MovieChat Forums > The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) Discussion > how do they do that?

how do they do that?

posted 9 years ago by andybriers1969
7 replies | jump to latest

watching this magnificent and others showing characters being killed by arrows always makes me wonder how do they fire arrows into the actors without injury.i am assuming either real arrows being fired into a lot of protective padding or dummy arrows being used.i would think modern movies would use modern day filming techniques to ensure safety.but i would love to know how it was done in the 20`s 30`s and 40`s.hope someone has an answer.

they dont like it up em mr mainwaring

[–] devansarty-1 9 years ago

In this film it was Howard Hill doing all the shooting and it was 'real arrows into lots of padding' (for which the stuntmen were paid extra) albeit from just behind the camera with a light draw weight bow and lightweight arrows. The only 'fake' archery shot in the film is the arrow splitting scene at the tournament. Hill's 'Cavalcade of Archery' (1945) is included in the DVD extras of the film and is also up on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo8UZneuggE

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[–] andybriers1969 9 years ago

glad they were paid extra..not something i would do.thanks for the info

they dont like it up em mr mainwaring

[–] liscarkat (18992) 6 years ago

That's scary as hell! I know Hill was good, but it would have been horrible if he missed the target area and hit the stunt guy in the neck or somewhere else that wasn't protected. I'm amazed he had the confidence to do the shooting, and I'm glad the stunt guys got extra money.

I was a supernumerary (extra) in a big-budget stage production in 1976 in which I was one of several Crusaders in a battle. Guys in the Saracen army would pull and release the strings of their bows, with no arrows. An instant later, I and the other soldiers in my army would pull a ring on the back side of our shields and spring-loaded arrows would pop up on the fronts of the shields. To the audience, it was supposed to look as if arrows had been shot at us and hit our shields. I imagine it looked pretty cheesy compared to the guys in "Robin Hood" really getting shot!

[–] CalibMcBolts 9 years ago

They wore wooden planks on their belly's and people fired arrows that would get stuck into the wooden plank

[–] andybriers1969 9 years ago

thank you for the info..stuntmen really are the true heroes of movie making..particularly from that pre cgi era.
they dont like it up em mr mainwaring

[–] RobbieCalifornia 8 years ago

Absolutely true!!!

[–] Shibez (922) 6 years ago

Too funny because I am watching it now on Turner Classic Movies and I wondered the same thing!