Taxi Driver - Max

It starts with what appears to be either smoke or steam, this gives quite an industrial feel to the beginning of the film.

The soundtrack playing is non-diegetic, it is a saxophone song playing which is quite relaxed; this sets the atmosphere and seems to be a parallel sound to what's happening in the film.

The smoke then decapitates as man walks through it, as we see a glass door appear with a man sitting at a desk behind it.

There is a close up of the back of the mans head, which obscures part of the door, this gives the man a sense of anonymity which makes the audience wonder who the man is.

We then see the man walk through the doorway into the building, the camera follows him, but as he passes the camera, a logo on his jacket becomes central in the shot, this could suggest that the logo may perhaps be important.

The music also begins to pick up in volume as the man enters the building, suggesting that something may be about to happen.

The camera then pans around the man, so that we can now see his face, he is quite a young man, with some stubble on his face; this gives the impression that he may be quite a 'tough' man, or it could quite simply be that he has forgotten to shave.

There is artificial light which gives the effect of the place being quite suburban and industrial.

The soundtrack goes from being relaxed, to almost sinister as the mans face is revealed, implying that this man may be a bad guy, or even possibly a main antagonist .

There is then a sound bridge used, which is a diegetic sound of a phone ringing, which takes us from the last shot to this one.

We now see more of the interior of the building, this gives the audience more of an idea of what the man is doing, and where he is, although both are still unclear.

Dialogue then starts as the man behind the desk says "Harry, answer that" referring to the phone ringing. This could imply that the man behind the counter is the 'boss' of these other men, which gives the audience a stronger idea of what this place is.

Dialogue then starts between the two men, which is mostly questions coming from the man behind the desk, and the other man then answers. The answers seem to be about who the man is, and are very formal, which implies that these men don't know each other; although the man, who is standing, seems to be answering the questions in quite an informal manner, which suggests that his character is very confident.

You can see that this man is wearing quite practical clothes e.g. what seems like a military jacket, due to the insignia on the front, and a simple shirt. This could suggest that the man may have been in the army, or could still be in service.

In this shot we get a very good look at the man sitting behind the desk. We can see that he is writing down what the other man is saying, which suggests that this could be a job interview, or something of the like. We can also see that the man is well shaven, for example his mustache seems very neat, this suggests that he looks after himself, and cares what he looks like.

At this point there is no soundtrack playing, and all you can hear are diegetic sounds of the other people in the building interacting, and dialogue; which is being exchanged between the two men only, which may imply that the other men are working.

We can see that his desk is quite messy, which implies that he looks after himself more than his workplace, which could suggest that he doesn't care about his work very much, or that he is just a disorganised person.

In this next shot you see the man hand something to the other man who is sitting behind the desk. The man behind the desk then inspects it, but doesn't seem to put much effort into the inspection and only looks at it for a few seconds with a look disinterest, this implies that the man doesn't take much interest in the license.

The man is then asked about his driving history, to which he replies "it's clean, like my conscience" to which he then smiles to himself. This could be a sarcastic comment, which makes him seem quite sinister, and implies that his history might be quite a dark history.

He then looks away from the man, and then seems to go into his own world, which implies that he could be remembering something from his past which makes him happy, which again could again be seen as sinister.

The man is then asked about his military history, where his facial expression seems to sadden very quickly, as he looks down at the floor. This could imply that perhaps something happened to him in the army which is why his conscience is supposedly 'clean'. This also explains why he is wearing a military jacket, which suggests that maybe he wants to remember his time in the army for an unknown reason.

The soundtrack has still not changed, there are still only diegetic sounds and dialogue at this point.

The lighting also casts a shadow down one side of his face, which could either make him look slightly sinister, or making him look sad as he remembers the army.

As talk of the army subsides, a tilt up shot is used to focus on the logo on his arm again, which probably has some relation to his army regiment, this focus that is put on it suggests that it is important to the narrative of the film, due to the fact that it has been focused on twice now, in the space of about a minute and a half.

The lighting on the man shadows his logo slightly, which could be a metaphor for his army career and may reinforce the idea that his army career may have been quite bad.

Overall this opening relies on the use of mise en scene, mostly on the facial expression part of mise en scene, to relay character thoughts and create questions for the audience. Also dialogue is used heavily to paint the picture of what is happening and to again, raise questions for the audience, to both create suspense, and keep the audience interested.