Deconstruction of a Neo-Noir

Red Riding: 1974
In Red Riding: 1974 the start of the OTS was of a sky shot with a stormy sound track. The sky behind the cloud was green-ish in colour. The shot then faded to black and then faded into a panning/tilting shot of roots, feathers and then finally to a girl with angel wings. The contrast between the darkness of the ground and the background to the sudden whiteness of the angel wings is quite striking and focuses the attention of viewer to the girl lying still on the floor (Charascuro:- contrast between dark and light) . The screen then fades to black and then a new shot ,of a slightly out of focus man, pans up a character then focuses into the man's face with cuts upon him. That panning shot and the focus pull creates a enigma for any viewer who hasn't previously seen the series, it makes the view ask who he is and did he have any connection to the girl from the previous section. Enigmas are very common in film noirs and so this has at least one of the main conventions of a film noir nailed. The next shot is a mid close up of a man in a car smoking a cigarette. The shot then carries to a shot of the car, the man is in, travelling down a road with a heavy rain shower occurring (the heavy rain induces a effect called pathetic fallacy) . The country side of that the car is travelling past isn't very film noir style but however, it does have a feel of a dystopia like most film noirs have, so another convention nailed. However, with that shot there is travelling country guitar playing in the background which is out of convention in a film noir due to most of the songs are jazzy orchestral music. Also another thing to point out is the colouring of the film, it has a very desaturated look and most of the colours are shades of browns (the reasoning for browns is due to the time setting of the film itself). The colours seem to blend into each other denying anything striking out brightly colourful to appear fitting to a dystopia effect.  The next shot is of a man in what seems to be a police statement about a girl who has gone missing, this makes us think if that girl is the one from the first shot, once again all the colours are browns and partly desaturated but however, the man from earlier is shown to be the main character via focus pulls and framed shots. The is a very large sense of atmosphere and mood within the OTS mainly from the framed shots, desaturated colours and also the drone music that accompanies the majority of the shots. This film seems to bind to most of the conventions but not all of them, the effect that brings is incredible and creates enormous atmosphere and mood.
Blade Runner:
The opening of blade runner is a panning sweep shot of a futuristic city which seems to be a heavily industrialized place with large smoke stacks spitting fire. This looks to be a dystopian city fitting to the conventions of film noir. The colour of the film is very bleak and almost completly desaturated very similar to how most film noirs are. The shot then features flying cars and other futuristic things which makes the timeline convention of film noirs incorrect to this film. However, the next shot does show lots of film noir aspects. So the next shot is of a integration room with light filtering down from a fan thats slowly spinning. The room seems to have a dusty air to it, this creates a moody atmosphere and mystery to what the room is and who the people are in the room. The following speech that the scene entails is quite minimal to some extent with heightened speech when who seems to be the person who's being tested/interrogated. The test subject seems to be a criminal of sorts due to his attire and how his body language is. He tries to deny questions and hide from answers. The climax of the scene is when the test subject finishes a second test done by the tester, who we think seems to be the anti hero of the film, the test subject makes a quick statement and then shoots the tester with a very powerful gun as it flings the tester out of the room and through a wall. This sudden change of scene shocks the viewer and is then mystified by what just happened and so is drawn to the plot of the film. The Opening title sequence leaves the audience asking questions to what happened and whats going to happen. It hooks the audience very similar to conventional film noirs. From the outset Blade Runner seems to have most of the film noir features however, it doesn't fit all of them and so is more Neo-Noir than normal Noir films.
Mulholland Drive:
The starting shots of the OTS to Mulholland Drive are of a party with a girl as the main focus. However, the actual shot it self is kind of hard to determine what happens because it seems to look like a drug fulled night with animation shots and weird angles for the camera. It also has people float in and out of focus which disorientates the audience. Those scenes are very unnatural for a film noir. However, it does add mystery but perhaps for the wrong reasons. The next shot is of a long winding road sequence of a woman who seems to be very powerful in comparison to the childish nature of the previous women in the dance/party sequence. She is looking over the window and not much is said for a long time as the camera pans, follows, tracks and travels with the car for a long period of time. There isn't really a sense of dystopia and the colours aren't desaturated so it doesn't feel like a film noir style film. The only aspect shown is the feme fatal. The action starts to happen when the camera cuts to a shot of two other cars racing up a road very similar to the one the feme fatal is shown on, the camera cuts backwards and forwards until the Feme fatal's car stops in the road, the Feme fatal obviously surprised at the car stopping asks in a semi-demanding voice and then the driver pulls a gun at her and asks here to step out side. At that point the other cars crash into her causing all of the characters to be knocked out and diffuses (although violently) the situation with the feme fatal. The next shot is of the feme fatal walking out of the car and through the road to look upon the view. The entire clip has a massive enigma to who the characters are and what's their story/purpose which is a key film noir convention. The film doesn't commit to all of the conventions of a film noir but has some very key features in it making it a Neo-Noir.
on a personal note i didn't understand what was going on in the OTS to Mulholland Drive but it did sort of make me want to watch more of it so i understood the film.