show the symbolism of how important and alerted everyone should be that the zodiac killer is out. This gives the viewers a sense of anxiousness and wanting to know what will happen next. As it then cuts to multiple shots of the office which is filmed in three point lighting where light is coming in different directions. Viewers can tell this is an office by the suits and tie costumes that the actors are wearing. It then cuts to agent Flinn in a tight shot as he picks up the phone which leads into a close up of him writing down a file of the zodiac killer. This then transitions to a follow shot where the camera follows him through the office as he is barking orders at the other agents, this shows the viewers that he is the boss. When agent Carter tells him how she would like to advance her work, sweetening is added to the door as Agent Flinn slams the door in her face which makes the viewers see how he slammed her idea down. Moments later an extreme close up is shown of a picture of Steve that agent carter is holding. This is symbolizing how much she misses him and that she thinks about him while working. Afterwards as she is cleaning up and preparing to leave, the phone starts ringing which cuts into another tight shot of her answering the phone and writing down important information on the call. A sound bridged is used as you can still hear the call even thought the shots are changing. As she is in the middle of writing down "three to five agents are recommended to handle this dangerous situation" she then crosses that part. the scene is cut and agent carter then appeared on the crime scene all alone which is a form of parallelism. This is because of how she crossed off the three to five agents and showed up as the only one. The viewers are now invested in what she is about to do and how things will go.
In a new scene, a new setting is shown. It is outside of a building in an alley with lowkey lighting being displayed. Agent Carter is still in her work costume which is just a nice blouse and skirt with a briefcase in her hand. A simultaneity is shown as she is walking towards the building and he is at a desk starring at her through the glass as these two shots switched back and fourth. As she is approaching two out of three men there walk outside to handle the conversation. It then cuts to another simultaneity which is the two men getting beaten up outside as the editors use sweetening to make agent carter punches sound harder and more harmful. The simultaneity than transfers to the one man still inside listening to music and eating his apple with diegetic sound being naturally there. The viewers feel shocked and attached to the film as they are excited for what's to come. As this cross-cutting is continuously going on, it comes to an end when the direct sound is applied as she kicks one of the bad guys through the glass window. The scene then cuts to the guy who was inside and it shows his reaction shot to one of his buddies being unconsciously kicked through the glass. She then surprises him by putting a gun to his head and asking him to show her information. This makes the viewers feel the risk that agent carter is taking. He then brings her to a private room where they added sweetening to make the private door creek more excessively. This gives off a sense of secretiveness and quietness. From this scene you can see the contrast in Peggy's character as she went from feeling sorrow and crying to beating up bad guys and not being afraid of some action.
Overall, with all of the filming elements coming together the viewers feel apart of the story and are invested in what will be coming next. The actors each played their individual roles using performance style acting method which explains how they were becoming one with their characters and as if it was natural for them. This movie is a must watch and when putting all of the film together the story comes alive.
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