How did he do that?

So I was sitting in a hotel room too tired to move, and on the TV is a movie I’ve never particularly cared to see: "Kingpin," with Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid.

Anyway, there was this scene in which Harrelson’s character had a big bet on whether he could pick up the 6-7-10 split. Of course, you know he’s going to do it. (I did it myself once when I was really into bowling back in high school.) But what floored me is that the scene wasn’t cut. You see Harrelson turned toward the camera, and you see him turn and bowl, and you see the ball roll all the way down the lane, and pick up the spare, and Harrelson turns back to the camera.

So how did they do that? Was what happened with the ball and the pins faked with CGI? Was there a magnet under the ball controlling it? It looked legit. But how many takes would that have, uh, taken?

Consider this to be a test of my new theory that you can ask any question, however esoteric, on a blog, and from somewhere out there, someone will have a relevant and accurate answer. We’ll see.

6 thoughts on “How did he do that?

  1. p.m.

    Much as it pains me to admit it, I also bowled a bit in high school, but I don’t know how Harrelson cashed the 6-7-10 split on cue, unless practice made perfect, on camera or off.
    I do know, however, that I never bowled a score as bad as 37 or made a 40-foot basketball shot like the fellow for whom I won’t cast my vote.
    I did hole a 110-yard shot with a sand wedge for an eagle on Myrtlewood’s Pine Hills course two weeks ago at the beach, however.

    Reply
  2. Ralph Hightower

    I am not a bowler, so I didn’t know what the 6-7-10 split, so I had to Google it and found: Walter Ray Williams Jr. 4-6-7-10 Split Conversion

    Okay, I get it. It’s an impossible shot.
    I started out at USC in Engineering and playing pool at the dorm, I had only one shot. There was a cluster of ball by a right corner pocket, the cue ball was on the left side of the bottom of a triangle and the ball that needed to go into the right corner pocket was on the right side of the triangle.
    I saw the engineering force vectors lining up the shot.
    A classmate saw me line up the shot and said “You’ll never make it.” After I made the shot, he said “I don’t believe it”
    [Lee, don’t run the discussion off topic about Obama being a Marxist, a Communist, or a Muslim.]
    Having never seen the movie, I don’t know why Roy Munson didn’t switch over to his other hand.
    My occupation is designing, and developing computer programs. Yes, that is not an athlectic occupation. But I started using a mouse in the mid 80’s with X-Windows on UNIX systems, and then Microsoft Windows beginning in the early 90’s.
    Working for an insurance company in the Midlands, after finding a pattern in a mouse intensive program to duplicate a problem, when I left work, my right arm was a ribbon of pain from my hand to my shoulder.
    Being right-handed, I decided that I was not going to screw up my right hand at work using the mouse. So, I started using the mouse with my left hand.
    That switch improved my efficiency! I can use the mouse and take notes with both hands!
    Since 1994, I mouse left-handed at work and right-handed at home. Mousing left-handed confounds coworkers and friends. “Oh, you are left-handed!”
    But I have a technique that is 98% accurate to determine if a person is right-handed or left-handed.

    Reply
  3. Herb Brasher

    Ralph, this is interesting. It might explain why my right arm is killing me. I thought maybe it was just a bruise from shoveling dirt out in the yard (I’m pretty clumsy). I’m going to see the doc tomorrow, anyway, but if I may ask, how long did it take until your arm started getting better, I mean, after you switched hands with the mouse?

    Reply
  4. Bookmakers

    Online Bookmakers provide you online betting resources and sports betting offers. They take participants worldwide. Football Betting bookies. Free Bets and Casino Bonus also available.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *