The Waltons - Ask Judy 76 - behind the scenes with Judy Norton

welcome back to another segment of behind the scenes of The Waltons today I'm once again taking your questions in a segment of ask Judy if you're enjoying these please do hit like And subscribe this is from Jack Kirby fan um I have a question for you I often hear that in especially big Productions the shot footage can be so messy and so convoluted in structure that the editor has to work exhaustively to try to create a cohesive narrative that makes no sense to me since you have a script what does that mean uh well I think what ends up happening is yes they sh they pretty much shoot what's in the script now sometimes if you're shooting fast or I mean it's nice things get missed so sometimes you maybe miss an important piece of coverage coverage would be any of the shots that are needed for one single scene so uh maybe you miss getting closeup I've talked talked about in the episode The Wedding that they forgot to shoot close-ups of of me and Kurt when we said I do so they had to do pickups of those uh of close-ups of the idos on the back lot of the studio now we could do that because we were still in production so if we missed something it could be picked up my film inclusion criteria there were things that we just ran out of time to shoot and when we were doing the edit the ending didn't make sense and it still doesn't really make sense but we were trying to figure out because we weren't able to get all the shots that were needed because we were using a location and the people who owned the location were the were relatives of one of the crew member and all of a sudden they were they were like no we're not happy about you need to get out of there like right now we didn't know you were going to be there all day so there was some reason why we suddenly had to pack up and get out of there uh so that meant that we had to just leave it leave shots that we couldn't get them and then we didn't have every day you film costs money and so the budget and time and people had other commitments so we didn't have another day that we could go film we couldn't get that location again we didn't have the ability to go pick another location so there were just things we couldn't shoot um now you're talking about really big Productions so that shouldn't be the case there but sometimes if they're just shooting a lot of stuff and thinking great maybe you're doing a lot of action you're like we're going to get all these shots but then you have to piece together maybe what a big car chase looks like or something or a big action sequence and maybe trying to work with the pieces you have and make them fit together and make it seem like it all works in a sequence that can be tough um I know with my short film space limbo that it initially ran really long we shot everything that was in the script and the script had been written and sequenced to go a certain way but then because it was so long uh we I had to cut it down so I had to cut like 35 minutes down to about I don't know 15 or 18 minutes or something like that and so a lot of stuff had to go so in order to cut it down I had to resequence things so that uh so that it made sense so it's like well if we're losing this then let me put this ahead of this but that won't make sense unless I do this um so sometimes or sometimes you look at it and you just think it doesn't the rhythm of it doesn't work in the when they because usually an editor will edit it based off of the original script and then it's kind of like up to the director or the producer whoever is involved in the edit to say yes or no or I want to make changes it's not an initially maybe up to the editor to make those decisions some editors will make more decisions than other others it depends on the depends on the situation you know I've I've seen that where then a producer or director has looked at something go oh man it's either way too long or it's slow or it drags or something doesn't work um and so then you're trying to say how do you make the Dynamics of the film work how do you keep um a sense of Rhythm how do you keep an emotional connection how do you not lose the audience you know it so but you also need to make sense of the story so all of those types of things can happen in editing to bring it all together um you also said maybe they tried different things that went weren't in the script I have no idea but uh quite curious as to why this happens um yeah it's like it's more expensive to go back and reshoot so so it it's less expensive to then start rearranging things or you know or some or performance doesn't work you know and you're like oh gosh that just you know I've had that happen as a director where I look at something and go that that performance just isn't cutting it so how do I minimize that not really you know make it evident that that's not working but uh maybe we need that what information do I absolutely need in this scene so how do I cut it down and how do I maybe not spend time in closeup on that actor but maybe play more on the actor who's reacting to what's being said so there's all those kinds of tricks to just create the best final product you can possibly make so I hope that helps answer the question from Ronnie Spradlin hi Judy when the network wanted to go to series from the homecoming did CBS ask for another another pilot that included will gear Ralph and Michael to see the chemistry no they did not um what they did I don't think they did anything with whe gear I think he had actually been their first choice for grandpa but uh he was unavailable when we filmed the homecoming I think that was potentially when he was filming Jeremiah Johnson so they um brought in Edgar Bergen who did a wonderful job but when they went to series I think they went back to that original thought that will gear was the perfect Grandpa and so he was uh and then you said I heard that the foundling was the first show aired but not the first show filmed correct can you say why uh my speculation is that uh the hunt was the first show that we filmed and I think the foundling might have been I don't know the third or fourth uh maybe maybe it was the second I don't really remember specifically but I think they just felt it was a stronger episode to Premiere maybe they like the Dynamics of the family better um as I had said before I think it it probably took a little bit of time for us all to gel and get the rhythm of the of the show and that happens a lot with new shows where you're kind of finding your way so I think they probably wanted to lead with something of the things they shot that were ready for airing with what they thought might be their strong this first episode totally my speculation then can you say why and in the early run of the show there was a bench seat Nook Al Cove in the Kitchen located just before the back door didn't that disappear over time uh no I think there always was sort of a seat there you sometimes saw it when they were ironing um I don't know that it disappeared I'd really have to go back and take a look at later episodes and see it could just be that you didn't specifically see that angle or it was n highlighted I don't think we ever really had somebody sitting there I think we saw that area yes when when someone was ironing because that tended to be the area where that went on uh lastly were you guys told any hairstyle changes or Cuts had to be okayed by the head honchos uh we've talked a bit about hair and and early on I think we were told not to cut it during the season uh because of continuity issues the boys couldn't cut their hair between uh like in the course of an episode uh so they would have to do any anything like that between episodes um but no there wasn't there really wasn't anything particular like that I think it was a just sort of in implied that you didn't go and change the color of your hair or do things like that but as the series went on I think that kind of stuff just happened but again you you didn't do it in the middle of an episode and then uh what did all of the young cast members do about acne it was horrible because the makeup was so heavy and thick and it just clogged your pores it was it was like having grease paint it literally was Grease paint on your face and so you did break out so what happened was that you just ended up having thicker layers of makeup to try and cover the makeup artist there was only so much they can do I do remember they sent me at one point to like a dermatologist or something like that who wanted to put me on tetracycline to try and um to try and deal with my acne and I did it for a little bit but I just wasn't my parents we weren't comfortable with that as a solution so we just the makeup artist just put more makeup on this is from John's uh I had a very knowledgeable teacher in college that spoke about a lot of details in the theater and one thing he mentioned was a kind of stage skirt for Women cast in Period pieces that have to get used to long skirts and how to move in them uh yeah when I did some period things or had to wear long dresses uh I remember when I did one period piece where we had to wear hoop skirts that we had the sort of the under skirt the hoop part that we used in rehearsals and then sometimes uh particularly in in theater if there was choreography involved if you had long skirts you'd have what we called rehearsal skirts so they were kind of like pett coats and you would wear those during choreography to get used to uh just having to how you moved in the long skirts and dresses and then you just had to be careful because a lot of times those uh the skirts the over skirts not so much the pet coats but the actual skirts would be long and they'd have trains and so you had to be careful when I did Hello Dolly I had to be really careful that I didn't step on it that other people didn't step on it it and I remember in in the in some of the dances yeah just having to continually be aware of kicking the skirt out of the way before I moved because I could feel it and and not wanting it to get wrapped around my feet and sometimes you know it did get stepped on and you just kind of had to wait it out and and and hopefully the person that you were with would catch on to it and and and get off of the skirt so and I'm sure there were rips and flounces and things that got that got torn because of things like that but you do the best you can one thing I do remember that was uh quite humorous uh when I was doing that period piece with the hoop skirts was um the dressing rooms were in the basement so you had to go upstairs to enter the stage it was sort of a narrow a narrow building and we had virtually no wing space so like the offstage space was Tiny so you kind of you couldn't you couldn't have a bunch of you standing in the the wings and you certainly couldn't have a lot of set piece you couldn't hide anything in the wings um but the skirt was too wide to just wear up up the uh steps they were that narrow so I remember me and um one of the other actresses in the show who also had big hoop skirts uh that we would have to pick the skirt up and tip it sideways so and go up the stairs that way and then in the wings kind of drop it down so it was it was in the correct position before making an entrance so you do silly things like that in to accommodate those types of situations but it always made me laugh I will see you next time for another segment of behind the scenes of the Walton and more of your questions in a segment of ask Judy thanks for watching

Channel: Judy Norton

Views: 26,181

Keywords: The Waltons, Judy Norton behind the scenes, Waltons full episodes, Ask Judy Norton Taylor, Richard Thomas, John Boy Walton, Michael Learned, Olivia Walton, Ralph Waite, John Walton, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, Edgar Bergen, The Homecoming, Patricia Neal, editing scripts, Mary Ellen Walton, Kami Cotler, Elizabeth Walton, Jon Walmsley, Mary McDonough, Eric Scott, David Harper, Walton House, Grandpa Walton, Grandma Walton, youtube, Classic TV, goodnight John Boy, Ask Judy

Id: xZ5p0UJGNwk

Length: 12min 51sec (771 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 23 2024