NATCHEZ — From behind the camera, Charlie Latham shouted out orders like a professional.

Phrases like “Quiet, no talking while filming,” and “Cut. That was a good take,” rolled off his tongue like he was a seasoned film director and cameraman.

And, Latham said, in a way he is an experienced moviemaker.

“I help out a lot filming weddings and things,” he said. “So I’m comfortable with the camera and know what things are supposed to look like.”

Latham was the camera guy and actor in Tuesday’s filming of the yet-to-be-released action thriller pitting the evil forces from the Star Wars movies against the villains from Mario Land.

The film won’t make it on the big screen, but will be shown in private home viewings beginning Friday after music, graphics and special effects are added by the film’s editors — a group of 10- to 13-year-olds learning about movie making during Movie Making 101 at Copiah-Lincoln Community College Natchez’s Kids College.

“They all contributed to the script,” said class instructor Kirby Richard. “It is definitely from their minds.”

The story follows two groups of characters — one set from Mario Land and one from Star Wars — as each group tries to rescue their kidnapped royalty.

Princess Peach has been taken from Mario Land and Padmé Amidala has been stolen from the Star Wars galaxy.

In the movie, Mario, Luigi, Obe-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker join forces to rescue the girls.

When the class of eight couldn’t decide between a Star Wars-themed movie and a Mario Brothers-themed flick, the group decided to compromise and use both.

“It might not sound like it is very interesting or makes much sense, but I think on film it is going to work,” said Latham, a 10-year-old incoming fifth-grader at Morgantown Elementary School.

But even before the group decided on a theme to build the story around, they knew they wanted the film to have some action. And what better way to make action than have two main characters kidnapped, 9-year-old Jacob Smith said.

“We wanted to create some action,” he said. “We decided that a kidnapping and then them teaming up to go after the enemies would work.”

While Smith, one of the script’s main writers, thought the kidnappings created action and tension 10-year-old Miranda Allen, a fifth-grader at Cathedral School, who plays Padmé Amidala, thinks the boys in the class had other motives in staging the kidnappings.

“I think they just wanted to get us out of the way so they could do their guy thing,” she said.

Angel Brooks was cast as Princess Peach, and gets taken in the first scene of the movie and returns later when she is rescued by Mario and Luigi. She said despite her short appearance, the story challenged her acting skills.

“I had to act scared when I really wasn’t,” she said.

Tuesday, the class had their first acting session and filmed all five scenes in the movie, and Richard said, so far, that has been the most excited she has seen the class.

“They say they are excited about working on the computers, but today when they were acting was the most excited I’ve seem them,” she said.

Once filming is complete, the scenes will be edited together, and each classmate will get their chance to put their own personal touch on the movie. At the end of the week-long class, each child will get a DVD of his or her movie.

“They can add their own music, text and special effects and change the way scenes transition back and forth after we finish filming,” Richard said. “The story each one is working with will be the same, but when they are finished, it will be something unique from each of them.”