- Welcome back to another segment
of Behind the Scenes of The Waltons.
Today, I'm back with more of your questions
in a segment of 'Ask Judy'.
So if you have questions,
you can just put them in the comments below.
Eric said, "Hi, Judy.
You mentioned a lot of people being on set.
Why is that?
It seems like a lot of people standing around just watching.
Can you tell us who are considered essential crew
who needs to be on the set?"
It is true, the size of a crew can vary
depending on the type of shoot that it is.
There can be something like what I'm doing here,
where it's pretty much just me.
I set up my own little camera.
I have my little light I set up and that's sort of it.
All the sound that you hear is actually being recorded
by my iPhone, I don't even have a separate microphone.
However, as soon as you step up into things
that are more sophisticated than what I'm doing here,
you have a lot of other elements that come into play.
So you have the people that are involved
in creating the lighting.
So that will be your cinematographer, who basically crafts
the lighting, and they are responsible for the look of it.
And then they have their various different lighting people.
However big that crew is that actually move the lights
and focus the lights and hang the lights and all of that.
And they run all the electrical cables and plug them in
so that they have the power to the lights that they need.
Then you have what we call the grip department,
and they're responsible for the things that move.
If the camera is going to move on a dolly,
that is the grip department.
If there's something that needs to go in front
of a light to help shape it, if say they want it to look
like there are leaves in front, leaves going by
as the car is supposed to be driving,
that would be part of the grip department.
So you have a number of people involved in that department.
Then there are, there's of course the makeup person
and the hair person.
So if they need to be on set to be keeping an eye out
for anything that's happening with hair and makeup,
they might be there.
The wardrobe department,
they typically don't necessarily need to be standing on set.
There's very few people that actually need to be there
exactly when things are filming,
but they might be a little further off to the side
just in case their department is needed for something,
but they might step off at times.
There is the sound department.
So there will be the sound mixer,
who's usually a little bit further away,
and they're listening to all the sound,
and then you have the person who's holding the boom mic.
And sometimes there's more than one person
needed to capture sound.
So there might be two mics in place.
So you can have, you know
a number of people involved with the sound department.
Then you have the actual camera crew.
So you have the person who's the camera operator.
And then you will have a first assistant camera person.
And they are involved with handling the focus for the camera
and a few other aspects of dealing with the camera.
And then you have a second assistant camera person.
And they're the ones who, you know, deal with the sticks
that have the information,
the slate that has the information about the production,
the scene number, the take number.
And they have the, you know, that syncs the sound
with the video, with the film.
So you have that team that will be around there.
Then you have things like stand-ins.
The stand-ins probably won't be standing around
when we're actually filming, but they might be
because as soon as they call cut and they're gonna reset
the camera and go in for a closeup or something,
those stand-ins need to be right there to let the actors
step out while they move equipment around.
And then the stand-ins are there so that
the actors can step away for a moment.
But so that there is someone there
for them to focus camera and lights on.
And then there's the property department.
So anything that we are handling if it's food,
if it's, you know, a plate
if it's a towel, if we're in the kitchen
and Grandma has a mixing bowl, anything like that
that we handle is the property department.
So they're gonna be within shouting distance
in case something's needed.
Other crew people involved.
There are assistant directors.
So they manage all of the logistics
of what's going on on set.
The first assistant director is right there
with the director to make sure that they're coordinating
everything that goes on on set,
and keeping things moving along.
Second assistant director is usually responsible
for gathering up the actors that are needed,
or anything else that's needed.
Sometimes there's an additional second assistant director
or production assistant that helps
with other various things.
They collectively - the call sheets and everything
are within the assistant director department.
So that's how come all of those pieces, a lot of people,
to coordinate the things for each scene that is shot.
So not all of them have to be right there,
but a number of them do.
And then some of them just might be a little further
into your periphery, but they're on stand by
for when they're needed.
From Maria, "A few questions for you.
Did you use a green screen for some of the scenes?"
Very rarely on The Waltons,
because we didn't deal in any particular special effects.
I believe they used something in The Ferris Wheel,
when Elizabeth kept having nightmares about falling.
I think that was done against blue screen or green screen,
whatever it was they used at the time,
but in general, we didn't.
And then I spoke recently about working with green screen
on like when I did Stargate SG-1.
So I have worked with blue and green screens
on other shows that I have done.
So that's always kind of interesting to do.
"Also, with the recent tragedy with firearms on a movie set,
how did the production handle guns?
Were they real or not real weapons?"
We used guns sometimes on The Waltons,
the men went out hunting.
I was never involved in any of those scenes.
So exactly what went on with the guns, I'm not sure.
How functional those were, I don't really know.
They were probably real, but I expect because in a lot
of cases they may not have been loaded at all.
In more recent years when I have worked on some shows,
a Canadian series I worked on called Bluff,
we worked with a number of guns,
as we did on my movie, Nowhere to Hide, where I actually,
that was one of the times
I actually had to handle one of the guns.
And in both cases we had the safety crew.
So we had an armorer who dealt with all of the weapons.
And then there was always a safety meeting
whenever there was going to be guns on set.
Everyone would circle up and the person in charge
would give the safety briefing,
and talk about what was gonna be happening,
and walk through it.
And then any weapon that was going to be used,
they'd show it to us.
And we would get to look at it
to see that it was not loaded, things like that.
So there was many safety precaution taken
the times that I recall,
particularly being involved with scenes involving weapons.
So they definitely, on the things I worked on,
really paid attention to that.
And then one last question you had,
"Was there behind the scenes romance
between any of the actors?"
Um, gosh, not really.
Not amongst the actual cast.
We were so young when we started working together that,
I mean, I had a crush on Richard Thomas.
I had a crush on Eric Scott.
I had a crush on, a crush on Jon Walmsley,
So, you know, crushes and things like that
but I never dated any them.
And I don't think any of the others
in the immediate cast ever dated.
And of course there's been,
Michael has talked about her relationship with Ralph
and how much they really loved each other.
And they thought about dating, but never really did.
They decided it was better for all the show
and everything if they didn't.
So, there may have been other
peripheral dating relationships that I just don't remember,
but that's what I know.
That's what I have for you for this segment
of Behind the Scenes of The Walton's Ask Judy.
I'll see you next time for more
of Behind the Scenes of The Walton's and more Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.