Last week, “The Twins” — 17-year-old girls Jemely and Jeremy Jayme — kept their noses close to the screen as they sat in the Oak Harbor High School video production lab editing film footage.

They contemplated the perfect placement of cuts in multiple video tracks and remixed audio tracks. Tons of footage hit the digital cutting room floor.

The girls are among the crew of young filmmakers working to fine-tune their footage in time to premiere a movie they created during a film camp held earlier this month that was organized by Langley-based Whidbey Children’s Theater.

The filmmakers learned about different styles of shooting, from steady to erratic. Students worked behind the camera and in front, sometimes both. They studied vocabulary, like foley, grip, location and stunts. They had a tight shooting schedule and even tighter budget.

Chris Douthitt, former voiceover artist turned Oak Harbor High School video production teacher, was the camp’s instructor.

“My job was to supervise them to make sure they reach an end point,” Douthitt said. “Other than that, it’s all them. They conceptualize the script, plan, film and edit the story.”

The film crew of Oak Harbor High School students and graduates volunteered their time, for five days of shooting actors in Langley. For the third year, a claymation camp led by Robert Randall was held simultaneously for grade-school-aged filmmakers.

The 25-year-old Whidbey Children’s Theater is widely known on the south end for its extensive list of programs, classes and productions. But founder and artistic director Martha Murphy wants to invite actors island-wide to be a part of the arts.

The Whidbey Children’s Theater philosophy is that performing arts have a valuable place in the community, and that through participation in the arts, children will develop and build their self-confidence and self-expression.

“Whidbey Children’s Theater wants to make a positive difference in the lives of children and create opportunities for them in the performing arts,” Murphy said. “The film camp is valuable even to kids who are already active in theater performance, because they can focus their creative energy in a whole new way.”

The young filmmakers say they learned teamwork, discipline and dedication.

“I’ve definitely learned teamwork through my filmmaking,” said Patrick Quinn, a 17-year-old Oak Harbor student. “I usually like to work by myself — I usually try not to work with actors — but I’ve learned to work together with others.”

The filmmakers say they built their film on the premise of poking fun at film genres, with extra-cheesy blood-squirting horror, overly quick-paced and bouncy action, and over-the-top drama.

The film reflects the contrasting styles of the high schoolers who prefer drama, complexity and darkness and the middle schoolers who still enjoy a good flatulence crack. But recent weeks has taught Quinn to not knock the minds of middle schoolers.

“The different minds bring a huge range of thoughts to the picture,” Quinn said. “The younger kids have shorter attention spans but great ideas. The older ones get all philosophical.

In the film, underground forces want to take over the world so it’s up to the down-and-out detective Heath Solo and a local town cop to save it all.

“This is definitely the most complex film I’ve ever made,” Quinn said.

When they were Wildcats, the Jayme girls often went beyond their classroom time by coming in after school editing their productions and volunteering for opportunities like the film camp.

“This is what we want to do in the future — we know it,” Jemely said.

The girls were filmmakers long before the 2007 Oak Harbor High School graduates stepped into the high school’s video production classes.

“We were always making home movies with our friends,” Jeremy said.

The girls plan to study general media at Skagit Valley College this fall and continue to collect experience through opportunities such as the film camp.

Quinn is looking to attend a film school in California. Martha Murphy’s son, William Riley, is a film camp alumnus who is now in the Seattle Central Community College film program.

“Students can go a long way in this field if they want to,” Douthitt said. “I always tell my students they can take the class as far as they want to go. It’s up to them whether they head toward the sophisticated and complex or simply make films to get credit.”

Technology advances have given students the tools of the pros, including savvy cameras, high-tech computers, and software like iMovie and Final Cut Pro — a program named as such because it is the current fave among filmmakers, Douthitt said.

“In filmmaking there’s always something to learn. It’s a great creative outlet,” Quinn said. “And thanks to technology now every kid can grab a camera and experience it.”

At Oak Harbor High School, students begin learning graphic arts and photography and branch into video production. By the time they reach the broadcast communications “Monster Media” course they’re helping produce content for broadcast on Wildcat TV and can earn community college credit.

And it is often that Douthitt learns new tricks from his students — if they’re willing to share.

“Jeremy and Jemely have done some amazing color work with their footage and I’m hoping they show me how,” Douthitt said.

The award-winning, all-student produced Wildcat TV is broadcast on Comcast Channel 21 throughout Whidbey Island. It went on the air November 2005, with the first-ever broadcast being a live-to-DVD production of an out of town playoff football game.

Since that initial broadcast, Wildcat TV has produced many football, basketball, softball, and volleyball games, choir and band concerts, special events, classroom lectures, graduation, SpiritFest, Holland Happening parade, and special events at elementary and middle schools. In addition, students from the video production class create several kinds of programming — movies, documentaries, news pieces, personality profiles, music videos, claymation — which air frequently.

Murphy has nothing but a glowing review for the Oak Harbor High School teacher.

“What I wouldn’t give to have a Chris Douthitt down at South Whidbey High School,” Murphy said.

To supplement the lack of video production classes offered on the southend, Murphy said Whidbey Children’s Theater is planning to schedule a film camp during this school year in addition to the regular summer camp.

After two weeks of editing, the filmmakers hope to soon premiere the camp movie on a date yet to be scheduled at the Whidbey Children’s Theater building in Langley. After that, it will be broadcast throughout the year on Wildcat TV.

Quinn admits he learned an important lesson during the camp: planning and organization of any film is a must, and securing your talent is of upmost importance.

“I’ve worked on huge projects in my scheme of things and had to completely rewrite scripts because actors didn’t show,” he said. “I think animation might be a good way to go.”