Bow and Arrow Movie Prop

The Lord of the Rings trilogy (LOTR) is one of the greatest achievements in cinematic history. Watching them is an entire experience, from the visuals to the story, and they have become my favorite movies of all time. As a kid, I always wanted to be a part of those movies, to fight right besides the same characters I admired. I would use toy figurines to create new stories I could play with, and I would fight imaginary orcs with the wooden sword that I had. As I grew, I tried recreating these movies in many ways, one of them being through short movies. My brother and I would fight in our garden and record it, imaging like it was a movie part of the trilogy. The biggest problem wasn’t acting or the horrible camera quality, it was the fact that we were trying to make a fantasy film in our backyard, with the setting being a bare garden and the costumes being our regular nike t-shirts; obviously, it was too fake. As I kept growing, the idea of making a fan film never left my head, yet I knew that I could never do one at my house. I kept thinking, and one day I realized that I could probably find a set of woods where I could record. I could also find clothes similar to the one worn in the movies, and çould use my phone’s camera adieu to the impressive quality. As things began to come together, I realized that the one thing holding me back were movie props. All I needed to make a LOTR film were real bow and arrows, axes, and swords; If I had that, I could make a movie that seemed realistic. Obviously, it is hard to find a cheap bow and arrow, so I decided to create one using materials and tools that are easy to get a hold off. In this process, you will learn to make a bow and arrow similar to those seen in LOTR from a piece of wood, so that it can be used as a movie prop or decoration.

Materials:

• Long piece of wood
• String
• Feathers (Of your choice, for decoration)

Tools:

• Exacto Knife
• Saw
• Marker/Pencil
• Measuring tape

Grab a long piece of wood. Measure the length, then find the center and mark it. (If you want to make it shorter, cut the edges, but make sure the mark remains at the center)

Draw and outline of the bow on one side

Begin cutting the wood based on the outline of the bow. Use a saw in order to cut, make sure you follow the outline carefully.

Once you have cut all of the outline, use the exacto knife to make it smoother and redefine the edges

A few centimeters from both ends, use the saw to create a small crevice on the sides. This should be no more than 1cm deep and 0.5cm wide (Wider if the string can’t fit).

Wrap the string around the crevice of one end. Have the string go through both crevices, then tie a knot and make sure that it is secure. Then, pull the string and wrap it around the crevice on the other end. Make sure the string is very tense after it been tied to both ends

Enjoy your new movie prop!