Composition in Films

Above is a still from Mad Max: Fury Road taken during one of the films lengthy and frenetic chase scenes. In it a suicidal Warboy is jumping onto an enemy vehicle with the intent of destroying it with explosive-headed poles called Thundersticks. In almost every shot of the film the main focal point of the scene is centre frame or having movement directed to the centre. Here the centre of the shot being the targeted vehicle behind Max strapped to the front of another vehicle. Using iconic composition guidelines you can see the director set up the scene so all the moving parts pointed towards the centre. The jumping Warboy is directly on the diagonal line to the centre, clearly moving in that direction. Slit, the other Warboy on the back of the car is also preparing to throw his Thunderstick at the car and falls exactly on the horizontal line. These points of action direct the viewers attention to the centre.

Above are two images from a still in The Happening where an unknown viral infection is causing people to commit suicide (in unintentionally ridiculous fashion) and in this instance walking off a building. Not only is the film universally panned, the cinematography is diabolical, often cutting actors out of frame or too close up.
Here I tried using different composition methods but none really worked with the focal points (the falling bodies). Using the rule of thirds method (top), only one of the bodies lined up with the points, the other two did not even align with the lines. Trying another method proved not to be helpful either (bottom), although the furthest left body lined up almost perfectly, the other two did not. This results in an uninteresting frame that fails to draw the viewers attention to the right focal points.

Insect Silhouettes Based Off Modern Day Predators

All the above silhouettes I made my taking photos of a Tiger, a Bear, an Eagle and a Wolf, lowering their opacity and drawing over then to make them appear more insect like. The idea behind this was if giant insects had lived to this time would they have evolved in similar shapes to modern day mammals and birds.
The one I feel drawn to the most at the moment is the bear design because of the way the animal is posed and I want to see how an insect of that size would look and move.

Bibliography:
http://www.arkive.org/polar-bear/ursus-maritimus/
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/bf/7e/d0/bf7ed044dbefc82248b553d0ce8dc5c6.jpg
http://animalia-life.com/image.php?pic=/data_images/eagles/eagles9.jpg
http://rivertonradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Gray-wolf-walking-in-snow.jpg

Research on Insect Concept

360-300 Million years ago the Earth's oxygen levels were incredibly higher than they are today due to the relatively recent evolution of trees and plant life. This period in time is called the Carboniferous Period and is significant in Palaeontology due to the type of wildlife that thrived in this period. Because Arthropods (Exo-Skeletal creatures) have different lungs to vertebrates, they cannot grow large because their lungs cannot take in enough oxygen to survive, but because in the Carboniferous Period oxygen was so much more abundant, Arthropods(a genus including insects) could grow to incredible sizes.

 



Creatures like Arthropleura, a 2m long centipede and Meganeura, a dragonfly the size of an eagle, were common place alongside giant scorpions, spiders and large predatory amphibians.

These reason these huge insects died off was because of the higher oxygen levels, any kind of ignition, lightning for example, would create forest fires that would spread incredibly quickly. As most of the Earth at the time was covered in dense forest, having forest fires that would spread far quicker and last longer than present day forest fires created a gradual extinction event. As fires became more frequent forests started to recede and with it the giant insects. 
The foundation for my insect design will be in a parallel universe in which the Carboniferous extinction never occurred allowing insects to evolve into bigger and stranger creatures.

Further insect silhouette concepts. 

First drafts of silhouettes, watercolour on paper converted in photoshop.

Just basic ideas, experimenting with typical and unusual insect shapes.