Editing Taxi Driver (section)

=== Pre-production ===
While preparing for his role as Bickle, De Niro was filming [[Bernardo Bertolucci]]'s ''[[1900 (film)|1900]]'' in Italy. According to Boyle, he would "finish shooting on a Friday in Rome ... get on a plane ... [and] fly to New York". De Niro obtained a taxi driver's license and, when on break, would pick up a taxi and drive around New York for a couple of weeks before returning to [[Rome]] to resume filming ''1900''.

Although Robert De Niro had already starred in ''The Godfather, Part II'' (1974), he was recognized only one time while driving a cab in New York City.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075314/ |title=Taxi Driver |website=[[IMDb]]}}</ref> De Niro apparently lost 35 pounds (16 kilograms) and was repeatedly listening to a taped reading of the diaries of criminal [[Arthur Bremer]]. When he had free time while shooting ''1900'', De Niro visited an army base in [[Northern Italy]] and tape-recorded soldiers from the [[Midwestern United States]], whose accents he thought might be appropriate for Travis's character.<ref>Rausch, Andrew J. (2010). ''The Films of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro''. Scarecrow Press. p. 31. {{ISBN|9780810874145}}.</ref>

Scorsese brought in the [[film title design]]er [[Dan Perri]] to design the [[title sequence]] for ''Taxi Driver''. Perri had been Scorsese's original choice to design the titles for ''[[Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore]]'' in 1974, but [[Warner Bros.]] would not allow him to hire an unknown designer. By the time when ''Taxi Driver'' was going into production, Perri had established his reputation with his work on ''[[The Exorcist (film)|The Exorcist]]'', and Scorsese was now able to hire him.

Perri created the opening titles for ''Taxi Driver'' using [[second unit]] footage that he color-treated through a process of film copying and [[slit-scan]], resulting in a highly stylized graphic sequence that evoked the "underbelly" of New York City through lurid colors, glowing [[neon sign]]s, distorted nocturnal images, and deep [[black level]]s. Perri went on to design the opening titles for a number of major films, including ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' (1977) and ''[[Raging Bull]]'' (1980).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.artofthetitle.com/feature/dan-perri-a-career-retrospective/|title=Dan Perri: A Career Retrospective|date=March 18, 2017|first=Will|last=Perkins|website=[[Art of the Title]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210330215710/https://www.artofthetitle.com/feature/dan-perri-a-career-retrospective/|archive-date=March 30, 2021|url-status=live|access-date=March 30, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/taxi-driver/|title=Taxi Driver|date=September 5, 2011|first=Shaun|last=Mir|website=[[Art of the Title]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210330215824/https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/taxi-driver/|archive-date=March 30, 2021|url-status=live|access-date=March 30, 2021}}</ref>