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Wrapped in a peach silk robe, actress Marlyn Mason is the center of activity, with technicians training lights on her, a director telling her to tilt her chin just so and a huddle of actors playing art students settling in to pretend to sketch her. She's the writer, producer and star of a short film called "Model Rules" that started production Saturday in Medford. The film explores the fantasy of an aging artists' model who has "vanished to the world," as women of a certain age so often do, but still craves attention and passion in her life. "She's well past her prime, but in the studio she can still be what she feels and express her sensuality," Mason explains. At 67, Mason is still playing out her passion for performance. She started performing on live television when she was just 9 and had her mother schlep her across Hollywood for performances through her teen years. Her career took off after she appeared in Billy Barnes' "L.A.," a 1962 musical revue in tribute to Los Angeles, and she kept busy with TV series and a few Broadway turns for the next decade or so. On the big screen, she played Elvis Presley's girlfriend in "The Trouble with Girls," his second-to-last movie, and the adult love interest in "Making It," a teen comedy with a serious twist produced by Albert Ruddy of "Godfather" fame. Mason's last Hollywood project was about six years ago, and her scene was cut to just four words. "It's not even worth talking about," she said. About three years ago in search of something to do, Mason considered posing as an artist's model and turned to the Internet to learn more about such work. There she found intriguing one studio's strict guidelines about putting on a robe during breaks and having no eye contact with the artists and not talking while posing. She also dabbled in screenwriting and considered tackling the topic of rules for models in a feature-lenghth script. Nothing ever came of that, but when Mason spotted an online contest for short scripts, a writing pal reminded her about the artist's model idea. "We have a little window for the story," Mason said. She sat down and in 45 minutes pounded out a 488-word story with no dialogue but a strong visual style. She shared it with Ray Robison, a Medford producer she's been meeting with for years for coffee and talk about film. "We're on the same wavelength," she said of Robison, who makes commercials, marketing and training videos and the occasional independent feature film. Robison, who is currently having success on the festival circuit with his film "Sixes and the One Eyed King," thought Mason had a good short film that he would like to direct. "This one really struck me as bold," he said. He'd just turned 50 and understood the themes of getting older and still wanting romance, still having sexual fantasies. The two decided to co-produce the 12-minute film and gathered a cast and crew willing to volunteer on the project, which they hope can be completed on a budget of $380 and some donated pizza from Papa John's. The first shot started rolling at 3:15 p.m. Saturday in the classroom at the Rogue Gallery in downtown Medford and Robison planned to keep the cast and crew working there until about 10 p.m. They'll gather again later this month to film the fantasy sequences at Mason's home. "We're just going to pool our abilities and see what we can do," said Scott Ford, a local actor who plays one of the art students. Mason dreams of submitting the film to the Cannes Film Festival, as well as American festivals. But whatever happens, she's proud to have created a stylish art film that's different from modern Hollywood glitz. "I would do this again," she said. "People who want to do movies have a passion." Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485 or [email protected]