Agent Carter (film)

Agent Carter is a 2013 American direct-to-video short film featuring the Marvel Comics character Peggy Carter, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. It is the fourth Marvel One-Shot short film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise and taking place after Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). The film is directed by Louis D'Esposito from a screenplay by Eric Pearson, and stars Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, along with Bradley Whitford and Dominic Cooper. In Agent Carter, Peggy Carter sets out on a solo mission to acquire the mysterious Zodiac while facing sexism post-World War II at the SSR, a precursor to S.H.I.E.L.D.

A Marvel One-Shot featuring Peggy Carter was in the works for some time before Atwell signed on to star in it, reprising her role from the Captain America films. D'Esposito, co-president of Marvel Studios and an executive producer on the feature films, aimed to replicate the period setting of Captain America: The First Avenger, while also giving the short a more modern, superhero feel. The film was a more ambitious production than previous One-Shots, with more action scenes and visual effects required than previously. Several other characters from Marvel Cinematic Universe films also appear, including Cooper reprising his role of Howard Stark.

The short was released on the home media release of

Production

Development

In August 2011, Marvel Studios announced that a couple of short films would be released direct-to-video, which were designed to be self-contained stories and known as Marvel One-Shots. Co-producer Brad Winderbaum said "It's a fun way to experiment with new characters and ideas, but more importantly it's a way for us to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe and tell stories that live outside the plot of our features." One of the ideas developed as a potential One-Shot was a spin-off from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), following the story of Peggy Carter after the events of that film. The idea was looked at again when Marvel was deciding on a short film to produce for the home media release of Iron Man 3 in 2013, and it was chosen for the spot, dependent on actress Hayley Atwell's availability.

Marvel Studios co-president Louis D'Esposito, who directed the previous One-Shot Item 47 (2012), returned as director, while writer Eric Pearson also returned from the previous One-Shots. D'Esposito noted that the short had twice the budget of Item 47, but the same amount of shooting time so "the scope of it is much bigger. It's set in a period, there are more actors involved, the scale's bigger, there are three fight scenes—we've never had that in any of [the previous One-Shots]." Atwell agreed to the project after watching Item 47, and due to her love for the character and potential "to show off some of her skill sets" that were not seen in the film. Atwell worked for three days with the stunt team to rehearse the pre-choreographed fight sequences for the short. D'Esposito elaborated on the decision to focus on Carter, saying, "It's telling the best story, and finding that story we want to tell—whether it's connectivity to the Marvel Universe, or it's highlighting a character. In the case of Hayley, it's a little bit of both. We wanted to tell Peggy Carter's story—she's been left back in the '40s. Announcing to the world that she was running S.H.I.E.L.D. with Howard Stark is a great connectivity."

Filming

Agent Carter was filmed over five days, with Gabriel Beristain serving as cinematographer. The budget did not allow for a storyboard artist to be hired, so D'Esposito, Winderbaum, and Beristain worked together to plan a shot list for the production using stand-in actors. The stunts were also pre-filmed to show the actors. D'Esposito explained that having the shots planned helped with planning the visual effects for the film. The mid-credits scene with Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan was planned to show the character in a pool, but had to be changed on set to taking place beside the pool when it was found that the muscle suit McDonough wears to portray the character could not get wet.

D'Esposito chose to differentiate the short from The First Avenger by avoiding the sepia tone used for that film by director Joe Johnston, instead using a cooler blue color. The production used two old lenses (for both night and day) that gave the short some "better" lens flares that D'Esposito felt gave the period setting a more modern feel. D'Esposito used a Steadicam or a camera dolly for the action sequences, to avoid a "quick cutty or blurry or shaky" feel. D'Esposito said that the crew was ultimately "pushing our limit" to get the planned shots on schedule, and he eventually realized that he "wasn't going to get every shot and I wasn't going to get every punch and kick, so what we do is get the optimum".

Post-production

Visual effects shots of 1940s New York from The First Avenger were reused in the short for budgetary reasons. D'Esposito noted the sequence where Carter comes "flying with the gun into the door" and the last fight, when Carter is "being attacked by the big guy", were both created with visual effects elements after they ran out of time to complete filming on them on set. In early 2013, Marvel approached visual effects company Perception to create the main-on-end title sequence for the short. Visual effects supervisor Sheena Duggal was told to retell the story of the short in 90 seconds, so she decided to use stylized versions of imagery from the period and the short itself. A mixture of 2D and 3D animation was used to achieve a final 2D look.

director	Louis D'Esposito
producer	Kevin Feige
screenplay	Eric Pearson
based on	Peggy Carter by Stan Lee
starring	Hayley Atwell Bradley Whitford Dominic Cooper
music	Christopher Lennertz
cinematography	Gabriel Beristain
editing	Peter S. Elliot
studio	Marvel Studios
distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
runtime	15 minutes
country	United States
language	English

Agent Carter (film)

Plot

Cast

Production

Development

Filming

Post-production

Music

Release

Reception

Television series

External links

References