JustJimAZ

Arrow Gag

Rate this Entry
I happened upon this photo of a sign:


It reminded me that it would be pretty cool to have a scene in a haunt where arrows are apparently being shot at people and sticking into trees. If it could be timed with a sound effect, so much the better - but the rig should provide plenty of sound alone, too.



Say your patrons are walking through the haunted wood. There are signs warning of archery season or a contest or whatever. Alternatively, whether inside or outside, there could be arrows stuck in the scenery, possibly with bloody patches around them or even body parts stuck on them!

As they walk along, suddenly an arrow hits the tree or wall right in front of them. Whap! Arrow!

Two tried and true ways to do this:
1. The "arrow" actually pops out from behind the wall. The shaft is attached to a block of wood, which in turn is loaded into any number of devices to push it through a hole in the wall. Of course, the wooden block is painted so it looks like the wall.

2. The arrow rests vertically along the wall before being triggered. The part visible at this time is painted to look like the wall. It's actually a spring loaded device the flips the arrow 90 degrees with a SNAP! so now it appears "out of nowhere" and is sticking out of the wall.

The first method is an old magician's trick for throwing knives at the assistant and breaking balloons or whatever.



The second it a pre-CGI Hollywood trick for making arrows and daggers appear in trees or even in actors. As-is, these could be useful and effective. Someone would have to be able to reset the rig each time.

Perhaps a haunter could come up with a method that is fully automated, including the reset? How would you go about doing that?

happy haunting!
Categories
Uncategorized

Comments