Martin Scorsese was influenced by growing up in New York City, setting many of his films there. He frequently collaborated with Robert De Niro, starring in 8 of Scorsese's films about crime genres. Scorsese uses slow motion editing in openings to draw attention to details and slow classical or rock music to set the atmosphere and link to narratives. His titles are typically bold white fonts in red to connote danger, as his films often involve crime genres.

1. Martin Scorcese

2. Colour
In this opening, Scorcese uses mainly orange, blue, black, white and generally dark mise –en-scene
which connotes mystery. Furthermore, the use of the colour orange on the establishing shot of the
characters face suggests some sort of alarming danger that the character may be involved in.
Shot types
Martin Scorcese uses mainly close ups and panning shots, this is done to build suspense and for
audiences to understand scenes more as they may be saying a lot than what they are. For example:
when we are shown a close up of the car pulling away, we can understand that the protagonist is
driving it as the shot cuts to his face.
Pace of titles/editing
The film is slow moving and uses many panning shots rather than cuts to move onto next scene or
area, this creates more enigma codes and also keeps the audience watching as hints are not
quickly given out. The pace of titles also comes in and fades out very slowly and are a deep
orange/red colour. This again links in to the mood and atmosphere of the film being about danger
and violence
How character/time/place are introduced
In Taxi Driver, Scorcese introduces the main character with an extreme close up of just his eyes
looking around from left to right, the shot then cuts to a view from inside a car which we understand
that the protagonist is driving. It also clear the enigma code of what he was looking around at as we
find out that he was only focussed on his driving. Furthermore, place is introduced as a busy city with
many lights, however we see shots of the city blurred and out of focus which links in to some of the
troubles the protagonist may be facing in the city and we are seeing it from his point of view.
How do they utilize music and sound?
Low notes and deep instruments are used to form sound in the opening of Taxi Driver, this creates a
particular dark atmosphere

3. Colour
Raging Bull is all filmed in black and white to get a feel of the time it was filmed in. This can tell the
audience a lot about what people were like during the time, how they dressed and what their
main hobbies were. Having done some research, I also found out that Scorcese decided to have
the film in black and white in order to acknowledge the problem of colour fading at the time with
films.
Shot types
Throughout the opening, Martin Scorcese uses mainly long shots of the protagonist bouncing
around inside a boxing ring, this helps give the audience an understanding of the main setting of
the film. It also enables the audience to see how the character feels which is this case is lonely as
he is alone in the ring and everything out of it is slightly out of focus. The ropes of the ring being in
main focus also shows the strong, bold attitudes of the protagonist and helps to set an atmosphere.
Pace of titles/editing
Slow paced editing is used all through the opening of Raging Bull, the protagonist is shown as
gracefully bouncing around in a boxing ring, the slow paced editing helps to enhance that he is
unaware of anything outside of the boxing ring. Furthermore, titles appear on a black screen in
white,, sans serif font. This again links in to protagonist living a simple and lonely life.
How character/time/place are introduced
The protagonist is introduced as being in a boxing ring alone, This suggests that he is solitude in both
inside and outside of the ring. The place is also introduced as being empty which is unusual as we
expect to see a large crowd around a boxing ring, this may have links to the protagonists life of
being used to isolation.
How do they utilize music and sound?
Languid classical music is used to create a peaceful and dream-like atmosphere. This can suggest
that the protagonist is training alone inside the boxing ring as he has a particular set of goals in life
in which he wishes to achieve. We can also see that he has a passion for boxing through this type
of music used.

4. Colour
Dark mise-en-scene and low key lighting is used throughout the opening two minutes
of Mean Streets, this is used to give us an idea that there is some sort of struggle and
trouble involved in the narrative as this is what low key lighting connotes.
Shot types
The shot types that are used throughout the opening of Mean Streets are mostly
close-ups of the protagonist, these close-ups are used to draw further attention the
protagonists facial expressions to gives us an idea of how he is feeling. Tracking shots
are also used to give us an understanding that this character will be the main focus
throughout the film as we are following him around.
Pace of titles/editing
In Mean Streets, the pace of the titles are slow, they come in on a black
background and go off screen in a fade. Scenes also cut quite quickly across on to
the next one, this suggests that the narrative holds a many events. Furthermore, the
main title of the film is sans serif and red which suggests shows the contrast between
some of the more serious scenes to not to serious as well.
How character/time/place are introduced
In the opening, the protagonist is introduced with a close up shot of his face in a
dark room laying down, we see him quickly sitting up from a lying down position
taking deep breaths. This has significance to the narrative as he may have seen a
bad dream in which he may have to face later on in the film.
How do they utilize music and sound?
Mean Streets opening with non-diagetic sounds of the city. This helps to give an
understanding of where the film is set and also set an atmosphere, it is followed by
the song ‘Be My Baby’ sung by Ronnettes. This again helps to set a time period of
the film as we recognise this song as being a top hit in the 1970’s.

5. Martin Scorcese was born and bought up in New York City, this has an influence on his style
of film directing. Many of his films are set in NYC or to be more specific in Little Italy as this is
where he grew up therefore was able to relate.
Robert De Niro has starred in 8 films altogether since 1973. They were of mostly crime genre
and audiences enjoyed watching these as many considered the films to be the greatest of
all time. For this, Robert Di Nero has many awards as has Martin Scorcese.
Scorcese also enjoy uses slow motion editing in most of the openings of his films, he mainly
does this to draw more attention to a particular area which is a wise idea as audiences will
be able to take in more information if scenes are in slow motion, it will give them more time
to register and pick out everything.
The style of music that he used in films varied however it was mainly between rock and
classical, the kind of music that he used in each of his opening all could be linked to the
narrative in some sort of way.
His style of creating titles were almost the same in every one of his films, the typography is
mainly always in bold, white font as he enjoys creating big messages from small clues. For
example; Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Mean Streets all have main title in red due connoting
danger since all of these films are of crime genre.