A friend of mine recently broke the record for the longest arrow ever shot from a hand-drawn bow. He spent over 20 years chasing this record. I have been trying to imagine a movie covering his journey. I think a book would be relatively easy and have a niche audience, but I can’t imagine how a movie could be made interesting enough while staying with an accurate portrayal of his character. The dedication and sacrifice as well as raw intelligence, would best define his journey. He didn’t chase women, or get into fights, He is just a hard-working nerd. It makes me wonder how many stories go untold because audiences are looking for drama or excitement.
I agree. (Extremely niche achievements in extremely niche hobbies aren’t great candidates for gripping cinema.)
Could make a YouTube video— could get some views and 0.01% or whatever of the ad revenue.
I did see a video of someone trying to break the unlimited footbow distance record.
How long was the arrow?
Brian
“The Longest Arrow” would be a great film title.
The sad fact of the matter is that you have to add the drama and
excitement - sex and fights etc. There are plenty of films which have
pretty boring plots.
Is I am sure this is the same guy that you saw in the video. I will have to look up the exact distance but it was over twenty one hundred yards
Wait a minute. By “the longest arrow ever shot” I assumed you meant the length of the arrow: “Joe Schmoe shot an arrow that was 27.5 inches long but mine is 27.6 inches long!”. So what you really mean is the greatest distance an arrow was shot? (If he shot an arrow that was 2100 yards long, that might be movie-worthy.)
I also read this as longest arrow, not the longest distance shot.
The video I saw was the latter.
Brian
Same and thought first of aircraft navigation aids painted on the ground or rooftops
How long was the arrow, and how exciting could a movie be? Person discovers record, person breaks record…and another person makes an arrow that is an inch longer and breaks that record.
Agreed. “Longest arrow” and “greatest distance an arrow was shot” are two completely different, unrelated things.
When I read the OP, I was envisioning some massive crossbow-type bolt, like the fictional one that took down the dragon in Game of Thrones.
Could a mod change the title to the furthest arrow?
What are accepted parameters for a “legal” effort? I imagine it has to go more than 5 feet before it falls to the ground, so distance has to be one. What about accuracy?
This is interesting because “length of arrow” is not something that is desirable in a bow built for practical use. A, say, 5 foot arrow is something that can’t fit into a quiver, is very unwieldy, and is way longer than is necessary to deliver a lethal wound that probably only has to penetrate 3 or 4 inches to do the job.
My point is that I don’t find this particular activity compelling or even interesting because it makes no sense in any practical context.
I too thought that the title referred to the arrow’s dimensions, not the distance it travelled.
Is the converse a term in archery?
So it looks like you are talking greatest distance. In the video I saw (quite a while ago) he did not break the record. I, for one, would watch a video of the record being broken.
As said previously, It could get some views on YouTube. I doubt there is enough interest elsewhere. PBS occasionally shows short videos to pad the time so the next show starts at the hour, but given the PBS funding issue this seems a long shot. Netflix has documentaries but again, not sure how viable. Local art houses? Recently a local university showed the sequel to Decoding the Driftless Rob Nelson (biologist) - Wikipedia
Documentary Films
Buy YouTube would be my suggestion.
Brian
Joke- The Longest arrow are undoubtedly the giant ones plastered across the USA in the 1930s or so to aid Air Mail. (end joke)
I just have an image stuck in my head of Gob Bluth shooting it while “The Longest Arrow” (played to the tune of “The Final Countdown”) blasts in the background.
It helps if you have two protagonists to drive the story.
I flagged this, so the moderators can see it – if you didn’t actually flag it yourself, they might never see the post and your request.
Well one protagonist and one antagonist.
Not sure if anyone else is trying for the distance record.
Brian
How far?