I watched the film ‘Taxi Driver’ and found the final scene in the film very interesting. There are two main techniques used. One was a fade to black to show different areas of the character’s life, and the other is a birds eye view pan.
The clip below is the scene from Taxi Driver.
I decided to try and replicate this scene, however, I don’t have the equipment that Taxi Driver had and so I have had to try and replicate it, with equipment such as a monopod, canon 600d and standard 18-55mm lens, which are all pictured below.
Below is my own version of the ‘Taxi Driver’ end scene. I created height by standing on a large object and used the monopod to remain steady and create a smooth panning shot.
I used iMovie in order to edit this clip, I cropped out the beginning and end of the clip, as these were a bit shaky. I then split the clip in multiple sections and cropped out small sections of the clip to give a distorted shot.
I like this idea, as the use of the black fades can help make the panning shot look much smoother and consistent. This will make my film look more professional, while adding a more aesthetically pleasing view to the film, while also helping me when physically filming the sequence.
My final practice inspiration shot can be seen below.
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