Taxi Driver Storyboard

We were set the task of creating a storyboard for the opening of Taxi Driver, using the screenplay to present our interpretation of how the scene would unfold.

We started with a dutch angle to represent that Travis Bickle is hiding a "life of private fear" behind his smile, so things are not as they seem. He is walking towards the camera in a long shot- his clothes are blending in to the New York background. As the camera slowly zooms towards his face the lights around him fade, and gradually become darker, until it's a low-key extreme close up of his eyes.

Then audience is then presented with a low-angle shot, conveying his feet as they walk past. The camera slowly tilts up his body, displaying his outfit and revealing his empty smile.

The next shot is a medium-long still shot, of Travis walking past the camera, along a New York sidewalk. As he walks past an adult club, he stops and a lateral tracking shot travels through the club and into a bedroom scene, with him and a female worker.

After a blackout, a birds' eye view shot of the taxi company is illustrated. This expresses the sheer amount of taxis coming to the company as does the following shot- a low angle, positioned on the floor, between many moving taxis, one of which drives over the camera, turning the screen black.

A medium long shot of a woman behind a desk at the company reception, reveals Travis as he walks towards her. An extreme close up of his hand drumming his fingers on the desk is demonstrated.

This task allowed us to be as creative with our shots as we liked, so we had a wide range of shot types. This is something that is easy to forget when filming coursework, so we made sure we have planned a variation on our shot list.