Check out below video, I cannot embed it here and I don't have a youtube link either, I came across this video which contains people "failing", just random stuff of people doing stupid things but look at the second video (the first one that autostarts is with annoying backgroundmusic, the second is without) and skip to 05:35 where you can see a guy during the first dance circling the couple with something like a DJI ronin but then slips on the dancefloor taking a nasty fall.

I"m not showing this so we all can have a good laugh because it gave me a bad feeling when I saw him slam to the ground and it's something you would not wish to happen to your worst enemies. It only reminded me when I was shooting the first dance a few years back and they had a spinning disco ball on the ceiling which projected these moving dots on the floor, while I was circling the couple I also almost fell to the floor because I got thrown completely out of balance by these dots, the same feeling you get when you stand in the ocean and the waves go back and forth and suddenly your brain looses any point of reference and you loose your balance.
I had to stop moving and look at the people around the dancefloor to regain my balance again. Anyone here ever had a close encounter with the floor while moving with his steadicam?

Compilatie | Fail compilatie juni 2015 (http://www.fail.nl/item/fail-compilatie-juni-2015)

Ouch - that had to hurt and I bet the gimbal wasn't exactly balanced after that.

Couple of nasty motor cycle crashes in there too!

Silly drone crash at 8:50.

Noa - I saw this as well yesterday via Facebook.

Here's a YouTube of the fall - can update your post if you'd like with the link.

Watch the cringeworthy moment a wedding cameraman slips on a spilled drink and crashes to the floor - YouTube

Terrible moment and definitely easily done - I'm sure most have nearly fallen after walking on a drink spillage - never mind whilst carrying a stabiliser...

That said, is it good for him to move as swiftly as he does, or could he have slowed down a little?

That said, is it good for him to move as swiftly as he does, or could he have slowed down a little?

Yeah, that's not exactly making it easy for the codec to keep up either...

Yeah, that's not exactly making it easy for the codec to keep up either...

That's what I was thinking, but I haven't used one before, so I was just wondering!

Noa - I saw this as well yesterday via Facebook.

Here's a YouTube of the fall - can update your post if you'd like with the link.

Watch the cringeworthy moment a wedding cameraman slips on a spilled drink and crashes to the floor - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zucpWmu7-Ls)

Terrible moment and definitely easily done - I'm sure most have nearly fallen after walking on a drink spillage - never mind whilst carrying a stabiliser...

That said, is it good for him to move as swiftly as he does, or could he have slowed down a little?

My biggest fear on my steadicam, I've had a few close calls, but that floor he was on looked awful slick.

Slippery dancefloors - being deadly serious, are a real hazard in professional theatre. I'm doing a show today where we had to coke the stage. It's and old trick, but essentially you pour normal, not diet, coke onto the floor and mop it up again. It dries quickly and is sticky. Often too sticky until it gets a bit dusty - but for emergencies that's what we do. It's a great muck attractor, but needed. Ballet companies use rosin trays which are very messy, but do the same thing. Seeing people fall is quite funny, but real injuries are quite common. usually the cleaners fault, using polish!

I found the original article:

Sydney wedding cameraman slips over at a wedding reception during waltz | Daily Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3129040/Watch-hilarious-moment-wedding-cameraman-slips-spilled-drink-crashes-floor-newlyweds-dance.html)

He said his camera just had some scratches but he doesn't mention anything about his stabiliser and the monitor that was mounted on top of that, when he went down I saw a piece flying away. I would be surprised if all his gear worked without a problem after that.

Nice to see the Daily Fail successfully indulging their brain dead readership with pointless articles. Cameraman falls to the floor - wow hold the front page, let's write a web article on it. Either a cameraman falling over is so rare to make it news worthy or someone is desperate for stories.

Good news for any of us looking for publicity though, just film yourself falling over during a Wedding, get a news story on it, bingo - instant advertising.

Mind you, the cameraman was very conscientious. In the article, he's quoted saying that on falling, his 1st concern was for spoiling the couples First Dance. I'd admit under the same circumstance, my 1st thoughts would be more selfish and I'd be more worried about potential damage to my expensive bit of kit. :)

Sorry going of the subject, is it me that thinks the lad even though he slips looks bloody stupid in a near empty no atmosphere room going around the bride and groom. Sometimes i think i look awful when i see my self from my second camera going around the b+g in the edit room sometimes even listening to people laugh at me. Anyone else feel stupid?

I always stay at the outer edge of the dancefloor and move very slowly around so that I don't attract any attention, I also wear black trousers/shirt as that helps being invisible. The only moment I move in much closer is when the song ends because then the couple usually kiss eachother and I do a flyby with the steadicam.

A few years back when I didn't have a steadicam yet I hired a steadicam operator with a steadicam pilot, I told him during the first dance; "just do your thing" as I trusted him having seen what he had been doing the rest of the day, well...at a certain moment he started circling the couple like the guy did that fell in the video, only at a higher speed, he was actually running around them. The resulting shot looked awesome as he managed to keep the couples head in the center of the frame but as I was standing on the side of the dancefloor shooting from a tripod I saw him running and he looked like an idiot drawing all the attention towards him, the photog was also on red bull or something and he was glued against the couple. I felt ashamed when I saw him running and I tried to signal him to stop what he was doing but he was in "the zone" at that moment trying to get that killer shot for me. :)

Noa - I saw this as well yesterday via Facebook.

Here's a YouTube of the fall - can update your post if you'd like with the link.

Watch the cringeworthy moment a wedding cameraman slips on a spilled drink and crashes to the floor - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zucpWmu7-Ls)

Terrible moment and definitely easily done - I'm sure most have nearly fallen after walking on a drink spillage - never mind whilst carrying a stabiliser...

That said, is it good for him to move as swiftly as he does, or could he have slowed down a little?

I always stay at the outer edge of the dancefloor and move very slowly around so that I don't attract any attention, I also wear black trousers/shirt as that helps being invisible. The only moment I move in much closer is when the song ends because then the couple usually kiss eachother and I do a flyby with the steadicam.

A few years back when I didn't have a steadicam yet I hired a steadicam operator with a steadicam pilot, I told him during the first dance; "just do your thing" as I trusted him having seen what he had been doing the rest of the day, well...at a certain moment he started circling the couple like the guy did that fell in the video, only at a higher speed, he was actually running around them. The resulting shot looked awesome as he managed to keep the couples head in the center of the frame but as I was standing on the side of the dancefloor shooting from a tripod I saw him running and he looked like an idiot drawing all the attention towards him, the photog was also on red bull or something and he was glued against the couple. I felt ashamed when I saw him running and I tried to signal him to stop what he was doing but he was in "the zone" at that moment trying to get that killer shot for me. :)

I've pulled back on so much spinning. I may do it once during the slow dance, but mostly I just steadicam back in forth in a circle, sometimes with the couple, sometimes opposite of their spin. Depends on the music and if they are going to dance to the whole song or not.

Sorry going of the subject, is it me that thinks the lad even though he slips looks bloody stupid in a near empty no atmosphere room going around the bride and groom. Sometimes i think i look awful when i see my self from my second camera going around the b+g in the edit room sometimes even listening to people laugh at me. Anyone else feel stupid?

I'm with you. I stopped getting nearly so close. Last week sat back as I watched the photogs do something similar. They step forward, get the shot, then.... lower the camera, check the shot, lower the camera more... and just sort of stand there bored before wandering off eventually.

---------------

As for the guy in the YouTube video... I thought the rule of thumb was going the opposite direction of their turn?

Apologies for the kind of obvious comment, but I reckon you don't need to move so fast if you spin in the opposite direction to the couple. Ie, contrary motion: couple spins anticlockwise, you go clockwise. Otherwise, you need to race to keep their faces in shot, or it feels like you're trying for something you can't quite pull off.

In terms of a long-version edit, with the bridal waltz in full, I doubt the couple wants to see constant high-speed spinning. I guess it's one of those things more effective in moderation -- maybe just once, during climax of song, move in closer and roundie-roundie. This also means you're peeing off photographers, guests, couple, and any other videographers less.

I hate to sound like a jerk, but this video keeps cracking me up!!!
Not so much the fall, but the fact that the dude is hauling tail around them like a
Tasmanian devil! And their reaction to his fall. Omg! It is crack me up!!!

Ouch! Expensive trip - TBH it's something I just don't do - I set up 2 cameras set wide high up, either side of the dance floor and concentrate on a mid shot of the couple from my monopod. When I used to circle the couple (not nearly as fast as that guy) I always felt self-concious as if people were watching me rather than the couple and their first dance - not to mention the tog who might have set up a couple of off-camera flash units to get that one good shot in such a limited time (let's face it can be less than a minute) who would be pee'd off at that!

Pete