Oakwood native coming home to make a movie | Arts & Entertainment

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OAKWOOD — Before heading back to her native Vermilion County this weekend to film scenes for a movie, Crystal Hughes has been keeping especially close tabs on farm field conditions through family and friends.

It’s the kind of information the Los Angeles independent filmmaker needs to know, given the title of the movie she’ll direct, produce and star in: “Children of the Cornfield.”

It’s “basically a horror/comedy spoof, documentary-style,” the Oakwood product said this week. “It’s a whole funny thing.”

Hughes will be joined by a cinematographer and sound mixer, who’ll be at locations that include the Fischer Theatre and Sport Clips in Danville, friend Gabe and Jennie Shepherd’s farm in Fithian, an abandoned cemetery in Oakwood, an Airbnb at Kickapoo State Park — and, of course, local cornfields.

This weekend’s shoot will serve as a standalone short and proof of concept for a full feature, which she plans to return to Vermilion County to shoot in December.

Hughes said the short will premiere at LA Live Film Fest on Nov. 8 and is being prepped for distribution via Filmhub, with potential placements on Tubi, Mubi and Shudder.

She envisions a screening of the movie in Danville, too.

Without giving away too much of the plot, Hughes said it involves her main character, Zella — named after Hughes’ mother, Zella Fay Hughes — and her friend, who are in a journalism society. Something happens, and the corn goes away overnight, Hughes said.

“Everybody will learn in the feature what has happened,” she said.

That’s why they wanted to film scenes before and after harvest.

During this trip, she is hoping for an epic shot of kids walking in the corn at sunset. The film crew is going to make that part very “ceremonial and awesome,” she said.

Hughes said her Oakwood childhood home will be in the film, with the script calling for a front-porch scene. They’d shoot cornfields near her home as well, but with those fields alternating every year between corn and beans, 2025 is the beans’ turn.

So they’ll be filming cornfields elsewhere.

‘Good for the community’

The Oakwood High alumna has been preparing for this weekend’s trip back with help from her family members still here, including sister Salena Jones, who now lives in Westville.

Jones said the family is proud of Hughes.

“She got awards for a short film, a short science film and she’s been in commercials and (the television show) ‘American Horror Story’ and been doing things like that,” Jones said. “She really has done well.”

Jones admits she can’t offer much expertise when it comes to making a movie, but she’s been assisting her sister in other ways — making props and handling scheduling.

In return, she’ll be credited as a first assistant director on “Children of the Cornfield.”

“She’s very good at bossing people,” Hughes said.

Other family members are also excited to be actors in the film, including their parents (Fay and Leroy Hughes), aunt and uncle (Kay and Dave Barnette) and a cousin and her son.

“I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and inspiring for the community,” Jones said.

Jones said local leaders — including Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr., Fischer Theatre Interim Director Ashton Greer and Vermilion Advantage President/CEO Mike Marron — continue to try to bring things to the community that are inspiring progress.

“I think this is just adding to it,” Jones said. “I think it’s going to be good for the community.”

Hughes agreed, saying that support is key.

“We’re using the historic Fischer Theatre in one of the scenes,” she said. “It’s all local and really cool.”

She said her little cousin has been helping with casting, using friends at Westville High School. A couple of Parkland College theater actors could also be cast.

“That’s been really fun. We’re just getting the community involved and have it really be a fun time,” said Hughes, who is scheduled to fly into Chicago today and take the train down to begin shooting Saturday at the Fischer Theatre.

‘Super excited’

Hughes moved to Los Angeles in 2012 to begin her acting career. She started making films four years later — first the web series “Uri the Alien” and, in 2022, the short “Mansplain,” for which she won best actress and director in a dark comedy at the LA Live Film Festival.

Hughes said Los Angeles is expensive, so she also has a day job in pharmaceutical sales.

But “filmmaking is my passion and I love it,” she said, and hopes to make it a sustainable career soon.

The short for this movie will be about 15 minutes long. She plans for the feature film to be about 90 minutes.

“It’s really fun. I’m super, super excited,” Hughes said.