Lights. Camera. Action!

Two Northern Kentucky teenagers are racing against the clock to make a short detective movie.

That’s the plot of “48 Hours,” the second book for young readers written by Eastern Kentucky University instructors Marie Mitchell and Mason Smith.

As members of an amateur filmmaking crew, the teens, Marlowe and his adopted sister Isabelle, must help write, shoot, edit and produce their movie in just 48 hours. It’s part of a national film competition.

Nothing follows the script, though. The teens’ team, named the Scene Stealers, suffers setbacks from thunderstorms, a ditsy actress who flubs her lines and the theft of a valuable prop — a family jewel that may once have belonged to a Russian princess.

With all these delays, can the team finish the film on time? Will it be a memorable movie or a forgettable flop?

“We hope it will be memorable, just like the book,” Mitchell joked.

“We know for a fact that some quality filmmaking can be completed in just 48 hours,” Smith said, “because we’ve participated in the national competition ourselves.”

“It’s called the 48 Hour Film Project,” Mitchell added. “My sister, Rebecca Turney, and her family in Northern Kentucky, organized a team in 2005 called ‘Shut Up and Shoot.’ Mason sketched out a script after a group brainstorming session. I managed the boom mike and still photography.”

“It was exciting to watch the process from start to finish,” Smith continued. “We want our readers to feel that same ticking clock as the Scene Stealers overcome unforeseen obstacles.”

“48 Hours” began as a Newspaper in Education series, where newspapers publish a chapter a week and distribute it free to participating schools.

Teachers read the series with their class and discuss issues raised in each chapter using questions and activities provided by the authors.

“We were thrilled that The Hoosier State Press Association chose “48 Hours” as the series they offered to their 50 member newspapers in the fall of 2008,” Mitchell said.

“We decided to spin the series into a book and give readers a more in-depth, behind-the-scenes glimpse of movie making,” Smith added.

“It’s not Hollywood,” Mitchell said, “but it gives readers a sense of what’s involved in the whole process — from brainstorming the idea, writing the script and dealing with fickle actors and difficult shooting locations to mixing music and sound effects into the final production.”

“We want to thank Model Laboratory School in Richmond for recommending some fantastic fifth-graders to be part of our Reader’s Critique group,” Smith said. “They gave us great feedback about an early version of the manuscript and helped us revise words, phrases and passages so it read more smoothly.”

“48 Hours” is the second novel that Mitchell and Smith have written for young readers. “The Lost Dispatch” was published last fall. It’s about a sixth-grade girl and her class enlisting in the Union Army during a re-enactment of the Battle of Perryville. That was the largest Civil War battle fought in Kentucky.

The authors have worked with the same illustrator and graphic artist, Ryan Lanigan, an EKU graduate from Stanford.

“Ryan has a way of capturing our characters exactly as we imagined them,” Mitchell said. “It’s been a wonderful partnership.”

Both books are published by The Clark Group of Lexington. The books are available through the publisher and online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

For more information, visit the authors’ Web site, mitchell-smith.com. Mitchell and Smith were added to the Kentucky Arts Council’s Education Roster this fall. Teachers interested in applying for a grant to have the authors conduct a writing workshop in their schools can check the KAC Web site at artscouncil.ky.gov.