As today I was not able to attend I have Dave Cowling  and Joel Buncle as our guest bloggers for today and this is what they had to say about today.

From Dave:

“The final day of Exposed Down Under was the electives day.  This was the day that we all got to play with a whole bunch of great toys !!

The day was lead once again by the Czystowski / Wong tag-team who started with a session on lighting – covering both the use of natural light and powered lighting.  That was followed by a session on steadicams and glidecams, then DSLR shooting and lenses, then audio, then other toys such as sliders etc.  One of the days highlights was seeing Konrad and Mike in action, when they both filmed our models for the morning (Kara & Andre), as Andre gave Kara a gift.  Kara was very impressed with the gift that she received and all of the attendees were impressed by the way that Konrad and Mike worked in tandem to get their shots – and then to watch the results back instantly on the big screen was a great learning experience.

Today held a great feeling, with everyone contributing to the sessions.  There were lots of ideas shared throughout each session and also over lunch at The Ranch.  As the day drew to a close, nobody wanted to leave.  Even after the training had officially ended at 5:30pm, nobody moved as we discussed the past week, the friendships formed and the future for all of us.   Everyone agreed that it had been a fantastic week – one that will hopefully be noted as a turning point in the evolution of the Australian wedding filmmaking industry.

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the event by attending, presenting or behind the scenes.  Thank you all for making this week so successful.  We hope that you will join us again next year !”

From Joel:

What a day! Back out at The Ranch for the all in gear-fest. Konrad and Michael lead us through a hands-on workshop complemented by a host of local presenters. Covering a wide range of topics thoroughly, we were taking in as much information as we could and, went away pledging to spend at least a little bit of money to “buy the right tools to get the job done,” as Konrad simply put it.

I think that everyone was taken-aback at Michael’s knowledge of all the various steadi-cam/glide-cam models and we were also indulged by Konrad’s knowledge of lighting for different scenes throughout the day. It reinforced for those of us there, what a great honour it was to have Konrad & Michael at Exposed Down Under sharing their knowledge. Though it felt like the day went really quickly we were able to cover – steadicam/glidecam, natural & artificial lighting, shooting with DSLRs, Zeiss & Canon lenses, sliders, audio acquisition, post-production colour correction amongst lots of other tips in general about shooting. There is no doubt that everyone learnt something – and I also have no doubt everyone who was at the workshop will go away and make at least one change in the way they shoot and edit their work.

But perhaps more important than any of the gear – was the attitude of everyone in the room (and throughout the whole conference for that matter), it was the willingness to help each other learn and improve everyone’s education as a whole that made the experience of EDU worth it. I made a lot of new friends, caught up with old ones and met a lot of people that I otherwise wouldn’t have.  On the first night Dave talked about “collaborating instead of competing… which lifts the level (of the industry).” That was the point of EDU – if we work together and help each other – as colleagues, we can achieve a lot more, a lot quicker, in educating our potential couples, our market and ourselves as an industry.

As I sit in the departure lounge, writing down these thoughts before I fly back to Melbourne, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that it’s all over. The conference has ended. Yet there is a part of me, as clichéd as it is, that knows it’s just the beginning for us. See you next year!

A special thanks to everyone who brought in their gear for the workshop – the efforts were much appreciated by all.

This is the final closing blog entry for the event but we will continue to post as things come by and share educational material. Instead of photos today to wrap up the event its time to share a video I put together in the early hours of Thursday morning that was presented on the same day.

- Peter Szilveszter – Living Lens