Analysing Film Openings: Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver Opening Scene:

My first impressions of this particular scene opening, to the film'Taxi Driver' were mixed and bewildered, since the opening scene started off as a quiet, mysterious and dark opening to the film, only showing the beguinning credits. Initially, This created a very 'apprehensive' and 'uneasy' mood to what may happen next, due to the silence. This intital mood to the film was soon changed due to the sudden entrance of the non-diegetic sound/incidental music / gradually-pacing drums and trumpets in the background. This music is introduced just before the first scene is revealed, to create more suspence.
The fog/mist creates a very mysterious atmosphere/mood and makes the viewer want to know what is hiding behind the mist. The gradual pace of the music sounds like the movement of a train, and the mist combined with this makes the taxi seem like it has a slight resemblance of power to a train.

When the object (Taxi) is revealed, it is shot by a 'close up' and shot by a 'low angle', making the subject seem grand and threatening. This creates a very 'intimidating' feeling as the taxi brushes past the camera as if it is going to come in contact with the viewer/camera.
When the taxi leaves the shot, the trail of mist falls around and behind it, to make it look more dominant, as if it is bursting through the smoke with ease.

From this part onwards, the title is revealed following up the end of the taxi as it leaves the shot, fading out like the mist in the background. The rest of the titles/credits are shown in the same way in the same 'fade in' and 'fade out' motion. The font style itself is a very bold, orange and harsh font to resemble the taxi's 'Power' and 'Harshness'.
This first scene is then ended and faded out into the next scene to where the Taxi drivers identity is revealed with an extreme close-up, showing only the eyes to make it seem more personal/emotional and making him appear to be threatening. Once this scene is shown, the music in the background becomes alot softer with the mellow/blue sound of the wind instument in the background to resemble his thoughts/feelings as very soft and dreary as he looks out from the inside of his taxi. The lights shown, as if he is passing lights whilst driving, highlight his face and reveals more of his features, such as his eyes flicking from left to right with concentration and weariness. The red colour light gives a symbol of anger to his eyes, even though there is the calm and drowsey music in the background, it gives off a negative outlook upon his face/personality.

The scene which follows up the last shows from inside of the taxi, at a point of view shot, as if you know what the charcacter (taxi driver) is seeing. The shot is also filmed whilst the taxi is in motion, so you feel like you are in the taxi on the move. This scene is shown from unfocused shot from within the car showing the front screen, but showing focus on the wiper blades and the raindrops on the front screen, as if the driver is daydreaming and not focusing on anything else but the delicate raindrops. The multi-coloured lights shown outside from the window gives a more calming and positive outlook on the scene / character itself as if it is based on pure fantasy. The following scene is fairly similar, but is alot more clear and set in slow motion, making all the objects (oncoming cars) and lighting delay to create a creative lighting effect. In this shot, the calm music is still being played to keep to the tranquil feel of the scene, but towards the end of this scene, the steady to fast pacing drums and trumpets are slowly introduced as if it is a 'sound bridge' to the next scene to create a sense of concern and anxiety. The following scene shows the red mist and the people passing infront of the taxi with a concerned look on their faces to show the taxi as being fearsome and threatening. This particulare scene was taken from a 'long shot' to show the view all of the by passers in the seen / showing every movement.  This scene soon flicks to the 'extreme close up' of the drivers eyes, lighten-up by the red light, showing his questionable stare/look upon his face. The 'non-diegetic sound/incidental music' changes from the pacing drum music/trumpets to the soft and gentle music soon as it shows the mans eyes again, which represents his feeble mind and outlook from inside the car, watching the people passing by, rather than the outlook from outside the car which comes across as more threatening and grand.  

This scene is soon faded and finalised to the last, repeated scene of the mist settling the mood, as well as the calm blues music in the background as it comes to a slow and steady stop, subtly ending the opening scene to 'Taxi Driver'.

Other Film openings, such as 'The Shining' show some contrasting differences and similatrities to the film opening 'Taxi driver'. The majority of the shots used in this particular film opening are based on long, sweeping shots of high angle / birds eye shot to make the subject (car) seem vunerable and as if it is prey, like a powerful/graceful bird that is hovering above the car along the long, winding road. However, In 'Taxi Driver' rather than making the subejct seem vunerable, they have used a low angle shot, making the subject appear to be threatening, which makes the subject (taxi) seem more majestic and powerful.
This makes a very interesting point on how much of an impact of a camera angle/shot can make on a scene/film, in this case, the contrasting differences of the close up shot in 'Taxi Driver' and the birdseye/high angle shot make two different perceptions on the object.
The two film openings also show a different perception on the objects/vehicles, one being powerful and the other being show as vunerable.
The main shot used within this opening scene is an 'Extreme Wide Shot' which shows the audience and exposes the surrounding environment in the scene, in this case; the lake, long winding roads and the mountains ranges in the scene. This makes figure/subject in this scene (the car) appear very small/isolated in the wide scaled environment surrounding it. Whereas, in 'Taxi Driver' a variety of shots are used, such as extreme close ups of the drivers face, medium-long shot, long shot of the viewing from the inside of the taxi, the pedestrians etc. The variety of shots within the opening give it a more interesting approach to the opening scene and make things a bit more 'attention grabbing' for the film.
The sounds/music used in this particular film opening (The Shining) sets a very chilling and low tone to the film opening, starting with a solo instrument playing a very slow-paced and, from time to time, gradually introducing the 'twisted' and 'twining' sounds of strings. However, 'Taxi Driver' uses a mixture of two different  types of music to balance the moods of a slow/lazy feel to a more awakening/triumpfant sound.

 

I decided to also compare the opening scene to 'Taxi Driver' to another / completely different perspective, by comparing it to a film that is totally opposite. In this case, I decided to analyse the film opening to 'Reservoir Dogs' because I thought it would be a different approach of comparing the stylings of the films together to look out their intention of the film openings and how they present them to the viewer in different ways.

The opening to 'Reservoir Dogs' is mainly focused on the representation of each of the characters and each of their facial features/identities within the film.

The main shot used within the film is known as the medium close up, which involves a little more inimacy than a 'medium shot' but not as much as the 'close up' shot. This is used many times to show each of the individuals indentity (just below the shouler to the head) to make the characters look come across as bold and fierce by showing their 'confident/standing tall' posture, wide frames, to make them look like they are highly improtant. Even though an 'eye level shot' is used for this, it still makes the object/actors look threatening; for example, the actors are walking head on to the camera casually but showing power and authrotiy, whereas in 'Taxi Driver' a 'low angle shot' was used to make the object/Taxi appear threatening.
A mixture of scenes are also used in both film openings of 'Taxi Driver' and 'Reservoir Dogs' but one which is mainly used throughout the opening title sequence for 'Reservoir Dogs', is the 'long shot' shot, which is used at the introduction and the end, showingthe men walking, from the side, and also when they walk away from the camera, in their powerful stride.
Similarly, in 'Taxi Driver' this shot is used when the pedestrians, to show them from head to toe, showing the movement of the pedestrians - walking cautiously across the road.
 In this scene, a 'slow-motion' effect has been used to capture the individuals stride and facial expressions/identities to show their emotions, to give the viewer/audience a better viewing of the characters.
Similarly, 'Taxi Driver' includes the use of 'Slow-Mo' for the revealing of the taxi, to make it look important and powerful, it also gives the viewer a better ability to look at the object (Taxi).