PART 3 - Kami Cotler (Elizabeth Walton) Reacts to The Waltons "The Foundling" Season 1 Episode 1

hi my name is kami kotler and i played elizabeth on the waltons and we're going to be making a little video talking about the foundling which was the first episode of the waltons tv series ever aired the way a scene like this would be filmed because this this was filmed rather than shot with multiple cameras on tape it was shot with actual film that would be filmed with all the different angles shot at different times and then the film sent up to an editor who would cut and glue it all together the scenes were filmed out of sequence primarily driven by the set right because it takes time and money to move the crew from one location to another so rather than filming the episode in the order that you were watching it we would have filmed all the kitchen scenes on the same day so i spent a lot of time in that kitchen we all did you can see right now from where the camera is they've probably removed the wall where the uh that kind of bay window that the ironing board would sit in that wall has been pulled out we haven't seen that wall yet we might not in this scene um but they moved the camera over here and we would rehearse it and then they would film what they call a master so they'd take one shot of the entire scene from one position and with all the actors in it and that would be the master shot and then they would shoot what they called coverage so close-ups um two shots three shots depending on on who has what lines right and who's most important and then you'd do the scene over and over again so you might shoot four five six ten takes of the master and then you'd have to wait while they moved the camera and the lights and got ready to shoot a close-up she doesn't much like who does has she ran away from home daddy maybe or somebody left her on our doorstep is that where your family okay so there's the first the first cut right we had that master shot you could see everybody in the scene and then i have my question about is that where you found the rest of us and it cuts back to two shots of just david and me well my hair is a mess and now we have our third bit of coverage which is mary and judy or mary ellen and aaron on the other side of the table and so every time you see a shop that has is from a different perspective that involves moving all the cameras and lights and sound equipment to the other side of the room we're never going to get to see it oh okay so another real prime part about being a member of the walton cast was uh what we might call hub bub right so that whole scene is scripted probably unto the point where everybody stands up to leave and then a lot of what said is probably ad-libbed it's possible one or two of those lines were in the script but most of it was probably just things we set off the top of our heads as a bunch of disgruntled kids leaving the kitchen right you can see that ralph has picked up a newspaper he took a lot of pride in his acting being authentic and that that newspaper is example of it right daddy's sitting down he's having his oatmeal he's getting his breakfast he's probably already worked this morning right is what ralph's thinking you'll notice that my hair is completely insane but they would do our hair in the morning and then turn us loose and i think it's possible that for some of the other girls like judy was old enough to like pay attention to her own hair and maybe mary's mom would notice that her hair had gotten crazy and brush it but my mom had a job so she wasn't on set and god bless her knowing my mom even if she had been on set i'm not sure she would have fixed my hair so my hair is just like it really looks like i've put it in something and just gone which doesn't make any sense because elizabeth just woke up and is beginning her day and so you can tell by my braids that really this is being filmed in the late afternoon after i've had some time to play and my braids have fallen apart anyways um let's go ahead and listen to this incredibly sweet exchange between john and elizabeth hiding behind one of your mama's smiles off you go well the director told me to stop and look back and so i did but i didn't know why and then off i go so i didn't really understand what these lines meant um daddy where did i really come from hiding behind one of your mama's smiles i think i'd learned the birds and the bees when i was about four so it didn't make any sense to me at all that elizabeth's daddy would tell her that she was found hiding behind one of her mama's smiles like how do you even do that like at least if a stork brings you or you're in a cabbage patch that's a location but it wasn't unusual for there to be dialogue among the grown-ups that made no sense to me and i just kind of learned to smile and keep going i did wonder what was wrong with elizabeth that she didn't actually know where she came from now poor erica would have to do this over and over again right voraciously eat that biscuit that have been sitting there for four hours you might notice too that ralph's suspenders strange things are all stained goodnight this was a big deal to him he was really really conscious of the idea that john walden was a working man and that things would be stained and dirty and he'd be hungry and his hair would be tousled um he really paid attention so now we cut to jefferson county which is not a real county in virginia and in comes john crawford john crawford was really fun to work with he had a terrific sense of humor and he'd been around forever john was in things like um oh roy rogers he'd been in the lone ranger um basically been around for a long time working as a character actor i guess he might have been best known at that time for poseidon adventure but he always did a lovely job i'll make the arrangements pick her up you notice when ralph leans into the car window here the gray at his temples that was added by makeup man using a little black makeup sponge that was all um i got some holes in it and when he got older ralph commented that he he didn't he didn't need them to gray his temples anymore that they actually were crying independently pay attention to the shadows right on ralph's face on holly's face those are all choices made by the injector photography but still the light just catches ralph's blue eyes or as he called him his baby blues thanks for watching this part of cami narrates the foundling uh if you want to know when the next part is uploaded go ahead and click on the little bell and that will make sure that youtube notifies you when we've uploaded the next part hope you enjoyed it if you want to know more about the making of the waltons and the making of television in the 70s go ahead and follow me on facebook where i answer fans questions and post whatever i happen to remember

Channel: Kami Cotler

Views: 52,717

Keywords:

Id: HivP2p0s1II

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020