Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver  (Martin Scorsese, 1976)








Camera -  The first shot of action we see is a low light area, with orangey coloured lighting, shows a taxi going past before revealing the title of the film, this sets an inner city setting an instantly puts the audience into an inner city night time scenario, which has a negative stereotype for being a wrong place at a wrong time. The first appearance of a character, is an extreme close up of a mans eyes as he looks around, possibly thinking anxiously about something.


Sound -  There is no sound at the beginning of the clip, but then there is a full orchestra creating a piece which has both Piano and Forte sections, which then progress to a large crescendo when the taxi appears, deep instruments such as Oboes and Cellos are used in this section. Then the music changes quieter, softer woodwind instruments such as flutes, to create a a bluesy romantic melody, that is quite mellow, from when the first extreme close up of the main character appears all the way to the end of the clip, with a string section in the background, creating a soft bass tone to compliment the melody.


Editing -  The lighting of the main characters face in the first scene of action suggests he is travelling in a car because the lighting is intermittent, suggesting he is going past street lights, then the shot fades to an angled, obscure windscreen where the rain has blurred out objects in the distance such a lit up signs, coupled with the slow music, the slow fade suggests a relaxed feeling in the scene or possibly a negative, sad feeling. The rest of the opening is dominated by a shot through a windscreen which is in slow motion and is blurred, this could be a point of view shot, possibly suggesting drug use, it also could be used to create a feeing of the unknown, the audience cannot establish where they are therefore they do not feel comfortable in their situation.


Mise en Scene -  There is a lot of smoke used to shroud the scene in mystery and a create feeling of the unknown, this coupled with the orange tinted street lighting effect, that is dim, and alerts the audience that it is a night time environment, which creates a feeling of anxiety because night time is associated with bad things, such as gang crime and mysterious happenings


Font -  The font used in the opening title is bold orange and in capitals so it is easier to read, with then main focus of the text, eg, the production company, distribution company, and other subtext, such as, 'presents' being less so important. this is done by changing the size of the font to make one part stand out, the text is also placed directly in the middle, making it the centre of attention, in a way that makes it stand out and be bold, so that people acknowledge it, this may also be because at this point there are no other points of interest on the screen.

After this section of the opening credits, the font starts to move around the screen, it taakes on a fluorescent glow to make it stand out a little more from the background scenes, because the scenes behind the text are in low lit lighting. The names fade in and fade out again, placed around the screen mainly so that it allows room for another actors name to appear somewhere else, as they tend to overlap a lot.



Opening Credits -

• Columbia Productions Presents
• Robert DeNiro In
• Taxi Driver
• A Bill/Phillips Production of a Martin Scorsese Film
• Starring Jodie Foster
• Albert Brooks as Tom
• Harvey Keitel
• Leonard Harris
• Peter Boyle as Wizard
• And Cybill Shepherd as Betsy
• Music by Bernard Hearmann
• Supervising Film Editor Marcia Lucas
• Film Editors Tom Rolf A.C.E, Melvin Shapird
• Special Make-up Dick Smith
• Visual Consultant David Nichols
• Creative Consultant Sandra Weintraub
• Director of Photography Michael Chapman
• Written by Paul Shrader
• Produced by Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips
• Directed by Martin Scorsese

Actual Clip -