MIKAYLA MACDONALD

ARTIST INTRODUCTION

I am a grade twelve student at Holy Cross Secondary School. I have been involved in Com Tech courses since my second year of highschool. During this time I have created many projects from photgrapghy, graphic design, audio, and video. Projects done have been published both inside and outside of my school community. I have created advertisments for many school events and also artwork for the classroom.
The Com Tech coursxes have brought out my creativity, something I never even thought about. I am able to expand my thoughts and images onto real life projects. I have even extended my love for Com Tech into the Specialist High Skills Major in Communications Technology offered at my school. In this program I work closely with professional cameras filming real life events for local television cvhannels. I work with memb ers of teh community to create videos and advertisemnts. These amazing oppurtunities has pushed my work farther into the community than I would have ever been able to do.
My time spent in the Com Tech classroom has been unforgettable and has helped me grow so much as a person. The tech artwork and allowed parts of me to shine. Although I am not continuing in the field of Com Tech I will always keep the experience close to my heart. I will never give up the field as I hope to enjoy this work as a hobby on the side of my future career.

VIDEO

GRADE NINE DOCUMENTARY

Each year at Holy Cross the grade twelve com tech class produces a video, which demonstrates the life of an average Holy Cross grade nine student. The video then goes to the feeder schools in hope to bring in grade eight students to the school the following year. The video consists of eight topics each from a questioned asked during interview. The class divided into groups so a total of three students could focus on one area. The interview was filmed with a Panasonic AVC cam. As producer of my group I was in charge of asking the student questions and ensuring they answered each question with high quality. The interviews were then imported into final cut pro where the best five or six answers were picked. We then removed the blue screen from the video so we were able to place a separate video as the background. Once we established the story of the grade nine we brought them back to the classroom so we could film a reenactment of their story. That video was placed into final cut pro to play in the background as the grade nine told their story. Once each group completed their video it was given to the teacher in charge who combined them ad created a full ten-minute video.   
  
INTRODUCTION VIDEO

My HCTV introduction video was done using the programs Final Cut Pro, Sound Track Pro and Motion. To build the video from stratch I first had to import a JPEG logo into Final Cut Pro. I then opened Motion so I could look at backgroounds for the video and get inspriation for my introduction. Once I found the motion backgrounds I wanted to use I exported them to a seperate file and imported them to Final Cut Pro. Once they were placed onto the time reel I added movement to the actual logo. I made the logo grow, shrink and shake. When I had the video playing the way I wanted it was time to import music. I found music which matched the theme of my video in Sound Track Pro. It was then exported into a new file and imported into Final Cut Pro. Once the music was added I felt my video was complete. This work created this HCTV introduction video.

SPORTS VIDEO

This video of the Holy Cross golf team was made to promote the team over the Holy Cross website. While the team was playing a tournament at the Landings Golf Course I went out to film the players. I took multiple shots of each person at different points of the hole. When I figured I had enough video clips I took the camera back to the school. I imported the files into Final Cut Pro so I could watch the videos on the actual computer. I organized the videos on the time line in an order which made sense. I then added effects and transitions between each clip in order to the connect them and make the whole vide3o come together. Once I was happy with the video I opened Sound Track Pro to explore music beds offered in the program. I found the music I liked for the background and exported it so I could use it for my video.  Once the music was in the video was complete and this was my final project.

 

HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY

CRACKING EGG

"Eggcellent Trap" Photo by Mikayla MacDonald

  This image of an egg just cracked by a rat trap is a perfect example of high speed photography. The rat trapped flipped so fast I had to watch when my assistant hit the bar very carefully so I could catch the action at the perfect time. The lighting for this photo was very difficult due to the walls set up to catch the mess. We had a studio light placed in the back corner above the trap in order to light up the egg shell and yolk. I used a D200 camera with 150 mm lens. My settings were f/16, exposure time 1/30 sec, ISO 200, and manual white balance. 

WATER SPILLING

"Glass Splash" Photo By Mikayla MacDonald

This image was produced by pouring coloured water into a tipped wine glass. This photo took a lot of patience and communication between three people. I had one person hold the glass over a fish tank while another poured the water into the glass. The pourer had to aim the water directly on the edge of the glass and tip it at the correct speed and pressure so it would splash around the edges. To get the correct lighting had a studio flash behind the set up, and two high end flashes one either side of the tank to light up the glass. Using a Nikon D200 I used F-stop F/11, exposure time 1/60 sec and ISO 200.  

BALLOON POPPING

"Popped" Photo By Mikayla MacDonald

This photo was taken just as a water balloon popped. The balloon was dropped onto a nail so it would create the best splash. For this photo my assistant would watch the speed in which the camera took the photo compared to when I actually hit the shutter button.  We would see where the balloon was when the camera captured the scene and move the balloon starting height in accordance.  To obtain this photo I used a mets flash pointing at the nail and high end flash on the opposite side.  I had a Nikon D200 with a 150 mm lens. It was at f-stop F/22, Exposure time was 1/100 sec and ISO-200.    

CRACKING WALNUT

"Cracked Nut" Photo By Mikayla MacDoanld

 

High speed photography is something I really enjoy doing. Being able to stop motion that is happening in within very few seconds is something that really fasionates me. This particular photo is a walnut right after it was cracked. It was taken with a light table, mets flash derectly infront of the hand and a high end flash on the opposite side placed next to the hand. I had the Nikon D200 camera with a 150 mm lens set to ISO 200, F-stop 22, white balance flash and exposure time at 1/60. To catch the action in the photo I had to sync my timing with the time the walnut actually cracked. To do this I would count to three, on three the model cracked the walnut. In my head I would then count to two before taking the photo. This way I was able to take the photo just as pieces were flying away from the nutcracker.