Constantine AnalysisBy Polly Pritchard

The standard warner brothers logo appears, making the audience excited the film as it is produced by a well known company with a history of successful and famous films. This is violently knocked aside by wind creating connotations of natural disasters and hell, causing tension in the audience, this forebodes the hellish content featured several times in the film.

The Village Roadshow Picture Logo appears from the dissolving smoke of the Warner Brothers production company Logo, the transition is significantly shorter than that of the Warner Bros. Logo. The dissolving transition from the Warner bros. logo has implications of destruction, foreboding the content to come later in the film.

Wipe transition to Vertigo DC Comics production company logo, made to look like dusty wind, which makes the audience feel tense and confused, furthering the connotations of hell and destruction.

The Quotation forebodes the premise of the film because the film centers around the ‘Spear of Destiny’ and the trouble it causes. It also says that the spear had been missing since the end of world war two, peaking the curiosity of the audience, wondering what had happened to it etc. The sound of wind continues from the first credit through the captions and into the first scene.

The establishing shot sets the mood for the film and established the location. The smoke links back to the connotations of hell, building tension in the audience, foreboding chaos and punishment. The crosses represent the religious themes of the film, religion comes up many times in the film.

Long shot of setting, establishes the scene and poverty the characters are suffering from, the shot slowly zooms in closer to the characters into a two shot.

Long, Two shot establishing the characters, shows the poverty the characters experience and the work they are forced to do to cope with this. A car drives past, breaking the silence and creating non-diegetic sound of music increasing the tension and highlight the difference in finance and status between the driver and the characters.

Low angle shots usually imply power and authority but these connotations don’t match the position we see of the character, he looks around curiously making the audience wonder what he is looking at.

Match on action shot, the first shot is a high angle shot of him reaching into the hole, while the second is a low angle shot of him clutching it tightly, the two images contrast because the low angle shot suggests power and the low angle shot the opposite.

Shot, Reaction, Shot, shows us a detailed shot of the spear and then a close up image of the weapon, then his reaction to put it into context, we then see his almost inhuman way of reacting to it.

Pan shot originally focusing on the second man, pans to focus on the first man marching towards with a sense of determination, the low angle again makes him look powerful.

Wide shot of him walking into the road, the car barges into the side of the shot without any suggestion with noise or a shot, shocking the audience and creating a lot of tension very quickly. There is no music in this shot, which could diffuse the tension or remind the audience that the scene isn’t real.

Reaction shot, we see the second man’s horror and sadness at his death showing us that while he may be wealthy he has someone who genuinely cares about him contrasting with later in the film when he is very wealthy but unloved.

Shows us the damage done by the car accident but masks the gruesome details, we see the lower half of his body through the smoke, so it looks as if he is dead or at least very seriously injured however the smoke prevents us seeing clearly, creating a sense of mystery.

An extreme close up focuses on the first man’s wrist, the mark show’s that the spear has marked him supernaturally, this shot pans to show the spear, building tension. The music is cold and haunting, building tension and implying something is about to happen.

Long shot of location but the first man, jumps up seemingly unhurt, this is shocking to the audience and will help build tension, this suggests supernatural intervention, the demonic imagery contrasts with the religious crosses in the background. The music fades out with one long note building tension. The screen fades to black hooking the audience, making them want to know what will happen next.

The title appears from the darkness as the pans around the title, the background seems to have scratches on it, almost like tallies, this could suggest imprisonment, highlighting the feeling of claustrophobia. The font is clear and square making it easy for the audience to read, it is in 3D to make it more noticeable for the audience.

The piercing noise of the kettle builds tension, mimicking a scream making the audience feel on edge. The location has changed, the shot zoomed out slowly to highlight this, the caption simply says ‘Los Angeles’ showing the geographical distance between the opening scene and the present scene.