Friday, February 2, 2007 11:30 AM CST
A pair of Old Union School students-turned-filmmakers for a video production class may get their 15 minutes of fame if their video, “Djibouti Jinx,” is chosen for Fox's new reality show, “On the Lot.”

The students - Sarah Crane, 13, and Brittany Talley, 15 - joined with creative arts teacher Leslie Witty, who is also the small Christian school's principal, to create the roughly five-minute film, which Witty then submitted to Fox. “Djibouti Jinx,” which stars some of the school's students and teachers, is now available for viewing on the “On the Lot” Web site (http://films.thelot.com/films/2124), where visitors can rate it.

Reality show mastermind Mark Burnett and filmmaking legend Steven Spielberg will choose 16 aspiring filmmakers from the pool of applicants. Those 16 will then compete to win a $1 million development deal at DreamWorks Studios while dodging elimination every week.

While Sarah, Brittany and Witty are fairly sure they won't be selected for the show, Witty is hoping the film's originality and overall goofy tone will convince Fox executives to play a short clip, if not the entire thing, on air. Being able to say a video they produced was aired on national television will help Sarah, an eighth-grader, and Brittany, a freshman, when they begin to apply for scholarships and colleges, she said.

The video's plot is meant to be ridiculous, Witty said: Several researchers are searching a creek in the fictional town of Lard Holler, Ky., for the “African Djibouti piranha” when they are accosted by a band of hillbillies, the leader of which thinks he's on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Forced from their work, the scientists, who were filming a documentary, pretend to leave but secretly tape the hillbillies and discover they have magical powers.
When the scientists' hiding place is discovered, they are chased from the woods. As they're leaving, a mullet-sporting hillbilly named Sledge tells them the story of how the hillbillies came to have magical powers, but tells them to “git” after he's done talking. The scientists return to their van only to find their film has been replaced by the image of a laughing clown, and angrily run back to the woods to confront the hillbillies - but they have vanished without a trace.

Although the film took only a few hours to shoot in a field near the Plano school, which has 23 students, it took nearly a month to complete the whole process. Sarah and Brittany wrote the script and drew a 33-page storyboard - “That's a lot of stick people,” joked Brittany - before asking their classmates to participate. The younger children followed a script, while older students, like 17-year-old senior Michael York, largely ad-libbed their parts.

“I had fun,” said York, who played Sledge. “It was just letting loose.”

“We had to retake Michael's scenes a lot because we couldn't stop laughing,” Witty added.
For Sarah, who aspires to be an actress or a marine biologist, actually filming the movie was the best part of the assignment.

“I enjoy acting,” she said. “I like being able to do something with the other students as well.”

But Brittany, who enjoyed discovering her classmates' talents, preferred the behind-the-scenes work.

“I like writing more than acting,” she said. “Writing was my big thing.”
Although the film's light tone pokes fun at backwoods Kentucky, Witty emphasized that the amateur filmmakers aren't trying to make it seem like the state is full of mullet-sporting, Crisco-eating hillbillies.

“We are intentionally making fun of the stereotype rather than trying to perpetuate it,” she said.

Students James Witty, 5, and John Webb, 6 - who together make up the school's kindergarten and first grade classes - got their first taste of the acting bug in “Djibouti Jinx.”

“It was fun,” said James of his part as Sledge's sidekick.
John's favorite part of the whole experience was getting to eat ice cream afterward, he said.

-Watch “Djibouti Jinx” online at http://films.thelot.com/films/2124.

Joe Imel/ Daily News
Old Union school students Brittany Talley (from left), 15, and Sara Crane, 13, wrote, produced and acted in the short film “Djibouti Jinx” that has appeared on the FOX network Web site. Michael York, 17, also acts in the film.

Joe Imel/ Daily News
Old Union School

Joe Imel/Daily News OLD UNION 3 Old Union School students Sarah Crane, Brittany Talley along with the help of teacher and principal Leslie Witty wrote and produced a short file poking fun at Kentuckians.