5 Most Valuable Minutes: Taxi Driver

The one of the intents of Taxi Driver is definitely concerning the portrayal of New York City and how it is a city that is disintegrating. I selected these five minutes of the film because the audience finally gets to see the intent of the film come into fruition. The entire atmosphere helps to show how the city is corrupt and is becoming poisoned by people like the pimp.

Martin Scorsese has directed a variety of films including the Aviator, Shutter Island, The Departed, Goodfellas, and recently, Hugo. However Taxi Driver relates most with Goodfellas, a film he directed that portrayed American gangs. Although both emulate much different tones and environments, both films do a good job of inspecting the main character and their deterioration and transformation. In Goodfellas, we are presented with a young man making his way up criminal society. However, he eventually loses grasp of reality because he is taken away from that lifestyle.

In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle is a war veteran with a haunted past who drives around New York City and finds solace in it. However, he eventually feels a need to stand up for what he believes in and becomes a vigilante and takes matters into his own hands. This is where these five minutes come in. The audience finally sees Travis Bickle succeed in getting rid of the "scum" of New York City. This extract does a good job of fully realizing his character. Because he is shot at and sustained fatal injuries, he is able to display his motivations and beliefs to the whole audience; he has nothing to lose and in this near-death experience, there is nothing left to hide.

This extract relates to the narrative because it almost serves as a resolution to the film. If the climax of the film was when Travis Bickle failed to kill the senator, we are given this scene in order to see Travis come to terms with himself because he feels a need to "flush everything down the toilet". Killing the pimp and saving the girl would bring him peace because he would feel like he is doing something about the corrupt city.

This extract highlights Scorsese's intent by manifesting all of the corruption in the New York City and using the pimp's compound to personify it. By taking out the people who are involved with prostitution management, Bickle is used to show how the corruption can be eliminated through individual involvement. Because Bickle sees that the senator is unsuccessful with getting rid of the "scum" in the city, Scorsese's use of Travis Bickle and his subsequent murders illustrates his intent.

This extract definitely has the elements of an action/crime film. This is done through the use of weapons, the frequency of deaths, and the criminal issues in these five minutes. However it also has elements of film-noir due to the stark criminal aspects of the scene. The shots of the bodies laying inside of the room best shows this connection to film-noir and that genre's style and conventions. In relation to history, this extract shows how Travis Bickle may have been affected by his service in the Vietnam War. Because he has been so lonely and out-of-place after the war, this scene shows a return to his lifestyle during the war. Being set after the Vietnam War is important because it is the main cause of Travis' isolation from the rest of the city.

The American Anti-Hero

The American anti-hero is a type of character found in films that perform heroic acts, yet with unheroic intentions. There are various historical factors that contributed to the rise of this type of character from 1945 into the 1980s. One of the reasons was because America emerged a new country after WWII. America was not as innocent and pure as it was before and characters on screen needed to reflect that. Characters became more gritty and real and flawed. The article by Andrew Henneberry also mentions how America was more rebellious. Protagonists reflected this by being morally questionable. Filmmakers encouraged audiences to sympathize with these characters and in turn realizing the wrongs in society.

The American anti-hero contradicted the Classic Hollywood Ideology because the characters in Classic Hollywood Cinema were clearly definable whereas anti-heroes had a variety of motivations. Heroes in classic cinema would have traits that were immediately recognized, while in anti-heroes, these traits were not always apparent all the time.

Intensified Continuity: David Bordwell

According to David Bordwell, there are four factors that contributed to intensified continuity.

The first of which is from more rapid editing. Almost as a result from "American and British filmmakers experimenting with quicker cuts,  the entire industry moved forward because audiences soon became accustomed to cut action. The long shots found in realist films would bore the audience and wasn't visually stimulating. Realism became irrelevant and the average shot lengths of movies rapidly decreased.

A second style was from different lens lengths in between shots. Wide angle lenses was able to capture more of the action and provided deep focus that filmmakers were looking for. Filmmakers also used longer lenses because they were "all-purpose tools for close-ups, medium shots, and even establishing shots". This shift was caused partly because of the ease of use in exterior locations. Filmmakers could use longer lenses to shoot action much farther away and proved to be a multipurpose tool.

A third style was the use of tighter framing for dialogue shots. This technique was aided by "Panavision's sharper, less distorting lenses" in order to give the amount of detail close-ups needed. This technique became popular because it placed more importance on the actors' performances as opposed to the aesthetics of the shot.

One final style that Bordwell mentioned was the use of a free-ranging camera. This was the use of shots that incorporated motion into the shot. this was done in order to convey an emotion that dialogue couldn't be able to portray. For example, "pushing-in"could create a sense of tension that the actors wouldn't be able to effectively convey alone.

"Arrival of a Train" vs. "Damsel in Distress": Realist vs. Classical

In "Arrival of a Train" the film is composed of exactly one shot. This reflects the beliefs and ideals found in realist films where the filmmaker gives the audience a plethora of details to take in within one shot. The picture is composed of essentially an establishing shot as well as an anticipatory shot of the train in the beginning. The movement in the shot is organic and is composed of people entering and leaving a train. The editor isn't inserting shots to raise awareness with certain details but instead is trying to capture reality, therefore a story isn't necessarily constructed by the filmmaker by instead is left up to the audience's interpretation

"Damsel in Distress" represents more of the classical ideas of cutting where details are highlighted within the scene. Contrast cutting is used to create tension as the film cuts from shots of the damsel to the train quickly approaching. The types of shots used is varied in composition. However, the composition of the shots emphasize the tension build-up as well as the nobility and heroism of the dog. The narrative is told using sub-stories as the dog tries to help the damsel in distress. In doing so, borders in the frame help to emphasize details that help to focus the filmmaker's intent into the story.

Advanced Editing Notes: Soviet Montage & Realism

Soviet Montage and Formalism

Pudovkin insisted that cinema use images to create new meanings. Using lengthy shots would resemble reality too closely, therefore Pudovkin said that only close ups, symbols and other details be used to express the filmmaker's message. The Kuleshov effect is using the juxtaposition of images to create meaning. He did an experiment with experienced actors and juxtaposed different images and achieved an effect that brings meaning to the scene. The Eisensteinian montage is the use of sharply contrasting images. He believed that each shot needed to be incomplete so that in the edit, juxtaposing images will bring meaning to the film. In the Odessa Steps sequence, Eisenstein uses this method to create a sense of hopelessness amongst chaos by juxtaposing images of the chaotic running, to close-ups of the individuals, to the uniform and orderliness of the soldiers.

Andre Bazin and Realism

Andre Bazin was frustrated that classical and formalistic cutting didn't reflect reality as cinema should. He believed that by cutting the film, the director's intention and interpretation of reality is being imposed on the audience. He also argued that the editor is placing his own analysis of reality by cutting the film a certain way. Realist filmmakers strive to create the illusion of reality. Their goal is to bet recreate reality for the audience. Cutting to close ups would be forcing the audience to see certain things so instead Bazin liked deep focus and long shots. These techniques give the audience the chance to form their own opinions of the scene.

Production Portfolio: Bridge

A. Rationale
My group members and I set out to make a dramatic film entitled "Bridge". I wanted to create a film that pushed my own abilities as a filmmaker, which included using more majestic locations, different methods of cinematography, the use of an original soundtrack, and to tell a story using images more than dialogue. The intended audience was for anyone who had to deal struggle and determination. I believed this film would be successful because we intended to incorporate a more complex story and add more production value in the form of locations and camera work.

Word Count: 96

B. Commentary

I was the writer-director of this film. I also was in charge of sound design during post-production.

Some problems arose while I was developing the concept and drafting the screenplay for the film. I wanted to make a film that played around with non-linear storytelling. However, from the feedback we got during our pitch, we needed to develop more of a main character and to get rid of the death at the end. This ended up changing the script entirely. There was no way to retain the same concept from the original idea in order to conform to these parameters. The revised treatment followed a ten scene arc. Once I had the treatment done I wrote a rough draft of the script. It consisted mainly of voice overs. It took me an entire week to arrive at the final script. I received feedback from some industry professionals that I met while on set of an independent film. They told me that the use of voice-over is a lazy way to tell the story. Instead, they told me to show rather than tell. I ended up taking out all of the voice over except for two small snippets at the beginning and the end. I feel like this made for a much better story because all of the information isn't fed to the audience, but instead requires and element of interpretation.

We made sure that production would be smooth by scouting locations ahead of time to check for the conditions at the bridge and the Golden Gate Park. We figured out that there is much less people on the bridge during the early morning, which would make shooting much easier. There were parts of the bridge that worked better for scenes then others. We also looked at parts of the Golden Gate Park that would work well for our montage.

Pre-production brought forth a lot of frustrations for me as the director. I needed to make sure the conditions for shooting were optimal, and this included casting actors. Because we were rushed during our 3 day pre-production period, the casting call I wanted to hold did not go as planned. Initially we wanted to cast professional actors outside of our own high school. Unfortunately, working with professionals involved extensive planning and discussion with the actors using time that we didn't have. As a result none of the actors showed up to the casting call, and we needed to screen actresses from our own high school. This was an improvement from our last film because we had the opportunity to see the performances of the actresses before they went to act for us. As for the male lead, we needed to use our editor in order to avoid any scheduling conflicts.

I needed to completely block out our first day of shooting because we needed to shoot all of our scenes that take place on the bridge. This included filming scenes out of sequence. We made sure we filmed the shots that would require more moving space on the bridge so we could get shots require the steadi-cam. One particular shot that attracted a lot of attention on the bridge was the shot where Sasha passes out. Because I had to literally tip over and fall to the ground to get the shot, many people was staring and wondering what we were doing. I didn't notice them. I had no time to worry about how ridiculous I looked because I was determined to complete the shots that we needed. We ran into a little set back when the bridge ranger came by to ask us what we were doing, but he didn't kick us off the bridge which was very good for our production. The first day of shooting was successful, but due to time constraints, I was forced to shoot all of the bridge scenes in one day which limited what we could do because we couldn't go back to re-shoot. It was difficult to have our actors act exactly the way I want especially for the running sequences.

Filming Scene 3 posed some problems. We needed this location to include a view of the Golden Gate Bridge as well as a fence of sorts for Julian to take his frustration out on. Therefore we ended up finding the location during the day of the shoot. We also overcame this problem by blocking the shot so that we were able to frame both the bridge and Julian looking up at it.

One huge problem that we encountered was finding a location to shoot our "hospital" scene. We tried going to several different hospitals to no avail. Therefore we resorted to using our "Plan Z", shooting in what was to be Sasha's room. Although the impact of the location is not as powerful as a hospital, the room served the same purpose by creating an atmosphere that Sasha would be comfortable in. As a group we solved this problem by contacting out various friends in order to find a location that was ideal for shooting.

Shooting the long-anticipated Scene 2 was very challenging. Because we shot during the night time inside of a house for a shot that needed to simulate daytime, we needed to use lighting equipment in order to compensate. In terms of production design, we also needed to convey a lot of information in just one shot. We constructed a collection of medals, pictures, and get-well cards in order to convey how Julian used to be a great runner, but his injury has rendered him unenthusiastic towards running. The shot also involved a continuous take that required a lot of blocking and planning. We needed to move around the set in order to properly capture the shot. We made this process more streamline by having friends aid us in moving around and setting around the set.

From the feedback we received, our cinematography was a success in this film. I felt that the quality of our cinematography was a result of our attention to detail and amount of preparation and conceptualizing when designing the shots. We made sure we were meticulous with the focus, as well as the variety in shots because we knew the film would be redundant due to the constant running in the script. I thought we did a good job of keeping the shot selection new and exciting. However, I think in order to improve our cinematography and not have the shots be so redundant, we could have incorporated shots that implied that Julian was running instead of directly showing the audience shots of him running.

In terms of directing and acting, I felt this film improved greatly from our last film in terms of the quality of the acting. Although the bedroom scene was too dramatic, the acting throughout the film conveyed the kind of emotions that I wanted to a greater extent. Although not perfect, I felt that we put out a great effort. We could improve this area by having more communication between the actors and myself so that the actors knew the character they were playing internalized. This could be an effective method because the acting will be more natural as opposed to being forced. I felt this was the case between John and I because I made sure I discussed the character of Julian extensively and encouraged John to practice the role outside of shooting. Practicing before the day of the shoot definitely helps for better acting.

Our editing was effective in telling the story. We displayed many classical techniques in editing. We didn't use lengthy shots, but we did use wide-shots to help tell the story. As a director, I also had details within the image be emphasized to give the audience a more personal connection since tighter shots gives off a more intimate sense. Using flashbacks also was a technique that worked well in the edit and reflects more classical styles. However, given more time, it would have been nice to incorporate more abstract and impressionistic editing that transcends mere assembling clips together. This could be done by placing more emphasis even in the script itself so that the ideas in development and pre-production can carry over into post-production.

Our soundtrack was also a success. Because we used original music, I felt that I had more control of the types of emotions the music was going to bring to the film. This is effective because we ended up with a product that was free of copyrighted music that also sounded great. I spent time with the composer in order to tailor a soundtrack that would complement the film well. However, we relied on music too much and didn't apply enough ambiance and sound effects that would help create the environment of the film more organic. This is an issue we hope to address in our next film.

We believe that our film was a success due to the well thought-out cinematography, improvement with acting, and use of original music. However we do want to include more production design and sound design in our next film.